Brand promotion and marketing: Why do companies dare to do "junk advertising"?

01

Two advertising people who worked on the brainwashing ads for BOSS Direct Hire and Platinum Travel Photography, and two advertising self-media people, had a debate on a forum on Huxiu.

As to whether the advertisements that Hong produced for BOSS Direct Hire and Platinum Travel Photography are rubbish, both parties have their own opinions and no one can convince the other. The heated debate between two men and two women naturally brought a good effect to the forum.

The debate between advertisers and advertising self-media people has a wrong starting point. One is on the battlefield, the other is off the field. The roles of the two parties in the debate are not equal. For the sake of entertainment effect, yes, but for the sake of industry development, I'm sorry, I can't do it.

From the beginning, we were destined not to speak on the same channel. What is high energy is emotion, but there is no new and valuable content. You said it’s about aesthetics, and I said the client should agree with it. After all the wrangling, nothing came of it.

I hope that next time Huxiu will organize the two bosses of Hong Production and the core creative people of W+K to discuss. Only through equal discussions among debaters can we get to the heart of the problem and offer real thoughts to the industry.

02

The most boring thing is to debate with a highly self-consistent person. Let’s get back to today’s topic: Why do companies dare to run “junk ads”?

The so-called "junk ads" refer to those ads that are often debated in the industry: ugly, crazy and mechanically repetitive, and easy to cause discomfort when watching them . The early Hengyuanxiang 12 zodiac cycle, the Melatonin cartoon dance, last year's World Cup BOSS Direct Hire, Zhihu, and Mafengwo's three major bombardment advertisements, and this year's Platinum Travel Photography are all included. Renrenche, Uxin Used Cars, Vipshop, and Xigua Video have all run advertisements of this style.

To expand on this a little bit, the heated discussions about H&H and Lao Niangjiu in the design circle can also be included in this category.

I will talk about my attitude towards "junk advertising" last.

Why do companies still dare to make "junk ads" when so many people are criticizing them?

Never overestimate the ability of advertisers to sell their articles. No matter what kind of advertisement is released, it is all because of the final decision made by the person in charge of Party A. At least at that moment, Party A believed that "spam advertising" was the best solution to the company's current problems.

There is no need to argue too much about the effectiveness of this type of advertising. Party A will vote with their own actions and budget as to how many waves it can be done and how long it can be run. There is no need to argue.

You cursed Mafengwo, but Mafengwo later asked Ye Maozhong to continue filming the sequel. Zhihu is different. It no longer invited Ye Maozhong and returned to its previous beautiful style. It also did not write a thank-you letter to Ye Maozhong like the boss of Mafengwo.

Whether it is "junk advertising", whether "junk advertising" is good, whether it is effective, these discussions are too childish and waste excessive energy. Self-media people can still attract some reading traffic, while others are purely consuming emotions and constantly narrowing their own scope in ineffective discussions.

Companies only consider whether they are above the legal red line and whether they are suitable for solving the problem at the moment. After trying it once, Hengyuanxiang no longer dares to broadcast it all year round like Melatonin, because its corporate attributes determine that it dare not run "junk advertisements" for a long time.

03

For onlookers, what we want to discuss is how to make good use of "junk ads". In other words: Which companies and in which scenarios dare to run "junk ads"?

There are four types of businesses that I see most commonly.

The first type is companies where users use the product but no one else can see it.

The basic action of advertising is to convey information, and the public opinion crisis caused by "junk advertising" can easily be blamed on the users.

A friend of mine told me that the first app he used when looking for a job was BOSS Direct. Job search software is not used frequently, and you may not know that others are using it. Not being able to see it is a kind of protection.

For products like insurance, securities, houses, and Melatonin, even if the advertisements are rubbish, when you are using them, others won’t know about it, and when others are using them, you won’t know about it either. The brand premium and public opinion crisis brought by the advertisements will not have much impact on users.

Companies that produce clothes, shoes, cars, bags, diamond rings, jewelry, mineral water, pens, mobile phones and other products that can be seen by others when you use them will not do this kind of "junk advertising" unless they are crazy.

If Nike makes a rubbish ad that is obscenely repetitive and ugly, you will feel stressed when you wear Nike shoes out the next day, and the people around you will transfer the ugliness of the ad to your own taste.

If a clothing company like Hengyuanxiang does not stop, it will die. Brands like Zhihu constantly scare away users. The aesthetics of these advertisements will be transferred to the users' aesthetics of the products, and companies will definitely not dare to make "junk ads".

The second type is startups with no experience in advertising.

Startups such as BOSS Direct, Mafengwo, Uxin Used Cars, Renrenche, and Xigua Video have all used "junk advertising", and this is the reason.

Rather than living elegantly, they need to survive first. A beautiful advertisement without rapid conversion into actual business is a dead end; an ugly advertisement may boost sales in the short term and keep the business alive. If you were the boss and faced the life-and-death pressure of a startup, would you shoot a "junk commercial"?

