I love the schweppes balloon burst TV ad - I love the creativity, the super-slow-mo bubbles... but most of all I love the emotion it evokes.
It has so etched what 'refreshing' is to me in my mind, that I actually described a refreshing customer service experience as schweppervencent... it was so refreshing.
Now, because I needed to check the spelling of schweppervencent I went to the schweppes website... and the brand message, the emotion, the 'refreshment' was all reinforced... the music was there, the bubbles were there, the smiling faces were there.
And then... when I got past the welcome screen, their core brand messages were consistent with the ad - none of this "who we are" and "what we do" - rather "discover", "enjoy", "experience". Oohh... now I was not only tingling with the emotion of the brand but I was also excited at the execution of the campaign - so congruent!!
As small business owners we can still convey this congruency and consistency... sure, the big budget ad helps... but it isn't necessary if you're not trying to reach the mass market. The keys are to evoke strong emotion and then consistenly remind people of that emotion everytime they interact with your brand. To do this, you need to know what you stand for, what your business stands for and therefore what your brand stands for. Then, when you 'speak', you speak from that stand.... the emotion will be evident.
(as an aside, as an avid fan of The Gruen Transfer, I saw the creator of the ad, Russell Howcroft, talk about this particular campaign. He said it was one of those fortiuitous moments in advertising where the client was willing to go all the way with a really creative idea... and everything came together - the imagery, the music... what is really impressive to me is that Scweppes have taken it way beyond the campaign and incorporated it into their entire communications strategy)
Cat
