THE CENTRAL CONCEPT

Advertisements have to work fast, they have to work quickly and they have to work simply. There may be two situations in which an advertising campaign is placed, in relation to the audience. Firstly, there is the situation where the audience is looking for this kind of message, wants to find it, will think it helpful and may act upon it.

They may well search it out. This is the situation for many kinds of advertising. When interest rates change, people may want to see what rates banks are now offering. When the holiday season comes round, people begin to look for information on possible holiday venues. When your drain is blocked, you may look up Yellow Pages to see who is the nearest drain service. When you need a prescription filled, you may look at a directory for details of a late night pharmacy.

When your car begins to fail, you will look around for details of a possible replacement and for the locations of suitable dealers. In which cases, advertising can be direct, basic, informative and flag down the audience already in the mood to take an interest.

Unfortunately, this is not the position for most products most of the time. People do not generally read newspapers for the advertisements or watch TV for the commercials. Many direct mailshots are thrown into the dustbin. Posters are unheeded as people walk by. Many Web sites have a low number of hits. Audiences do not seek out most kinds of advertisement and indeed often try to avoid them, in which case the advertiser has a considerable job to do. The priority is to appeal, to stand out, to have something relevant to say.

The advertising strategy is merely a statement of an intention. It now has to be turned into a live piece of communication, one which will gain attention, be looked at, convey a point and be remembered. That is the job of the advertising concept.

The concept represents the centre of the message. It is the idea behind the message. It is the proposition that is being made. When the advertiser is given a layout or script by an advertising agency, the first question to ask is therefore: what is the idea for this advertisement? What is the proposition? Great advertising generally has a great concept.

The Esso tiger has run for many years. As a communications concept, it has sealed off Esso from other petroleum products, and has given it a very clear and singular identity and special quality. The tiger says power, authority, high performance. It says all this remarkably quickly, at a glance. It is a concept which is utterly relevant to the product category, and which becomes associated with Esso over time. You see a tiger, you think of Esso, you think of power.

The line about Heineken – ‘refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach’ – has positioned Heineken as a distinctive, front-of-mind product. The beer market is crowded; there are dozens of products and many advertising campaigns. There is also natural consumer confusion about which beer is which, and what advertising is for which beer. Within all this clutter, Heineken is memorable,

sociable, amusing and attractive. It is the one you do remember. The insurance industry has seen the enormous growth of direct, often telephone based, insurance, led by Direct Line. The Direct Line advertising shows an amusing and highly mobile red telephone. The little red phone says – simple, just one call, friendly, without any of those daunting insurance formalities.

Concepts can take many forms. Some are visual, some are verbal, some are serious, some are amusing, some spell it all out and some just imply, some use a demonstration and some a character or personality (such as the Esso Tiger we have mentioned, or Brooke Bond Tea chimpanzees, or the Tango Man). Whatever form they do take, advertising campaigns must begin by trying to obtain or discover a concept. Without a relevant idea or proposition, the campaign will be empty.

A real, workable concept must meet a number of key considerations:

- Does it communicate a point? What is that point?

- Does it communicate that point clearly?

- What does it promise about the product?

- Is that promise meaningful to the audience?

Above all, a concept must speak in the customer’s terms. Superior creativity can only arise from better understanding of the customer, and of speaking from the customer’s point of view.

Commercial communication has to be customer orientated, rooted in what the customer knows, feels and wants, and talking in the terms and kind of language used by the customer. That is to say, commercial communication is customer communication. The advertiser in a sense represents the customer and the advertising speaks for the customer. It says what the customer may say.

Successful concepts do not repeat product formulae or technical specifications. They make a customer statement. ‘Have a break, have a Kit Kat’ does not talk about Kit Kat as a chocolate wafer block. The customer regards Kit Kat as a snack, and that is what the advertising concept presents it as. The popular Nescafé Gold Blend advertising shows the use of coffee in social relationships. That is how people see it.

The father–daughter relationship in the Renault Clio advertising gives the product an air of flexibility, informality and charm. It maximises the value of the manufacturing origin of the car. So, significant advertising rests on a strong, basic concept: an idea or proposition that summarises what the product stands for, not in advertising speak but in terms of customer outlook. That is what to pursue.