Can anyone explain this billboard to me? I've been trying to figure it out for weeks, but I've been having difficulty. I understand that it's for First Niagara's Simple Checking campaign, of which I'm not very educated as well, but I don't get the copy and imagery. I may be reading into it too literally. My only guess as to what this billboard is trying to convey could be that First Niagara's Simple Checking is so simple that all you need is a penny?
Anyway, given my little anecdote, I know that advertising can be very effective, and ineffective, depending upon the way you decide to convey a message. Mixing left and right brained messaging, as I believe that First Niagara has done in this billboard, can be a very useful tool when advertising, but other times it just seems needlessly puzzling. Not only this, but spending a pretty penny on a campaign that has one or more ineffective ads can be very detrimental for a company. For a bank, why attempt to make a complex message out of something that's supposed to be... Simple?
I agree that ineffective advertising can ruin a message that a company is trying to convey. Especially in terms of billboards, simple is best. When people are driving and only have a split second to look, read and understand the message that this billboard is trying to convey, a confusing message will not resonate well. I agree that this was not an effective advertisement.
ReplyDeleteI agree. When I read this I thought "Just penny for simple?". A simpler message would have been much better because no one wants to have to think and understand ads when they are driving down a highway. The message needs to be clear and concise while straight to the point.
ReplyDeleteIts always appalling to see bad advertising, especially with large brands like First Niagara that definitely went to an agency for this. My group is currently developing an ad that is meant to challenge the viewer but I'm confident that you could not say the same for this ad. Billboards have such short exposure time because passersby are usually driving past it at least 60 miles per hour on a high way and now four brains have remain unable to make sense of it. With all the research and testing and groups of people that this work went through and nobody realized the mistake (it's hard to say whether it was unintentional or intentional).
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