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17: How To Know If Your B2B Ads Have The Wrong Message & Wrong Medium (Problemotional Advertising)
38 Plays11 months ago
Attention Repellent Ads Virus is a Hierarchically Transmitted Disease (HTD). It spreads from the top to bottom - from C-Level to the ones creating the ads. And if you don’t use protection, the whole ad campaign will catch it. Symptoms include irritated CFO, swelling of ad spend, and in many cases, painful death of marketing budget.
In this episode, we compare Attention Repellent Ads (solution-focused communicated rationally) and Problemotional Ads (problem-focused communicated emotionally).
Here's the link if you'd prefer to watch the video or read the article:
https://blackcamel.agency/humphub-research/the-attention-repellent-ads-virus-how-to-diagnose-it-avoid-b2b-ads-that-create-campaign-budget-waste/
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Transcript
Introduction to Content Formats
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey what's up guys, this is the audio and video version of the article below. The attention repellent ads virus, how to diagnose it and avoid B2B ads that create ad budget waste. It's the exact same content, I'm just simply reading it out loud, and depending on how you prefer to consume content, perhaps this is a better way for you. Otherwise, you can just read the article in the link below. Alright, here we go.
Memorable B2B Ads: Problem vs Emotionless
00:00:21
Speaker
e When was the last time you genuinely enjoyed watching a B2B ad? Do you remember any ads from last week? From yesterday? From today? If you do, it's likely that it was a problem-emotional ad. An ad that markets a painful problem in an emotional way. If you don't remember, it's because they were attention-repellent ads.
00:00:40
Speaker
ads that are mind-numbingly emotionless and boring and shove their service or brand in your face.
Consequences of Boring Ads
00:00:47
Speaker
And they get sent straight to Ignore Deville, the number one retirement destination for B2B brands. Never consumed, never and remembered, and never influencing your buying behavior. Except of course for the too frequent occasion where it actually negatively influences buying behavior. but is It is just so boring. It means absolutely nothing to you. That's because the human brain in 2024 is suffering from ad overload. Ad overload became a problem back in the 70s when the godfather's positioning started evangelizing about this phenomenon. But its impact has never been so strong. In 2024, if you use attention repellent ads, you cannot cut past the ad overload barrier.
00:01:26
Speaker
So how do you know if you have the Attention Repellent Ads Virus? Well, Attention Repellent Ads Virus is a hierarchically transmitted disease, an HDD, spreads from top to bottom, from the level to the ones creating the ads. If you don't use protection, the whole ad campaign will catch it. Symptoms include irritated CFO, swelling of ad spend, and in many cases, painful death of marketing budget. Use protection. Because it's hierarchically transmitted, it's important that you, the CMO, understand the details. Because if you don't, and you let Simon the intern, an STI, decide what ads to make, there's a 98.7% chance he will recommend using an AR ad.
Effectiveness of Problem-Emotional Ads
00:02:05
Speaker
The advertisement has two components. What's said, the message, and how it's said, the medium.
00:02:10
Speaker
You can recognize an attention-repellent ad when the message leads with the brand or service or product described as a solution, and the medium communicates with emotionless, boring webinars, e-books, and stock photos, usually of business people in suits shaking hands pretending they're enjoying their time. You can recognize a problem-emotional ad when the message leads with the painful problem that you solve and that buyers suffer from, The medium communicates with emotional videos, GIFs and images, mainly videos. When we say emotional, that could be a large range of emotions. Humor is usually best, but it all depends on your brand.
00:02:47
Speaker
The former should not be used in top of funnel ads. The first interaction with buyers, the latter should. So in this video, in this article, we're gonna break down examples of attention repellent ads to the message and the medium. You can get both parts of the components of the ads. Then we'll break down a couple examples of problem-emotional ads. By the end, you should be able to understand the structural difference to make sure your marketing team is creating the right creatives for your B2B ads campaign.
Ineffectiveness of Brand-Centric Messaging
00:03:12
Speaker
The first component is the message. Our ads say, we're the best, despite everyone else saying the same thing. They say, look at my logo 500 times, as if a logo will convince buyers to spend $50,000. Look at my solution without first addressing the problem. Here's our webinar on how to do marketing, a very vague topic, whatever it is, without anyone even knowing you or trusting you.
