Often the story is truer than the truth.

People love a good story, and nothing is truer than in advertising.

Or is it? The story of how delicious a McDonalds’ burger looks and influences us in an advert is far more powerful than the truth – the tiny burger that you get in a store, stuffed into a tight, snapping white box, and dumped into a brown paper bag. The two don’t match, but that’s okay since the story is what consumers buy into. Should it be?

Compare Maccas to Save The Children, a charitable organisation that, (well, how else can I say it?) want to save children from hunger, sickness, disease, and many other issues. What Save The Children want from people is a small, monthly contribution of $20. Unlike Maccas, their advertising and website tell the truth – images of children and babies suffering through terrible conditions are the majority of what you see and read about. It’s heart-breaking. Is it possible they can tell a story that is more powerful and motivational than the truth? After all, what’s the story you tell yourself about $20 per month?

Two Save The Children ambassadors knocked on my door a few weeks ago. The truth is I said no, I wouldn’t help. Maybe it was the inconvenience of filling out forms and giving bank details to strangers, or perhaps I’m just a shitbag? But it is what it is, and the truth hurts me.

In the world of advertising, the story and the truth should always be the same, but they’re often not – that’s the truth. What right does any business have to lie to consumers and why is the vast majority so willing to absolutely accept the story?

As an advertiser, where does the line stop between telling a manipulative story versus going out there and spreading the power of the truth?

Westpac - a wolf in sheep's clothing

Westpac Bank made a $583 million profit in six months between 2020 & 2021.

Just like all banks, Westpac isn’t there to make friends – they’re in the business of making money.

Banks are a grudge purchase. Banks all offer 99% identical services, interest rates, account structures, and so forth. What they don’t offer is the same people. As I’ve said lots of times before, “people do business with people”. If the bank is the cold, cement heart of the organisation, then their people present the fluffy outer-shell disguise. And it’s this polarisation that makes everything quite uneasy, which is why banks spend a fortune on advertising designed to increase likeability.

When it comes to advertising, banks only have three approaches:

1. glorify the bank

2. glorify their people

3. glorify their customers

ASB is doing a great job with their current advertising campaign involving the Big Guy and his Mrs and their ducks, so Westpac couldn’t go that route or they’d be seen as copycats. Or so I thought. What they did was glorify the bank and glorify their customers. Why do one when two is better?

Westpac’s latest advertising campaign, entitled “Together Greater”, is a prime example of “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” advertising that the banking industry is notorious for. It’s beautifully shot, well-produced, and the story’s easy enough to understand – the girl gets bullied until the helpful monster sorts everything out. Cut to the logo. Upload to YouTube and get a million-plus views. Job done.

But it’s not that simple. When you analyse the ad, you can see a lot of weird stuff floating just below the surface. There is deep meaning at play here.

Take a look at this frame:

Westpac has chosen a girl as their main character.

This gives Westpac a chance to establish without a doubt who the villains of the piece are: a triumvirate of gap-toothed, filthy haired, dim-witted male trolls. If you missed it, these bullies are representations of Westpac’s competitors, the big three of ASB, ANZ, and BNZ.

Our heroine has a hissy fit, enraged by the treatment from the other banks and storms off to the river, where luckily enough, she finds a tanked-out paddle boat lying in the dirt. It’s clear that the boat represents the child’s dreams and aspirations, and we see her trying to push it free.

But suddenly, a shaggy monster appears and drags the boat out of its shallow grave and pulls it away. This, strangely enough, further infuriates the child, who bravely demands that the monster give the boat back (where was this courage at the start of the ad?), even though it’s not really her boat.

Soon we see that the monster isn’t really a monster in the same way as Dracula or Freddy Krueger are. He’s got a happy, smiley face and beautiful deep blue eyes. So is this how Westpac see themselves – crafted by Dreamworks? The monster smiles and giggles at the child and within seconds, they’re the best of mates and off they go to start a new adventure together.

We now enter quite a sad stage in the commercial, in my opinion. The child’s only friend is a monster and together, they build this mammoth, glorious boat, a clear representation of the child’s dreams coming to life but built completely from found objects and stuff dumped on the roadside. Is that how Westpac sees its customers – scavengers who dream and build with scraps and other people’s refuse? It makes me quite angry.

It’s pretty easy to see what’s coming: the next day arrives and the other banks return and attempt to take over our heroine’s dreams. But not if Westpac has anything to do with it! He boldly steps up and scares the heck out of his competitors. What is strange is we do not see the full monster character from here on to the end of the commercial – just fragments of his body.

What you do notice, if you’re sharp enough, is that the girl’s clothes have changed colour to match the end logo sequence of the ad. Splashes of maroon and pink are seen on her chest and neck. What if we only see fragments of the monster’s body because the girl embodies him now, representing Westpac, complete with its brand colours?

This entire commercial is a fantasy, not just visually but symbolically too. I used to bank with Westpac, but I left eight years ago because of terrible service. People leave banks for a ¼ of a percent lower interest rate or a cashback offer on a mortgage swap. No amount of advertising will change this fact.

