How To Successfully Unravel Your Message

I am the first to admit that the creation of a television advertisement is extraordinarily challenging.  Having to weave a message through a story with actors, images, animation, audio, graphics, etc., that stays on point for each of its 30 or 60 seconds is an art form... and with so many elements fighting for the mind space of a populace with shorter and shorter attention spans- I couldn't do it.  It is far easier to be the critic than to be the creator.  But to be clear, in the relationship between ME and the ADVERTISER, my job is not to be the creator- that's their job.  My role is to give my attention, if earned, and process.  If their job is done well, I will act or think differently (or at least begin to). If not I will simply ignore it or, worse yet, begin to think different in a way that was not the goal- I question the company.  It's the Advertising Compact Theory.

I had such an experience this week with a company that I value and has always done well by me- Visa. I was presented with the following commercial the other night.  Please have a look.

VISA- "HOW SMALL LIVES BIG" TV COMMERCIAL

Creative, captivating (I wanted to see what the next BIG thing was), somewhat inspiring (I love the little guy).  It was a very solid and engaging ad.  Until the end...

In the ad I heard owners of small businesses (yes, I know, they were actors...) tell me why they weren't small at all:

• there's nothing small about us

• big ideas, huge potential

• enormous dedication

• larger than life expectations

Get it? They're not really small based on the claims made above... they're big companies that have not quite arrived yet.  They aspire to be treated like the company they WILL become.  A fair message driven home by the entertaining visuals.

What's the last thing you saw? What message did VISA leave you with in its advertisement's final moments?

The soothing male voice stated: "Visit visa.com/smallbusiness"...

I was dumbfounded, absolutely shocked.  VISA has just spent (likely) several hundreds of thousands of dollars on production and air time making the point that they understand small businesses... big dreams, nothing small about us... remember? This was VISA's story, attempting to influence small business owners to THINK that VISA understands them so that they ACT differently: maybe use VISA's card services, processing services, financing programs... and to get more details on what this unique company that really understands me can do to help me grow my "soon to be BIG business"? Go to visa.com SLASH small business.

This is called lack of integration.  The "call to action" (what the company wants the information recipient to do) is not aligned with the tone and theme of the advertisement.  In fact, I think it absolutely unraveled the entire ad.  Did someone with authority not see this? And worse yet, did someone with authority see this and say it was okay?

How about something that seeks to reinforce the ad's main message like visa.com/notsmallbusiness or visa.com/bigger thansmallbusiness? See, that wasn't hard and I am not an AdMan...

This simply reinforces my point that common sense is not common at all.  Despite the high number of MBAs at VISA and creative-types with unique hair styles and cool glasses (okay, I retract that) at its agency, this train wreck ended up on the air.

I don't have a witty or cute phrase to end this post.  I am merely shaking my head in continued disbelief.

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