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Chapter 48: The Flood of Opinions
🕑 Added 2024-09-24 18:52:37 +0000 UTC"Let's hear it. What does everyone think of this advertisement?" Vinnod, the CEO of Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, clasped his hands on the table, looking at the other executives and ad planners.
"I think it's great—direct and eye-catching. If I were one of those executives or bosses, I’d at least remember the name after seeing it," praised Lacey, a short-haired executive on the left.
However, Maz, a middle-aged executive with a triangular face on the right, countered, "I think it's just a gimmick, with no real reference value. Repeating the company name three times doesn’t count as creativity. They're defiling creativity!"
"But you have to admit that it works well! Advertising is all about effectiveness!" Lacey rebutted.
Maz wasn’t backing down either. "Advertising should serve the brand's philosophy! Ads that don’t express the brand are worthless and won’t be remembered, do you understand?"
"So, should we persuade customers solely with the brand philosophy?" Lacey’s voice grew louder.
Maz slammed the table in reply, "Don’t forget the foundation of Ogilvy and Mather Advertising: 'Unless your advertisement is based on great creativity, it’s like a ship at night, unnoticed.' We haven’t survived all these years with cheap ideas. Extraordinary creativity, as David Ogilvy said, is the benchmark of the advertising industry!"
David Ogilvy, the founder of Ogilvy and Mather Advertising, was a top ad master of his era, and Ogilvy and Mather's employees had always revered his words.
When Maz invoked his name, the meeting room fell silent.
However, Lacey wasn’t backing down. "Encouraging innovation and change is our lifeblood. Stagnation is our funeral knell. That’s also what David Ogilvy said."
Vinnod rubbed his forehead, feeling a bit of a headache. Since Lacey and her team of young people joined the company, there had been conflicts with Maz’s faction. They had argued countless times over advertising creativity, leaving him a bit overwhelmed.
Both Maz and Lacey had valid points. Both advertising effectiveness and brand philosophy were essential, but which one to emphasize was a matter of perspective.
Unable to make a decision right then, Vinnod clapped his hands, "Alright, since opinions on this advertisement are divided, let’s take another look. I’m sure this company’s ads will appear before us again."
After the meeting, Maz returned to his office, sitting down with a serious expression.
The ad planner across from him asked quietly, "Boss, how should we approach our new razor ad? What direction should we take?"
"Let’s study the highest creativity ads," Maz casually replied. When he saw the bald ad planner staring at him in surprise, he added, "What are you looking at? If there’s a new creative form, why not use it?"
"But… I thought you didn’t like it…"
Maz shrugged. "I don’t like it, but so what? The clients like it, and this format is very simple for us. We just need to write an ad copy and repeat it three times. Although it's simplistic, it’s memorable!"
"And if you don’t use it, Lacey will. What if she grabs clients from us?"
Maz emphasized, "But remember, it can’t be exactly the same. Don’t let Lacey catch us with our guard down!"
"Got it!" The bald ad planner nodded nervously.
"Alright, you can go now." After the planner left, Maz took out his golden nail file and sharpened his nails. "Highest creativity… Hm… quite interesting."
Meanwhile, the customer service reps at Supreme Creativity Advertising were already running their mouths off.
"Hello, sir, this is Supreme Creativity."
"If you have an advertising creative need, please leave your company name and phone number. What’s your name, James… Such a handsome name!"
"Me? I’m Cindy. Sorry, I might not be able to accept your invitation. How about… you visit our company?"
"Your company specializes in automotive wipers? May I know how much you plan to spend on the creative?"
"One hundred thousand dollars. Alright, sir. Since we have a lot of incoming calls, we will get back to you after evaluation. Thank you for calling."
Seeing the busy scene, Jimmy and Ethan exchanged glances and then smiled.
"I didn’t expect you to handle customer service so well," Ethan complimented.
Jimmy shook his head. "No, I haven’t trained them. I just told them to get some basic information from the clients. The rest was up to them."
"Really? They’re doing quite well."
Just then, Ethan saw a young woman next to him, biting her lip and coquettishly talking on the phone.
"No, how could your name be Dick? I wouldn’t…"
"Alright, I’ll go along with it, Dick. Dick. But could you tell me your company’s name and scale? I’d like to know."
"Lighting industry, thirty people. Oh, you asked if I want to meet you? Of course, Liliana would love to meet Dick."
"After meeting… What do you think, Dick?"
"Mm, mua, love you, Dick."
Ethan’s mouth twitched, and he exchanged another look with Jimmy.
Jimmy spread his hands awkwardly. "Uh, Ethan, you know, I didn’t teach them to say that."
"Get a professional customer service rep immediately and give them a good training session tonight! Don’t let people think Supreme Creativity is a brothel."
That night, ten customer service reps received professional training, avoiding potential complaints from company executives’ wives.
Three days later, as the effectiveness of the ads began to wane, Ethan received a list.
It contained the top enterprises from various industries that had called and left their information.
Ethan had specifically requested this. Supreme Creativity only worked with high-end clients, not low-end ones.
On one hand, Ethan himself didn’t want to be tied down to the company. On the other hand, low-end clients were demanding and paid little.
In short, they weren’t quality clients.
Ethan would rather run an ad campaign than waste time revising creative ideas for those clients.
After screening a large number of companies, only seven remained on his list.
And only one had an urgent advertising need.
Kerr’s Baked Beans.
This was an American food brand. Their baked beans product had once been popular nationwide, but now, due to outdated flavors, sales had been declining for years.
Ethan knew this canned food because Carmela often bought it, saying it reminded her of the old days.
But Ethan believed that sticking to outdated methods would only put the product at a disadvantage. Baked beans were not like Coca-Cola; no one wanted to eat the same flavor forever.
However, if he were in charge of the advertising creativity, that would be another story. He happened to know a classic idea that was perfect for Kerr’s Baked Beans.
