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| Photo credit: Geoana Hobeiche Massabni |
"I was told that the price of booking a campaign outdoors is now potatoes" I say.
My friend - who basically runs an agency - answers with "no, potatoes are more expensive! We have booked campaigns that cover the Jounieh-Beirut highway for X". My jaw dropped, I knew the prices were low, very low, but X is unheard of. No wonder agencies are going for their scrapping of the barrel creatively in order to just put anything outdoors. But as I said recently, is this win-win when you are damaging the brand?
The answer is: I don't know. By this I mean - I feel the consumer does not care about the ad to begin with. Stuck in traffic jams people look at their social media messages on their phones, rarely does anyone look up and observe around them. Also, as I said recently about Rifai - as soon as people see the logo, they don't care about the rest of the design. "It's Rifai, I know it, I used to buy it, I can afford the price of this entry-level item from their many products, I am going to buy it again". Will anyone really scrutinize the bag? I sincerely doubt.
All of this seems to be me shooting myself in the foot considering I write about communication at large and advertising specifically. But compare this, to this. Beirut Beer "bil chamset bass mich bil beit" (in the sun but not at home) to Magnum "Find your summer". I have nothing against Beirut Beer, on the contrary, when they found their footing I was really cheerleading for them (here and here), but one thing is sure - that TVC they did does not translate into a billboard. And yet, what do you find on the streets?
Exactly.
With such low prices most brands are throwing creativity out the window, long term consumer investment, anything resembling a strategy, for the sake of these half-baked ads we are seeing. Somehow, I still feel that in the back of the minds of people, they will remember brands that stood out. Right now, in Lebanon though, I am not seeing much of it.
But I still have to buy potatoes for food.