Mark Wilson

Advertising isn’t always about what you need
An ad’s viral effects are rarely correlated with the type of product (i.e. commodity, etc.). The aspect that creates a viral ad is the ad itself, not the product it’s advertising. With this in mind, do you remember the product or the ad better? Because that’s what seperates a truly effective ad versus a piece of entertainment. While marketers want to produce intriguing ads that grab the consumers attention, we cannot forget the fundamental reason for the ad in the first place… to sell product!

Attention grabbing Ads don’t always promote Sales
The problem with advertising today is that there is so much bombardment and noise in the market that it’s extremely difficult to get the consumer’s attention. Advertisements are now fighting for the spotlight, many using edgy adverts to try and beat out the competitor, not always stressing the product or service. The problem is that it takes a lot of creativity to create an ad that grabs attention AND promotes a product to generate sales.

The first problem is grabbing consumer attention. This can be very difficult because consumers are bombarded with many creative ads day in and day out and tend to ignore ads naturally because of how often we’re subject to them. Every day ads don’t tend to leave much memory recall with a consumer, which means a lot of money spent with little to no benefit. On top of this, many companies do not track the metrics behind it to see how successful their ad was, so they could very well be wasting their time and money.

The other problem is that grabbing the consumer’s attention doesn’t always generate direct returns. Just because an ad goes viral, doesn’t mean we will see a significant boost in sales. However, this isn’t always true, because it creates a brand memory to those who see it. A viral ad might generate a lot of brand awareness and when a consumer is faced with a ‘this brand’ or ‘that brand’ decision, they will likely select the one they have heard of in the past. Some viral ads might directly generate a huge increase in sales, but some may not. But as I mentioned, indirectly it still benefits companies

Word of Mouth is not Viral
Word of Mouth includes spreading messages via social networks and through your circle of friends. While it might not include the actual ad, one can still spread the word of an ad quickly and effectively through their personal networks encouraging others to view it. Having said that, in today’s technology, viral messages are moved through the market much easier via direct shares on social networks.

Does Advertising Help Sales? Or do Sales help Advertising?
There are many small time companies that have created extremely viral ads (i.e. the Ojai Taxidermy Commercial). Sales may have an impact on an ad’s ability to go viral, because it is likely to be viewed by many more people than a smaller company’s ad. However, the ad itself is what goes viral, regardless of the size or industry of the company. Advertising definitely helps drive sales, it just depends how effective the ad is to determine the sales it will generate. Although, I wouldn’t dismiss an entirely entertaining ad, because it will put that brand’s name first in the consumer’s mind and help generate sales indirectly.