The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - SXSW Booth Edition
In the spirit of reviewing advertising, we’re not staying away from any particular kind of ad, but having spent some time at the trade show booths at SXSW, I decided it would be a good time to do another Good, Bad & Ugly Ad review.
Good:
The folks at Pila really knocked it out of the park with their booth. As I walked by, what their product was became immediately clear. The brand name doesn’t say much to me, but the short, concise copy and visualizations explained what their product/service did immediately.
I also got totally baited in by the free coffee. This is a great ad ‘hook’ in this context. I’m not in the market for a home battery as I rent an apartment, but when I got in line to get a coffee, I was greeted by a friendly salesperson who chatted with me about their product. Turns out, their target market actually is renters as the product is designed to not require much home modification. Unbeknownst to me, there’s a fairly large market of folks who live in apartments that experience regular power outages and this product would be a boon to those folks who’d rather not have all the food in their refrigerator go bad.
Nicely done.
Bad:
There’s a lot going on here and I never really figured out what “apoc” even is. It does seem like it has something to do with storytelling, but doesn’t all compelling human communication do that?
Also, on the left board, the copy reads “Create Anything You Dream Of” which is entirely unhelpful. A product for everyone is a product for no one and creating anything means creating nothing. I do understand that some businesses have complex value propositions that can be difficult to communicate concisely, but if that’s the case, bait me with coffee or swag and get me to talk to your salesperson.
Ugly:
My response to this booth is probably better summed up with this: bad communication is lack of communication.
What the hell is this? Maybe ‘Aichi’ means something in Japan, but given that this booth is in Texas at the moment, understanding the localization of your market can make or break your communication. There’s no ‘hook’ to lure someone into the booth and even if I did take a few minutes to peruse it, there’s no communication about what product, service or cause is being represented here. Just a vaguely Japanese aesthetic.
To wrap up: any kind of advertising needs to follow a few key sets of principals:
Respect the context of where and when your ad is shown to the customer
Get the customer’s attention. You could be giving away kilogram bars of gold and if you can’t get anyone’s attention, no one will bite.
Communicate your value propositions quickly and concisely.
Create the opportunity to provide more information if the potential customer shows interest
Close. Make a clear Call to Action. Get the lead or sale.