Bernard Gauthier

I had an “aha” moment of sorts recently, the result of work with a current client and of some current campaigns by other organizations. The observation that emerged was simply this: that one of the most important resources any advertiser or PR practitioner should have at their disposal is something to talk about. A story or two. An original point to make. An important call to action of some sort.

It sounds self-evident, I know, but consider the recent effort by Holiday Inn to get us all to stay at their hotels this summer. The TV spot tells the story of a stunt motorcycle rider who sends a dummy up and over the line of school buses rather than risk the jump himself. The idea is that he’s a smart guy because he avoids the crash and because he’s smart enough to stay at Holiday Inn Express when he travels. It’s good for a chuckle but I’m left wondering why Holiday Inn wasted 30 seconds of my time with this effort.

Why add to the clutter with a spot that tells me nothing new about the hotel chain and offers little in the way of a memorable call to action? Surely a chain with so many hotels, so many people and so many years of experience has something more interesting to offer me as an invitation. They likely do but the agency failed to tap into this rich source of stories.

Similarly, the Ottawa Hospital recently sent out its latest annual report to readers of the Ottawa Citizen (see the “24 hours on the front line” link on the main page). I’m not sure if it was sent to all 130,000 readers or to a select sample of homes. Either way, the annual report was sent to a large number of people. Now, I happen to like this hospital a lot. I’ve been treated there and treated very well by great people, as have pretty much all of my family members and friends. Even so, I couldn’t help but wonder why a 22 page, full-colour annual report was stuffed into an already stuffed morning paper. What exactly am I supposed to do with this? Unlike the Holiday Inn campaign, the report was indeed full of great stories of talented and dedicated health professionals doing good work. I’m not sure any of those stories were necessarily new for most readers, however, being pretty much what we would expect people in hospitals to do.

Much like the Holiday Inn campaign, however, there was no clear and compelling call to action. Deep at the bottom of page 21, there was mention of helping out with donations of time and money. Beyond that, little else. I wonder if they might not better have been served with a much shorter (and less expensive) piece that piques our interest with some stories and drives us to their website for a more thorough and interactive experience (”Tell us your stories”). The site, I’m happy to report, is full of interesting and important calls to action — plenty to build on.

As for the client I’m working with right now, I won’t name names but I can say that we’ve discovered, to our delight, that this organization is armed with literally thousands of stories to tell as a direct result of its work. Our success has been in helping them rethink their work and see these stories as a precious resource and as a reason to communicate. Coupled with a strong call to action (and they have plenty), they’re on their way to a successful campaign.

So here’s my rather simple and simplistic solution to ad clutter in the 21st century — if you (or your client) have nothing to talk about and nothing for the audience to do once they’ve read, listened to or watched, try being quiet for a while. Spend your time listening instead. That way, when you do have something to say and a reason to say it, you’re much more likely to be noticed by an audience that will appreciate the quiet and the attention they received.