There are many examples and case studies in advertising on how good advertising can actually sell a bad or weak product (pets.com is the classic example). But what happens when you have a great product but really weak advertising?
The other day I watched a 2-minute infomercial style TV ad for a product called Cricut that makes paper and other material cut-outs for decoration purposes. . The visuals of the ad were very nice, summoning such creative envy and desire one would also feel from reading Real Simple or Martha Stewart Living. The level of creativity in the ad's visuals are not far from the kindle ads from last year, where visuals grow and become more interesting: .
It gives viewers that sensation of - if only I had the time or the inspiration, I could do that too (yeah, right). If you watched the commercial with the sound off, you would feel that the possibilities are endless...and I believe they truly are endless with this unique product.
But the voice-over is truly AWFUL and it brings down the entire commercial to a boring, sub-par, worthy of changing channels and ignoring it entirely, level. Both the female and male voiceovers are dry, monotone, overly read from scripts, and truly, unbelievable, surprisingly uninspiring. And it lasts for two and a half minutes!!! There's even a line in there that says "that's what Cricut does best. it helps you unleash all the imaginative ideas swirling around inside of you." which you would likely ignore entirely and not be able to differentiate from the rest of the words spoken in the ad. but HELLO! - that's your selling proposition right there! Cricut let's you unleash all the imaginative ideas swirling around inside of you. What a great positioning statement - I want in! Yet, with that excruciatingly boring voiceover, I'm not sure I want to be part of this club - maybe it's actually a trick to get me to join a quilting club with blue hairs that I don't want to be seen with.
What went down during the production of this commercial? Cricut clearly spent a good deal of cash on the filming and maybe they ran out of budget to cover high quality voiceovers. I must assume there are creative people working at this company as that's the core of their business, but the voiceovers are just unforgivable and may, in the end, kill their sales prospects. This commercial could have actually helped them reach new target audiences, but unless most people have their TVs on mute, it's just not going to break through all the other envelope-pushing holiday ads this season. Cricut either got lazy, executed a poor strategy, or couldn't break out of their infomercial mold - either way, their bottom line really will suffer for it in the end. I hope for their sake - and the sake of all those people young and old who would enjoy this product - that Cricut gets their shit together and reconfigures the ads. It really is a product worth supporting with imaginative, creative, and INSPIRING ads. At least that's my two cents.
