A Vineyard?

You’ve probably seen the ads. A brokerage firm uses a technique in which the actors appear as animation. It is an eerie affect but effective in that it grabs our interest. And our attention is exactly what this advertiser wants.

The gist of the commercials is that this particular brokerage firm deals in reality. It will help its clients prepare for an achievable retirement. It offers guidance that makes sense in today's economy.

I am not commenting on the pros or cons of using this brokerage.  My purpose is to ask you to consider the effectiveness of the ad itself.  Have you noticed it? Do you listen to the script? Does it speak to you on any level?

The rotoscope animation caught my eye instantly, as it was designed to do, and I was fascinated by the effect. How do they do that? It reminded me a little of the way The Polar Express was made with image capture technology.

This ad campaign intrigues me as a writer. The script tells the story succinctly and gives voice to what many of us are feeling.  How often have we seen commercials from other investment firms that show us long, deserted beaches, foreign travel destinations, and, of course, the California vineyard? How did we react to those ads?

To be effective, writing must give voice to what people are thinking and feeling while, at the same time, imparting fact and truth. The reason some written work has been with us for centuries is that the authors were able to do that. In A Tale of Two Cities, as an example, we recognize our own penchant to become an unthinking mob while we retain the hope that we could be as self-sacrificing as Sidney Carton.

The brokerage ad campaign is not Dickens. However, it has been around since 2005 and it does tap into what I’m sure many people are thinking - a vineyard?

And that’s good writing.

WMA versus MP3: Another Tech Turf War

Last month, I finally reacted to the newsletter from my library that encourages downloading audio books and decided to put an audio book on my iPod.

Some of the local libraries have offered downloads of audio books for some time but since the library had loads of books on CD, I never investigated using my iPod for this purpose.  Recent family events have found me sitting in hospital waiting rooms so I decided it was time to make better use of technology.

The library newsletter has often reported that a majority of acquisition funds are allocated to digital material.  I assumed that included audio books.  It does – sort of. 

People over the age of 30 will remember the first format war of Beta vs. VHS.  Apparently there is another – WMA vs. MP3 – also known as Microsoft vs. Apple. 

What does this have to do with my library?  It means that, contrary to what is touted in the newsletter, I am not able to easily download audio books.  I scroll through the titles and find several that look interesting.  Then I read the fine print and see that the format is WMA and WMA (Microsoft) does not play on iPods (Apple).  Of the approximately 1,000 titles available in MP3, nearly all are always checked out and there are waiting lists.  Apparently my library is licensing more WMA books than MP3 books.

I don’t know about the rest of the world but in my library district almost everyone owns an iPod.  So why would the library invest in books that we can’t listen to?  Are the licenses less expensive?  I don’t know but I intend to find out.

I the meantime, I am listening to the only book available – The Battle for Las Vegas: The Law vs. The Mob.  It’s not a bad book but it isn’t what I would have selected had I the option of listening to all those WMA titles.

Thirty Seconds Worth 1,000 Words?

It is an old cliché but one that certainly applies to the Super Bowl commercials. Now that a couple of weeks have passed since the big game, I am intrigued by my co-workers conversations about the ads. At roughly $3 million each just to broadcast, the commercials and the products they pitched should stay in people’s minds. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Volkswagen scored big. They knocked it out of the park. People are still talking about the little Darth Vader. I don’t think I’ve reacted so positively to a commercial since the Pepsi ad featuring the Labrador puppies scampering over the little boy. Another contender for #1 was the Dorito commercial in which the fish and the plant were revived by eating Doritos. My coworkers continue to laugh about it. Congratulations, Doritos. You have a winner.

The Doritos ad used humor. Volkswagen tugged our heart strings. All the winning commercials over the years have connected a universal human emotion to the product. In Volkswagen’s case, we remember how it felt to believe in something so thoroughly that we knew it must be true.

Other commercials were memorable this year but perhaps because they were poorly done. Everyone reacted to Kim Kardashian but no one remembered what she was selling. Most thought it was a sports drink. And all recalled “those babies” but couldn’t name the brokerage firm they represented.

It is important to convey the message but it is critical that the whole message be received to be successful. Think back. Can you name the products featured in your favorite Super Bowl ads? Which ads were the real winners?