During the 2002/3 NFC Championship game, Nike premiered a :60 called Soccer Streaker. It was effectively a Super Bowl commercial, but airing it 2 weeks early was a simple yet adroit example of disruption planning.
Given the media glut in which we live, simplicity can sometimes be a point of great strength. Since the clean design of Apple/Google/Craigslist stays winning, I often wonder why so many Power 150 bloggers, who are ace in this market+brand space, have visually chaotic sites. If everyone is screaming, I’ll seek the lone, silent man.
Could a Brand re-broadcast spots that have been in the vault for 30 years? If it came out of left field, seemingly random and at off-hours, would the content feel like a whisper? A secret, ergo valuable, discovery for the viewer that could then build WTF buzz value? I’m not suggesting that this be the entire campaign, but if it’s a small % of your media buy, the ROI could be surprising.
The type of Brands may be limited, tech/cars/drugs no, but Kool-Aid? Methinks the recipe hasn’t changed much. Same goes for Alka Seltzer.
Deodorant? Though it’s not from the vaults, W+K tapped into this zeitgeist for Old Spice; putting us in a simple world focused on frenching, not twittering.
It’s these quiet yet novel disruptions, like Banksy in a Museum, that may soon gain greater traction in the advert game as the din of ‘new media’ increases.
