The web delivers what ad land seems to have forgotten writes Mandy de Waal. Thanks to Rouvanne van den Berg for the heads up on Muti which led me to an awesome international online store. As I clicked through to Hema, the Dutch online store I was surprised. Amazed! Then entertained. It made me start to laugh. It made me feel: “Damn. I want to shop at that shop!” Not because the products are awesome or in anyway more special than products you could find online locally, it’s just that they clearly get how to connect in a way that is unique, distinctive and memorable.
The experience made me realize what I’ve always loved about advertising. How so much of traditional advertising locally seems to have forgotten that alongside informing, advertising needs to enthrall, captivate, amuse or perform some or other function of entertainment. In a bear market commercialism strides more strongly into the creative domain, and often creativity and connection is surrendered to the hard sell.
When last where you surprised. Delighted! Amazed. Entertained by an advert? How long has it been? Where did it happen? Chances are it happened online. As traditional media becomes more fraught by advertising inflation and brands demand more ROI for their spend chances a lot of the best work will move online because the medium is more democratic, responsive and lends itself more readily to creative engagement. And as it does, there’s a lot that it can teach traditional advertising.
Posted on Marklives.com by Mandy de Waal. Mandy de Waal is a former broadcast journalist who now writes for a broad range of local media. A columnist for MarkLives, de Waal microblogs at Twitter, vlogs at Zoopy and authors her own blog, Artificial Intelligence.