Which of the following would you purchase?

January 23, 2009 By 3 Comments

A lot of blogs are talking about the new advert for Cadbury, which comes from Fallon on the heels of their Gorilla and Airport adverts.

I’d agree it’s entertaining, but it happened to coincide with me witnessing the following video, shot with a Samsung Pixon phone.

Bike London – Shot entirely on a Samsung Pixon from Angus Farquhar on Vimeo.

The question is which one is more likely to make you part with some hard-earned cash – the professional advert, or the video shot by someone to test the product they’ve just paid for with their own money?

A case for Advocurrency?

After all, do you feel more affected by

Or by:

I’m not saying that advertising/marketing shouldn’t be entertaining, or professional shot and edited.

I do wish some of it was more informative, and was based around making my life suck a bit less – for instance, T-Mobile sorting out their customer support, or Cadbury‘s sticking more Dairy Milks in their Roses selection boxes.

How about alternating between one piece of pure entertainment for awareness, and one bit of making things better for people buying your products?

Filed Under: Advertising, marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
  • http://angusfarquhar.tv Angus Farquhar

    Thanks for the plug Dan. On the question you asked, I have to say I am definitely much more influenced by user video than the advertising.
    Adverts are great for bringing my attention to the product but it is the user/blog videos that helped me make the purchase decision for the Pixon.
    I get much more information out of videos by people that have actually used the product than from an advert that is trying to attract as many generic people as possible.
    Even if that video is just footage shot by the phone/camera/whatever at least you can see what you will have to put up with when you get the product (one of the reasons I made the video in the first place).
    However…. I’m probably not your average consumer. I don’t know many people that evaluate their purchases in every way as much as I do. I know a lot more people that buy things because they’ve heard about it (they’ve seen the advert), their friend has got one and it looks cool, or the salesman said “of course it will do everything you’ve ever wanted”.
    I liked your closing point, but why alternate between the two, if you make a product that makes things better for people then make an entertaining advert to tell people about it, then you get the best of both worlds andyou’ll also get people talking about it in a positive light, which positively affects the heavy researchers.

  • http://angusfarquhar.tv Angus Farquhar

    Thanks for the plug Dan. On the question you asked, I have to say I am definitely much more influenced by user video than the advertising.
    Adverts are great for bringing my attention to the product but it is the user/blog videos that helped me make the purchase decision for the Pixon.
    I get much more information out of videos by people that have actually used the product than from an advert that is trying to attract as many generic people as possible.
    Even if that video is just footage shot by the phone/camera/whatever at least you can see what you will have to put up with when you get the product (one of the reasons I made the video in the first place).
    However…. I’m probably not your average consumer. I don’t know many people that evaluate their purchases in every way as much as I do. I know a lot more people that buy things because they’ve heard about it (they’ve seen the advert), their friend has got one and it looks cool, or the salesman said “of course it will do everything you’ve ever wanted”.
    I liked your closing point, but why alternate between the two, if you make a product that makes things better for people then make an entertaining advert to tell people about it, then you get the best of both worlds andyou’ll also get people talking about it in a positive light, which positively affects the heavy researchers.

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