00:03:33
Speaker
Attention repellent ads are sent to NordVille because no one cares about your solution unless they first understand it in relation to the problem. Problems get attention, prioritization, and urgency. Let's look at a couple of examples of messaging. If they look like your type of funnel ads, consider this your AR ads virus test. One of my favorite David Ogilvie quotes, a copy in most corporate advertisements is distinguished by a self-serving flatulent pomposity which defies a reading. It was written by David Ogilvie in the 20th century. Fortunately, this problem is still more of a problem never in 2024.
00:04:08
Speaker
First example here is a video where a man, leader in the team, talking about brand, theirself and why they're different. They're really saying is look at us, look at our brand or different. If you're looking at this from from LinkedIn and you're a viewer, what you say is I don't know you. I don't care about you and I care about me and my important urgent problems. If you're not talking about that, I don't care. I don't care about why you're different. I don't know you. And we just go away past that. If you have to say you're different, they're probably coming from the subconscious insecurity that you're actually not.
00:04:42
Speaker
I sometimes like to call this business overcompensation. When you market a problem, you're automatically seen as different. When the rest of the players in your category talk about themselves, they're all about me, me, me. Be the brand that talks about customers and what they care about, their painful problem. If you take a look at the ad copy here, the last sentence, with an emphasis on reliability, accuracy, and quality, we are committed to excellence in our products and solutions. Is there a company that isn't committed to excellence? Is there a company that doesn't believe in quality? If what you say can be said by anyone, it means nothing. Here's ah a second
Solutions as Attention Grabbers
00:05:17
Speaker
example of an AR message, attention-repelling message. The ad kind of looks cool. That's looking graphic design, right?
00:05:25
Speaker
Here we're focusing on the message here. What they're saying is, here's our logo and a generic of vague and fancy sounding phrase. New frontier of intelligence. Sounds cool, right? Your response is, I don't know you. I don't care about you. This means nothing to me. I care about me and my important urgent problems. You don't talk about that. I'm ignoring you. Scrolling by us then. When you put these kinds of ads out into your ad campaign, it makes you feel like a badass. Creating a revolution. The new frontier. What's driving for greatness. The ad message isn't supposed to make you feel good. You and your team. It's supposed to influence buying behavior and drive revenue. Keep your ego out of this.
00:06:04
Speaker
Example number three, accelerate your digital transformation with the logo. The message here, here's a logo, a generic, vague, and fancy sounding phrase. Again, the message here is, in general sense, talking about a solution. We're asking a solution to what? Accelerate your digital transformation. Why? Why do I need to? What does it mean? I don't know you. I don't care about you. This means nothing to me. I care about me and my important, urgent problems. Rolling past it, ignoring. The second type of an attention-repelling message is leading with the service. What's the thing about services? No one buys them. Buy solutions to problems. Your service only becomes a solution in the buyer's mind when they're aware of the problem it solves. If your B2B ad campaign uses top-of-funnel ads to make the service the main message, skipping the problem awareness stage, the rest of your funnel will not work. At least not that well.
00:06:57
Speaker
Marketing the problem and owning the problem in the buyer's mind is the purpose of top of funnel ads. Because when you own the problem in the buyer's mind, you're perceived as the only obvious solution for it. Example number one, high growth, allow us to introduce you to purpose built solutions. The message is, we have solutions. And the viewer response, solutions to fucking what? What problem does it solve? A solution is not a solution without a problem. There's no problem here. Therefore, it's not actually a solution. If you can't answer what problem does it solve, the question we ask is, do you just want to sell me something and take my money? I care about me and my important urgent problems. A common practice in B2B is to list a whole bunch of random services and call them solutions. The thought behind here is the more services we have, the more likely they'll buy something from us. It's logical.
