UK agency Adam&eve/DDB now always teases its Christmas ad for John Lewis, even though according to The Telegraph UK, "The John Lewis Christmas advert is the most anticipated of the year and helps kick-start the festive season.”
Bud Light teased its Super Bowl spot with an un-strip tease - Seth Rogen wriggles into pantyhose and powders himself in preparation for a mock political campaign with Amy Schumer. LG teased its audience into thinking its teaser was the trailer for a Liam Neeson Hollywood action thriller.
Advertising the advertising is this year’s hot trend to squeeze more out of last year’s hot trend, the advertising event (an ad with all the trimmings including a competition on social media and – as in John Lewis’ – a charity drive).
Is teasing a cool way to achieve reach in a fragmented media universe? Is it how creativity delegates its job of engaging people with brands? A boon to creativity - as long as the main ad lives up to the teaser’s promise? Is it the lifeline advertising has needed?
About Erica:
Eighteen years at Brave – Erica Graham is not part of its culture, she has shaped it. “Be in love with the questions and the answers will follow,” is her motto. Erica began her career at Out to Launch.
Teasers shouldn't be a a gratuitous creative wank. They need to have concrete objectives.
All great advertising starts with a Big Idea. You know you have the Big Idea when the concept sprouts legs and sprints easily across all channels. It can be brought to life in myriad ways – including a teaser. Every campaign really needs to punch above its weight and a teaser can be a great way of doing that. It’s not so much about advertising the advertising but more about the multiplier effect and making every dollar work harder.
A couple of years back we launched a new car with the teaser campaign ‘What are you looking at?’ We showed bits of the TVC prior to its release and people had to guess what car was being launched. If they were right they could win $10,000. We got over 200,000 hits with a very limited digital spend. We not only hyped the launch but, more importantly, began a meaningful dialogue with potential customers.
With all the noise and fragmentation, opportunities that facilitate increased engagement need to be explored. However, teasers shouldn’t be a gratuitous creative wank.
They need to have concrete objectives with true and quantifiable outcomes. Otherwise in the excitement of “isn’t this cool” opportunities can be lost.
We always say our end goal is to move our clients from talking, to being talked about. That’s where the real added value kicks in. Teasers can certainly get people talking but they need to be executed really well other wise they run the risk of being annoying and pissing people off. Charm, wit, reward or aiding a good cause go a long way towards creating a positive experience.
About Michael:
M&C Saatchi managed to lure Canning from 72andSunny Los Angeles in December last year. Before then, Canning spent most of his career at Leo Burnett, where his ultimate title was executive creative director, managing partner & executive vice president of Leo Burnett North America.
Teasing the work can be a natural way to spark the conversation about the story and brand.
The most important question we will be asking ourselves of any idea this year is pretty simple – why will anyone care? Why will anyone want to actually watch, share or engage with an idea we create for a brand? If the idea doesn’t create value for people or have a cultural tension built into it, then it’s not going to get people talking about it or even noticing it. I think when people genuinely care about an idea in some way, it slips out of just advertising something to place the brand at the heart of a bigger cultural conversation.
Looking outside of advertising, Hollywood is probably the most obvious example of a tried and true formula of ‘teasing’ a story before it is released. Star Wars ‘The Force Awakens’ had the world on the edge of their seats a long time before the film hit screens. But blockbuster film franchises like Star Wars obviously begin with the cultural advantage that people already care about their story, the actors or the director.
As marketers, I think if you have an idea relevant enough that is going to get people talking about it, teasing the work can be a natural way to spark the conversation about the story and the brand. So will we be teasing our audiences this year? Sure, as long as it is designed to kick off an idea that will create a conversation in culture. Otherwise, why will anyone care?
About Ben:
After a solid start at Droga5 Sydney, Smith snared a position at R/GA New York followed by an even bigger one at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. He has been a creative director at Clemenger BBDO for a year and a half.
"It works for movies, brands and fashion, but advertising is a different kettle of fish."
I don’t see teasing work as a trend. Brands have been doing it for ages. As a kid, I always remember Nike teasing their World Cup football ads before they aired. For me it’s a question of whether it’s relevant to tease or not.
Things get teased in popular culture all the time - movie trailers are previewed months before the movie comes out, bands release studio sneak peaks while fans are waiting for the new album, fashion brands put on catwalk shows before releasing the full collection. It helps build anticipation and creates desire for these things, so it works in these examples and it makes sense. But advertising is a different kettle of fish.
As ad people, we kid ourselves and think that punters are sitting there waiting for our ads, content, stunts, apps, films to hit their screens, but generally they’re not. For ad people it might be highly anticipated, but not for your average punter, they’re waiting for behind-the-scenes Star Wars clips or Call of Duty game trailers, not our ads.
So will we be teasing our work this year? Well we haven’t set ourselves a New Year resolution to tease all work in 2016, but if it adds to the campaign, yeah.
About Shaun:
One step ahead of the game always: Branagan was chairman and executive creative director of NetX, a pioneer in the digital space, and creative partner of BWM’s pioneering technology, culture and communications agency, OPEN, before he joined Ogilvy in 2012.
"One, make the tease intriguing. But more importantly, make sure the main event is worth the build up."
Like most things in the business, advertising the event is not new. It has just gained more traction recently. In one way advertisers are just following what TV networks and movie studios have been doing for years.
HBO did it brilliantly with Game of Thrones before the launch of season six by inferring that character Jon Snow may come back from the dead. All it took was a simple poster of Snow and the launch date to set the internet on fire.
Of course, with a cult show and obsessive fan base, any snippet, however cryptic, will amplify the online chatter.
Advertisers are embracing this so-called new way of doing things to engage their audiences for longer and make their dollars go further.
Take the Super Bowl for example. With the cost of spots rising by 76% over the past decade, advertisers want more time with their audiences beyond the 30-second spots they can buy. No wonder then they’re looking to digital channels for integration and longevity. Aheadof the Super Bowl, we’d already seen advertisers such as LG and others whetting audiences’ appetites.
From a creative perspective there are two things to consider. One, make the tease intriguing. But, more importantly, make sure the main event is worth the build up.
If not, fans can be cruel.
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