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Interactivity - the Packaging Needn't Overshadow the Message... (0)

 

Well, well, well - would you Adam and Eve it (guvnor)? Do you remember those adverts from a few years back, where a couple of fast-driving cockneys who looked just like Regan and Carter from Seventies cop show The Sweeney took to the road? Of course you do. Remember how they raced around every corner with tyres screaming in protest? Of course you do. Do you remember what it was they were actually advertising? erm...

Research has shown that while adverts were getting cleverer and more eye-catching, their intended mission statement got lost somewhere along the way. Surveys suggested few who saw the Sweeney-inspired car advert (for the Nissan Almera, as it happens) could name the vehicle that was being advertised, and a significant portion of viewers didn't even realise they were advertising a bloody car. The packaging had overshadowed the message, and while entertaining in its own right, it had totally failed to do its job.

Fast forward to this year, when another hugely entertaining car advert was trialed in London's Cineworld theatres. Here, cinema-goers got to 'drive' a Volvo XC70 by waving their hands over their heads, swinging right and left to steer the car using motion-sensor technology. The campaign, labeled 'Human Joysticks', was hugely ambitious - and it worked! Apres-movie surveys showed 'a remarkable 71% of moviegoers recalled that the virtual car they'd driven was a Volvo', and they even enjoyed the movie more than audiences who weren't shown the advert beforehand.

It just goes to show clever, original advertising needn't overshadow the product that's being advertised, and that interactivity facilitated by the application of new technology offers potentially huge rewards for early adopters.

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