Product with plot: July 29, 1996 issue of New Thinking

July 29, 1996 New Thinking:
Product with plot

Website content management

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July 29, 1996

Product with plot

By Gerry McGovern

I was watching the Olympics. An ad-break came. Suddenly I had these questions: Have ads helped define the products we make? If the advertising medium changes, will products change too?

Advertising is short, snappy, full of visual power. It tries to grab us. How many ads inform about what the product ingredients are and how it is made?

Ads are compression techniques. In 30 seconds they compress a message to buy into a dense visual and aural nugget. If someone measured the file size of a 30-second ad against the file size of 30 seconds of film, how would they compare?

Or supposing you wanted to transfer a 30-second ad and a 30-second piece of film over the Internet. You’d want to use compression software for speed. The film would probably compress well, because a lot of the frames would be basically the same.

However, because the average ad flashes from one fantastic image to another totally different but equally fantastic image, it would not compress well. But then, it’s hard to compress something that has already been compressed

Why aren’t ads an hour long? Why don’t they take their time to explore the reason for buying the product in the same way that a good film explores a character or event?

It costs too much! Nobody would watch! These are valid answers. Valid for the media within which ads presently work.

Change the medium. Move to the Web. Where short, snappy, visual treats, make for long, painful downloads. Now, leave the visual aside as the driver. Instead, plot a product’s story with text and simple graphics -- with information.

Using this approach, an hour’s worth of ‘viewing’ would be much more cost effective. But nobody would watch! Are you sure?

I’m thinking of changing my car. There are a few models that I’m interested in. If the information is right, I’ll ‘watch’ for quite a while on the websites of car manufacturers.

You see, we’re talking about different media. Tonight, I didn’t sit down at my TV to watch ads. I wanted to watch the Olympics (and see Michelle Smith win!). After I finished watching Michelle get her third gold, I logged onto car websites.

I visited the websites wanting to find out about the product. On the TV, the product -- almost always the wrong product than I had a need for at that point in time -- shoved itself before me, spamming me, visually screaming for my attention.

On the Web, you don’t need to scream for attention nearly as much if you have a good product and good information. Because I will visit your website when I am interested in your type of product, and I will not be looking for hard sell and flash, but concise, logical reasons why I should buy.

Television and press-driven advertising have probably contributed to the development of products which are high on style and perhaps not so high on substance, reliability, good design and engineering.

Web-driven advertising may encourage the development of products which have less style and more substance, less packaging and more product, less sensation and more plot.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Information grooves
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On the Web, you don’t need to scream for attention nearly as much if you have a good product and good information.