Adverts
Since the beginning of the 20th century, when the advertising wave hit the marketing and advertising industry in full force, millions of advertisements are created daily to influence the public on various products. While some adverts fail, others receive immediate attention for the creative input in creating them—some ride on existing cultural myths and fantasies to garner the much-needed attention and others, stereotypes. To reach their target population, the advertising companies can use either the print, internet, television media or all of them at once. In this paper, we will use examples drawn from the Coca-Cola Company and the Miller Brewing Company to show how the use of images can result in powerful and compelling communication with their target markets.
The ‘Share a Coke’ campaign
Coca-Cola, a carbonated soft drink manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company, is one of the most famous soft-drinks with global consumption of over 1.9 billion beverages a day. In 2015, the company partnered with Oligvy and Mather Australia, an advertising agency, to launch the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign in Australia, targeting the available market as the nation was getting to the summer period. The campaign was in the form of a digital print ad, launched across various media sites such as billboards, TV commercials, and social media platforms. In it, the company branded and personalized coke bottles with the names of consumers. One had to send an SMS of their friend’s name to the company, and they would display a can with the name on the iconic Coca-Cola sign at Sydney King’s Cross. The consumer would then receive an MMS through which they could share with their friends, showing their names lit up on the Cross. They could also order custom printing of coke cans.
Through the ad, the company was selling not just their product, Coca-Cola, but were connecting on a personal level with their customers. The advert creators knew that rather than thinking that they were promoting the brand, by sharing customized drink bottles, the consumers would feel that they were creating better memories with each other. The campaign was so successful that within its first year, there were over 500,000 photos shared with the hashtag #ShareaCoke and the company gained about 25 million new Facebook followers.
- Miller Lite ‘Great Taste- Less Filling’ campaign.
In 1974, the Miller Brewing Company took decided to bust the common myth that there could never be a light beer that tastes good. As a result, to market their light beer, the company took to the ‘Great taste, Less filling’ campaign to get “real men” drink it. Their advert featured masculine models, from athletes to retired couches, drinking the beer. On print, the image focused on the actor Eddie Barth opening a can with the slogan written across the poster. Inevitably, the ad was a great success and was ranked the eighth-best campaign in the history of the advertising market by the Age magazine.
Conclusion
Coke and Miller Lite are two examples of how images create powerful adverts. With there being many competing companies launched daily globally, the ability of a company to dominate the market is now determined not only by the quality of their products but how powerful their advertising strategies are. Many now do understand the importance of powerful images, hence the immense growth of the advertising media agencies.