Most important for me is whether you’ll demand more from your bank than letting them spend millions on ad campaigns?

PS. Notice how in the end, the girl become friends with the other banks? Perhaps this is a blatant display that all banks really are the same in the end.

NZ Blood's Latest Advertising Campaign

The new TV ad for NZ Blood broke last night.

It was a series of 7 adverts shown during the TVNZ news slot, between 6pm and 7pm, 9 August 2020. There are a few things right and wrong with it.

NZ Blood’s Latest Advertising Campaign, “Unseen Emergencies”.

1. Right. Everything is set in real time, and that’s very absorbing. Very smart use of the media and the timing when each advert flies. It must have taken some immense work to get that done.

2. Wrong. It requires viewers to see most, if not all, of the ad string to be fully immersed in the message and the creative process. It’s an issue of attention span, and of all the spans, that is the worst to maintain.

3. Wrong. Expensive AF. Obviously, the media buying agency has a great rapport with TVNZ’s media department, but still, the entire ad set is 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Off the top of my head, I’d estimate the rate card cost of a 30-second ad during prime time news to be approx. $15k. So that’s about 75k for the campaign in one night. Plus, there’d be loading for the exact timing when the ads play.

4. Right. Can you imagine controlling TVNZ’s entire news broadcast around your ad campaign? That’s the power of advertising.

5. Right. There’s the planning of the entire campaign. The logistics are just insane. Before the ads were even filmed, NZ Blood needed to know exactly when TVNZ news would break for a commercial and have agreements in place and whatnot. Whoever was in charge of that deserves a medal of some sort.

6. Right. The production of the commercial is brilliant. It really is. Top-class directing, great cast, and some great acting.

7. Wrong. Expensive AF, part two. I’m not sure where to start estimating the production cost, but it’s going to be high. Could the money for production and media be combined to be used elsewhere for a better cause?

8. Wrong. Will they fly the ad on a regular basis? If so, that’s more media spending. And once you’ve seen the ending, well, that’s the ballgame.

9. Wrong. We’re given the impression that the baby may (most likely) die. The final scene of the mom wailing as her newborn baby is off-screen is heart-wrenching, and we are ambiguous as to its fate. It’s a horrible ending. Resorting to guilt is the least classy way to approach most situations – and the campaign’s payoff line “don’t wait to save a life” has Guilt Trip 101 written all over it. It’s a manipulative tactic and let’s face it, no one wants to be manipulated into doing anything.

10. Right. Brave AF. Who ends a commercial like that? I can imagine a lot of thought went into the ending of the commercial, and there was much debate among the client and agency as to whether there should be a positive or negative ending. In the end, they went with shock value. Does that work here?

Ultimately, the success of this campaign, as with every single piece of advertising, lies in the results. More people donating blood and plasma is the only measurement – the campaign’s ability to change the status quo lies here.

Advertising during slow times.

Let’s face it – slow periods are inevitable in business, and it’s often the time when businesses cut costs around advertising.

Advertising is risky for many things, but it’s a risk worth taking, especially in slow periods. A good advertiser would take slow periods as a cue to plan for their anticipated up-time. A better advertiser would be consistent and advertise during quiet times as well as busy periods.

After all, 97% of all New Zealand businesses classify as small or medium enterprises – and you say you “don’t have the budget to advertise when it’s not busy”, or in simpler terms, “it’s too risky”.

Before we dive deeper into things, let me just say this; this is free advice. Advertising and marketing is our craft, and we love seeing good advertising. So let me start by saying this – no risk means no reward.

The age-old saying, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” is an excellent place to start in terms of explaining the risk we’re talking about. However, the other side of the coin is the “half that worked” – the part of advertising that produces results. That’s just the thing! When advertising is done right, it works (and in some cases, even when it’s not done right, it works – I’m pretty sure that’s where the saying, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” came from). So perhaps there’s less risk than you thought – or even that taking no risk is the riskiest thing you can do.

But, of course, you have limited resources, so you try to be smart about your spending – in turn, your content is DIY half of the time. There’s nothing wrong with doing things yourself once in a while – but it shows. So the question now is: do you value your business enough to care about the “small things”.

No matter what your primary motivation is – your business, your team, or your product – caring about the small things mean:

• building a worthwhile brand for your business,

• providing your team tools (like something as simple as a business card they can be proud of) that empower and motivate them,

• and giving your product the attention to detail it deserves (even if it means proofreading labels and copy twice more than usual).

All of which can be done during slow periods or all-year-round even. Advertising during slow times gives you the most precious real estate your business can get – your target market’s top-of-mind. Your competitors would have to catch up to you since they didn’t take the risk – don’t let it be the other way around.

Remember: advertising’s purpose is to build, empower, and launch your business to greater heights to produce results. Advertising during slow times gives you a better foundation and leverage for your busy period. You won’t have to start from scratch, and with good, self-less advertising.

There’s a time and place for everything, and the time for advertising is always. Sure, there are budget restrictions, but investing in good advertising is something your business should invest in simply because it can produce the results you’re after and more when done right and done with care.