The strong desire to survive determines that many start-ups must pursue huge advertising effects in the short term. There are people discussing the brand, people downloading the app, people buying the product, etc. The money invested must have immediate effects, otherwise there is a dead end ahead.

Xigua Video filmed the "Watch Again and Again and Again" campaign at the time, but when it realised something was not right, it quickly removed the ad. I'm sure many people knew about this.

Another reason why start-ups create "junk advertising" is that the tone of the advertising has not been determined and there is a certain element of trial and error in it. Zhihu’s World Cup advertisement is the best proof of this. They wanted to reach more popular audiences, so they gave up their original beautiful advertisements and tried a simple and crude one. Later, they didn’t use it again because it was indeed not suitable. The reason has been mentioned before. It is a product in which advertising aesthetics will be attached to the user’s aesthetics.

On the other hand, BOSS Zhipin changed its advertisements to a new one at the beginning of the year, which were very interesting and had a strong internet feel, but many people may not know about it. Startups have more room to trial and error in advertising than established brands.

Last year, Vipshop’s 123 advertisement was, to some extent, a new attempt to overcome short-term performance pressure. The industry criticized it severely, and Vipshop promptly withdrew the advertisement. However, the performance results charts that later came out from within the company made people very confused. As a discount website, I would like to wait and see its new ads in the future before commenting on their internal attitude towards "junk ads".

The third type is companies that have been established for a certain period of time but have little public visibility.

Platinum Travel Photography is a typical example of such a company. It was established two years earlier than Alibaba and has been quietly making a fortune in the Chinese market for more than 20 years, all relying on real sales on the front line. It has never enjoyed any benefits of brand premium. They are well aware of the bone-gnawing pain of obscurity, and now they want to expand the battlefield. Regardless of whether they receive a good reputation or a bad reputation, they first seek fame.

Their desire to break through is no less than that of start-ups, and their desire to survive is so strong that there is no need to elaborate.

The fourth type is traditional companies that do not have excessive demands on young vision.

I believe that there are not many advertising people who are not convinced by H&H’s strategic approach, and most of its controversial cases are in terms of aesthetics. After getting the LOGO, Luo Pang said he couldn't accept it at first sight. When Lao Niangjiu VI came out, the design circle was in an uproar again.

A careful look at Hua & Hua's clients shows that they are mainly hotels, restaurants, pharmaceutical companies, condiments, stationery and other products that do not require very young visual effects. It serves very few clothing brands. Zulijian is the elderly market, and the elderly only look at the essence.

04

There is no need to worry at all. If all advertising companies produce such "junk ads", the advertising industry will be doomed. Does not exist.

Once a brand matures, except for a very small number of users who are companies with low aesthetic standards, most will turn to seeking better and better aesthetics in advertising.

As for the luxury goods, cars, clothing, etc. that I mentioned above, as long as the companies can be seen by others when users are using their products, they will not do "junk advertising" unless they are stupid.

For high-priced products, users generally have high aesthetic standards. "Junk ads" are not what users like, and companies will not serve them.

05

Now I can talk about my attitude towards "junk advertising". "Junk advertising" is not necessarily unprofessional or ineffective. Most "junk advertising" actually plays a better role than beautiful advertisements at a certain stage of the enterprise.

I am not here to whitewash any company or advertising agency, but as far as market phenomena are concerned, this is indeed the case.

Most of the people who fiercely discuss "junk ads" have not actually been fighting on the vast advertising battlefield for years, so their discussions can be ignored.

Including this one of mine.

06

I really don't like it when a bunch of people discuss "junk advertising", always saying that this type of advertising is junk, that type of advertising is junk, the companies behind it are junk, and insulting the audience's IQ.

In fact, the audience’s IQ is not low, but most of them discuss it as a collective and imagine a mob.

It’s not that the threshold of the advertising industry is low that leads to a large number of junk ads, but that a lot of junk ads are classified by people discussing the issue. Ultimately, there are too few advertisers with a big picture.

07

The advertising industry needs more big-picture, diversity and inclusion.

In the advertising circle, people who have a little say in the industry and have produced some works like to use their own standards to say that someone else’s is not good. As a result, in the eyes of so-and-so, the people who criticized them were also no good.

If the pattern is not strong enough, there will be a lot of internal strife.

People who listen to Jay Chou's songs don't have to rush to deny those who like to listen to "We Are Different". It's just that people in the advertising industry like to use their own standards to judge others.

08

Instead of spending time with a completely self-consistent advertising company, it is better to write more articles to change the client's mind.

If the other party is really a junk company that produces junk ads as people say, wouldn't dissing them make us the same as them?

Author: Advertising Common Sense

Source: Advertising Common Sense (ID: adernous)