The Tacky, Repetitive Commercial - Does it work?

One of the pillar strategies of marketing and branding is repetition. Repetition creates brand awareness. Brand memory is strengthened through repetition.

Most marketers use subtle repetition. A TV commercial here, a print ad there, a billboard somewhere else. That’s not what I’m concerned about in this post. Rather, I’m going to address the use of in-your-face, tacky, repetitive marketing (just watch the commercial above to see what I’m talking about) and whether it works.

First, let’s examine the positive aspects of tacky and repetitive commercials such as this one from Head On. They certainly get our attention. By the 4th repetition, it’s hard not to have noticed.

But the critical question is whether all attention is good attention when it comes to marketing and branding. In the case of the Head On commercial, there was near universal consent: the ad is not only cheesy, it’s annoying as hell. So much so, that the company tried to save it’s image by employing some self-deprecation in a new line of commercials:

Here, HeadOn directly acknowledges the popular consensus that the repetitive commercials are annoying. But annoying is one thing. ROI is the bottom line.

Amazingly, these commercials situated into the popular conscience of America, went viral online, and got spoofed in the mainstream media and on popular television shows. Sales have been incredible. And Slate magazine gave the HeadOn Commercial an A+ for marketing effectiveness and for having the balls to shun common marketing pretenses (i.e. production value).

Short term, the commercials have paid off by creating lots of attention, recognition and sales. The big question is whether the brand will survive over the long haul given that 1) it has strong negative associations with it’s annoying commercials and 2) the effectiveness of it’s product has been questioned.

So clearly, in the short term, repetition is effective in marketing. But one size does not fit all.

Just image Barrack Obama, Hilary Clinton or John McCain using the tactics of the HeadOn commercial. There’d be no faster way to derail a campaign (well, other than a sex scandal). Clearly, for some products, tact is necessary.