But that is really neither here nor there… The reason I bring it up at all is that I found this terrific video of cereal “Advertising Through the Ages” that I want to share with you all.
This energetic four+ minutes of YouTube video entertainment (created by Hello Cereal Lovers, General Mills) will remind you of being young, waking up early Saturday morning and turning the television on for some quality cartoon watching — You remember those bright-eyed "you owned the house" hours before your parents woke up.
As a 4- to 12-year-old, most of us lived for Saturday morning self-serve cereal breakfast and cartoon watching. You would silently open that box of crunchy independent breakfast goodness, settle in on the sofa and wait for the rest of the household to get up. This ritual usually started around 6 or 7am and lasted until one parent was awake and had coffee — alert enough to realize you were going to be late for swim lessons or the lawn needed mowing.
The cartoons were great but so were the commercials! So what made “vintage” Saturday morning television (cereal) advertisement so great? Simple. The ads where targeted to the pajama-clad kids who were watching. Each 30-second spot had characters and stories the kids identified with and formed bonds around. They were mini-cartoons… they were fun, fast moving, and played around with mimicable voices, capes and talking stuffed animals — just like kids play. General Mills wasn’t selling cereals, they weren’t telling the kids who were watching at 7am that the cereal was less expensive, more nutritious, used natural ingredients, etc. the kids didn’t care… General Mills’ goal on Saturday morning was to engage their target market – these young kids. GM wanted the kids to need to have their box of O's on the sofa on Saturday morning and wanted the kids to be requesting (in some cases begging) it from mom. AND they did a great job doing this.
Now, you may argue they did too good of a job and these mostly sugary cereals weren’t always healthy and it’s not appropriate to market to young kids this way. But knowing what we know today, let’s fast forward to 2013. Similar targeted techniques can be used to market a mostly healthful product or promote a healthy message. Healthful can be fun playful, engaging and energetic. It can POP, Snap and Crunch… The idea, and my point, is to know who the message to is hitting before developing your marketing campaign, advertisement, content, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah1m99BPnGg
Do you know your market? How are you spending your marketing dollars today? Is that effective?
Is it time to re-think? I can help you answer these questions and get you on a better path if you need one.
Contact me today for a consultation. 215-760-9360
BTW: Most of the characters in cereal commercials actually have ongoing story lines. These stories are woven thorough new commercials and when new favors hit stores shelves. Here are my favorite cereal characters that kept me entertained as a kid. I am happy to report that upon checking all are alive and well! I’ll have to get up early this Saturday and check in on them.
Cap'n "Horatio Magellan" Crunch from "Cap'n Crunch" (1963--present) - Quaker Oats
Count Chocula from "Count Chocula" (1971-present) - General Mills
The Trix Rabbit from "Trix" (1959-present) - General Mills
Toucan Sam from "Froot Loops" (1945-present) - Kellogg’s
Sugar Bear from "Golden Crisp" (1964-present) - Posts
©Mary Carol Sullivan 10/14/13
MARY CAROL SULLIVAN IS A CREATIVE DIRECTOR who will challenge your established ideas and offer fresh perspectives.
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