Big Brand Ads are dead. RIP.

In late 2022 I had a conversation with a leading ad agency CEO about "big brand ads".

My view was that they are dead. His view as a head of a primarily lead creative agency was that 'creative was everything' and that 'big brand ads' weren't dead. They were just as important now as they ever were.

To which I asked him: "Name me a Big Brand Ad that had moved a brand's 'needle', or in other words had significantly created a huge amount of value (let's call it sales) or improved market sentiment or become repeated brand phrases that had life outside of an ad. Something in the vein of "Two all beef patties, special sauce..." that iconic McDonalds ad campaign from the 80's my Mum used to repeat to me when it was Maccas time as a small kid.

To which he responded with a few options, namely; Carlton United's (oddly enough named )"Big Ad" , Compare the Market's Compare the Meerkat Advert and AAMI's Rhonda series.

All ads made circa more than 10 years ago. And all questionable as to whether they really moved the needle in any direction.

And to be fair when these ads were made, everybody consumed media differently to the way they do now. Mainstream TV stations were the main staple diet of every household, with press ads running a close second.

And to be even fairer, this is probably how this CEO continues to consume media. His habits may have slightly shifted to reading the Australian or the Fin Review on his phone which makes him believe he's being digitally savvy.

Anyway.

My point to him was that this approach simply doesn't cut it in 2023.

Once upon a time big brand ads were the measure of a Brand Marketers success. They took a bunch of money, spent it on a single thought and rolled it out across one or two channels. And hoped like hell it stuck in a consumers head either for a purchasing decision now or sometime in the future.

My view is that in 2023 brands face the challenge of very different media consumption patterns across demographics, geographies and even product levels within a similar stable. How the baby boomers consume media is hugely different to how Gen X,Y and Z consume it. And to make matters worse they also respond at varying degrees to the same message. So the message needs to vary too to relate to all audiences. Brands need to be nimble. Able to test concepts for cut through across channels. Quickly. Cost effectively.

You simply can't make a big brand ad that will do that. You don't have enough budget, enough time or enough resources (even if you had the budget) to pull this off in such a diverse media landscape.

Brands need to be highly visible and uncannily relevant. And by that I mean, you need to be placing messages across many channels to ensure you've got someone's attention when they have spare time.. not just in the 6.20 and 6.25pm adbreak during the nightly news (which very few people watch now anyway).. but everywhere they visit socially, digitally, geographically. And you need to be presenting them with material that is 'uncannily relevant to their life situation'.

Brands need to be delivering messages that play to the data they have on customers i.e. if I'm coming the end of the lifecyle on my car loan... serve me ads from the car brand I have that speak to either refinancing or perhaps to an upgraded model b/c of my stage in life.

And brands need to shake the idea that they can't create this volume of content; to be everywhere and uncannily relevant. They can. They just need to adopt the tech that empowers them to do it. Shake off the dinosaur ad agency thinking that every ad needs to be handcrafted...and hugely creative (i.e. a big ad).

Technology can and will solve that for you. It is the only way to solve for the channels you need to reach, the consumer messages you need to create in an affordable and timely manner.

In my view, Uncannily Relevant Content is the new Big Brand Ad. And it is what will move a needle for a brand.

Agencies need to stop pitching creative ideas that aren't adaptable at scale.