Each Of These 49 People Ignored My Ad
This past July, we ran our first ever out of home campaign. We were immediately on board when our agency pitched their creative idea, so it only took a little back and forth before we were ready to hit the bus shelters.
But these pictures clearly show that everyone is ignoring our ad. So, time to phone up the agency and ask for our money back, right?
Of Course No One Pays Attention To Your Ad
If you take another look at each of these pictures, you’ll notice that these people aren’t just ignoring our ad. They are ignoring other ads too.
No wonder. People have more than enough on their minds. Like:
Crap, missed the bus.
Should I go to the supermarket now, or after work?
Why did I say something stupid in that meeting today.
Oh I love this song. I should start a music blog. Or a Tiktok.
Shit, this jacket is really hot.
“That’s the thing with advertising, isn’t it? People don’t pay much attention to it. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be effective.”
It’s Sarah Carter who said we should all hang a post it like this in our offices.
People don’t care about brands, and even less about advertising.
Advertising is always intrusive, and rarely will it address an urgent and relevant need in the moment. And even if it would, it’s still intrusive and no one asked for it.
Just have a look at this case where a research agency found that even 5 minutes of advertising out of 60 minutes of Netflix streaming is too much.
That makes total sense, because people hate it when their favourite shows are interrupted by ads. And still, it was marketing news.
We marketing people have a habit of overestimating the role we and our brands play in people’s lives.
2 seconds is all you get
A recent study of System1 and JCDecaux found that if you’re lucky enough to see your ad get some attention, that will most likely last 2 seconds.
That means a lot for how you wanna design your ad creative. Luckily, System1 and JCDecaux compiled a set of tips for your next campaign. Find them here.
Anyway, with 2 seconds of attention, you better make sure your ad stands out, and communicates a message that’s easy to grasp. Maybe not even a message, just a feeling.
Our Ad Was Effective Though
Was our ad perfect? Of course not. And we’ll keep improving as we go.
But it was definitely effective.
Because in these areas where people seemingly ignored our ad completely for an entire week, we saw 29% more clicks on our social ads than in areas where we didn’t have any ads running.
It further increased the impact of our radio and online advertising which ran simultaneously.
That’s why we’ll be running a second out of home campaign like this soon, and we’ll also start trying this out in other countries.
How can those ads be effective if everyone ignores them?
So the question is, how can we see a 29% uplift in social ad traffic if everyone ignores these ads?
I guess that’s the thing with advertising, isn’t it? People don’t pay much attention to it. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be effective.
Perhaps the best example I’ve seen recently, is this experiment conducted by Out of Home Masters, Clear Channel and Cool Creative.
They asked 4 people to go to the store and buy something. Whatever they wanted.
Without knowing it, they followed a route to the supermarket that brought them along several outdoor ads and other comms tricks.
And guess what? All 4 of them bought the chocolate that was featured in the ads they mostly just ignored en route to the store.
That’s some David Copperfield shit, right?
The video is subtitled.
The Short Version For sleepyheads
People don’t pay any attention to ads. That’s OK. Don’t fire your ad agency.
If you’re lucky, your outdoor ad will get 2 seconds of attention.
Keep that in mind when developing your creative.
Don’t forget: your ad can still be effective.
Make sure you know how to measure its effectiveness.
