Shock Advertising: Does It Always Work?

Advertising has always been a marketing communication that is focused on promoting a specific message or product to a wide audience, but with consumers being shown over 5,000 ads a day how does a company ensure their message is being heard?

Shock advertising has been known to break through the mundane day-to-day adverts in a way which aims to break societal norms. Agencies do this by exposing consumers to violence, controversy and sometimes just sheer, disturbing ideologies to in turn create empathy, shock or a call to action. With this basic definition in mind you would assume that this would be a form of advertising which many agencies would consider... But there are pros and cons just like every form of advertising. Companies need to consider all the different alternatives before making an informed decision.

So, lets begin to analyse one of the most popular adverts of 2015 with this question in mind; can controversy be used in a way which will benefit a company in the long run?

1.  Moneysupermarket.com "You're so moneysupermarket"

When the advert got released in 2015 of a male called Dave strutting down the street in high heels to the song 'Don't Cha' by Pussycat Dolls it went straight to the top trend on Twitter whilst then going on to receive millions of hits on YouTube. The story line is based on Dave feeling 'epic' now that he's saved money on his car insurance by using Moneysupermarket.com. 

Because of the campaign, Moneysupermarket.com received more traffic to its website than at any other point in its history which made the business grow by 38%.

In an article for Campaign, Andrew (2016) refers to how they used neuroscience research to review the advert to understand how the brain responded to it at a subconscious level. She stated that 'one of the main indications of communication effectiveness is the extent to which an ad is stored away in the viewer’s long-term memory – something known to neuroscientists as "memory encoding". High levels of memory encoding have been shown to correlate strongly with future decision-making and behaviour, and the Moneysupermarket ads are highly effective at leveraging two key drivers of memory encoding – powerful narrative and emotional intensity.'

This means that due to the story line and emotional intensity that's presented consumers will be more likely to remember the brand when they find themselves in a situation where they may need to use them.

It also inspired politics which was evident when The Sun needed an image to convey George Osbourne's 2015 budget, it put the chancellor’s head on Dave’s body and headlined it "George’s epic strut". This just shows how much the advert impacted not only consumers but also British culture. 

The Sun has over 5.42 million readers which means this front-page article had a wide audience which was exposed to it. (NRS, 2017) For Moneysupermarket this publicity is highly sought after as consumers are more likely to remember their brand if it's in a well-known newspaper.

The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) released figures following the advert which showed that it was the most complained-about advert of 2015. Although the advert encouraged an emotional reaction it wasn't always a 'good' reaction. However, Moneysupermarket.com's aim was to make the advert stay in the consumer's mind, regardless of it being associated negatively or positively.

The ASA's chief executive Guy Parker also wrote a blog post on the 23rd of January 2017 titled 'The Ads that attract the most complaints aren't always the ones that need banning,' he stated that they had received complaints that the Moneysupermarket ad was 'homophobic' and would encourage hate crimes. But on the contrary, many people said the advert presented positive messages about diversity; for example, it helps to normalise characteristics, attitudes and sexual orientations that aren’t often accepted in our society. (Parker, 2017)

Guy Parker goes on to say that last year nine of the top 10 most complained about ads were seen on TV, meaning that only one of them had been banned (Moneysupermarket was included three times on that list). This just shows how capable advertising is at dividing people's opinions and may even encourage advertising agencies to be riskier when planning their advertising materials. 

All in all, the advert was successful in terms of making a lasting impression on consumers. It also received a high amount of publicity from number one trend on Twitter to being given exposure in newspapers. Moneysupermarket have also released many more adverts after their 2015 one, this just shows that by pushing the standards of societal norms (despite it maybe being seen as a risky move) it helps the brand gain exposure and has definitely made them more successful in terms of website traffic, revenue and long-lasting customer perception.

References

Andrew, H. (2017). The ASA's worst offenders: disgraceful or great advertising? [online] Campaignlive.co.uk Available at: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/asas-worst-offenders-disgraceful-great-advertising/1446679 [Accessed 4 Dec. 2017]

Nrs.co.uk (2017). National Readership Survey. [online] Available at: https://newscommerical.co.uk/brands/the-sun [Accessed 5 Dec. 2017]

Parker, G. (2017). The Ads that attract the most complaints aren’t always the ones that need banning. [online] Asa.org.uk. Available at: https://www.asa.org.uk/news/the-ads-that-attract-the-most-complaints-aren-t-always-the-ones-that-need-banning.html [Accessed 5 Dec. 2017].