What is meant by “execution” in an advertising sense?
In advertising and communication programs, one of the challenges is to execute a good creative idea.
Marketing students sometimes have difficultly understanding how an idea may or may not be executed well.
This is because, in theory, once a creative campaign has been planned out, its execution should be relatively straightforward.
However, subtle differences in sets, colors, sounds, voice, tone, gestures, people, acting, clothing, camera angle, and so on – and these minor differences will aggregate to create a different perception in the mind of the consumer.
The next two videos are a good example of this concept. They are the same – that is, they direct position credit unions against banks (the first video is discussed more in this article in terms of its positioning goals) – BUT they have been produced by different advertising agencies using different actors.
I have shown these two videos side-by-side in marketing lectures to illustrate how two “identical” videos/advertisements may end up being perceived differently by the target audience, due to the subtle changes listed above.
As you review these two videos, consider the following factors:
- Which actors are more likeable?
- Which version more clearly communicates the message?
- Which one is more believable?
- And therefore, which one has been better executed?
