There’s a humbling lesson for us all in this month's Adwatch table. As an industry, we’re suckers for something new. Whether it is agency folk or clients, we’re always keen to make our mark by scrapping the old stuff and making a change. It’s how we’re wired. We push for the bold, the fresh, the different.
Oak Furnitureland is none of these things and yet look at its success. It has recognised that the best way to form long-term memory structures is through repetition. I don’t imagine many creatives would rush to put this ad on their reel, but nor is it a surprise that it is so highly recalled.
It’s an incredibly simple idea, repeated ad after ad, year after year. Consistency equals visibility and visibility equals awareness. It is one of our most powerful tools in building brands and it's criminally underused. Oak Furnitureland shows the remarkable effect of consistency – even for an ad that is otherwise pretty ropey. It has decided what it wants to be famous for and stuck to its guns. Its reward is more fame than plenty of brands with higher creative ambitions.
Of course, creativity and consistency are not opposed. Really, the brand we should be learning from is Comparethemarket.com. Alexandr gives us his best Steve Jobs impression as the comparison site tells us all about its latest service in this long running campaign. That’s the real trick – find a fresh, category-defying idea and stick to that. Simples.
TV ads 8 April-5 May 2019. Adwatch research is conducted via an internet omnibus survey among 1,000 adults in Great Britain, aged 16-64, through Research Express, part of Kantar TNS, one of the world’s leading data, insight and consulting agencies. Data supplied by Nielsen.
Dan Hulse is chief strategy director at St Luke's
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