00:07:43
Speaker
But in the buyer's mind, what this is saying is we don't stand for anything. We don't really understand your problem. We just your money. An example of yourself, the gift of peace of mind this holiday season with managed IT services. The message here is we do extremely general category of service. We do insert extremely general category of service. The viewer response is, why should I care? There are thousands of other companies that do manage IT services. Why do I need that service? Well, I've got more pressing matters. Ignored.
Why Webinars and E-books Fail as Ads
00:08:16
Speaker
Now let's get to the attention-repelling medium type one, webinar. Another one of my favorite quotes from David Ogley, you cannot bore people into buying your product. You can only interest them into buying it.
00:08:28
Speaker
If you're top of funnel ads, send viewers to a webinar. You are not alone. Plenty of B2B companies do this. That's because it's a seemingly logical thing to do from our point of view. Buyers go to our webinar. We get their email address, build trust and rapport. We show that we're experts. More time has been educating on our solution. They become warm leads. Here's the thing, this is all based on the assumption that people want to watch a webinar. Have you ever said to yourself, ah gee, you know what I could really go for right now? Spending an hour of my precious time listening to a complete stranger with a shitty microphone talk about something I could have learned from chatgbt in two minutes. How do I love webinars? If you haven't said that, why do you think others would? Here's example number one message here is here's our webinar on extremely generic vague topic that you can find on chatgbt.
00:09:17
Speaker
Response is, I don't know you, I don't care about your webinar, I'm risking an hour of my time on something that isn't urgent or important. Especially not from someone I don't know. What's urgent and important are my problems. Ignored. Here you can see there's four attendees that have signed up for that. You can take a guess at who those attendees are. Rhymes with the marketing team. If you don't get my joke, I'm saying is that four attendees are literally the marketing team, no one else. Example number two, message here is here's a webinar on extremely generic vague topic that you can find on chat GPT. Again, responses. I don't know you don't care about your webinar. I'm not risking an hour of my time. Something that isn't urgent and important ignored.
00:09:59
Speaker
Second type of attention repelling medium is the e-book. Again, this one seems pretty logical. If something valuable in exchange for an email and phone number. Bing bam, boom, leads generated. Everyone's happy, right? At least what 2,000 blog articles about ad funnels on Google will tell you. Just a fun fact that you should be aware of, one in 1,000 of those leads actually close. Few sign up, even fewer actually close. ah Just like the webinar, it seems logical on the surface, but most ebooks are shit and both physically and mentally painful to read. Most people know this and they scroll right by it. You can give valuable content, but context matters. It doesn't matter if your ebook is valuable. It could be the reality. It matters if the ad audience will perceive it as valuable. And if it's the first thing they see from you, they will not perceive it as valuable. If you've just met someone, what's the first thing you're gonna do? Probably not gonna be handing them a book.
00:10:54
Speaker
The medium here is boring, rationally written information that's gated. Possibly very valuable. Don't know. The viewer's subconscious response is, if I don't know you, I don't know why I should care. Okay, what problem is it solving? I'll continue to scroll. I'm definitely not doing something boring, mentally painful, just to get to know you and figure out why I should care. If I wanted an ebook like this, I would search on Google or ask chatgpt. That's probably where the contents came from.
The Pitfalls of Using Stock Photos
00:11:22
Speaker
Attention repelling, medium type 3 are stock photos. Another quote from David Ogilvie, advertising people have an unconscious belief that advertisements have to look like advertisements. They have inherited graphic conventions with telegraph to the reader. This is only an advertisement, skip it. In 2024, where buyers are experiencing extreme ad overload, even more than when David Ogilvie wrote the quote above,
00:11:45
Speaker
The key is to not look like an ad, and yet it seems like so many B2B ads were designed with the sole purpose of looking like an ad. The number one way to look like an ad is to use stock photos that everyone else is also using. Stock photos themselves are not the problem. They're a great cost-effective graphic design alternative. It becomes problematic though when they use stock photos that everyone else uses, making it look like an ad, but also looking like everyone else in your category. kind of stock photo says, this is an ad, skip it. We're exactly like everyone else in our category. Here's an example here. Medium is stock photo that everyone in category uses. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a cybersecurity ad that didn't have a lock on it with this futuristic digital screen. And as the viewer response is, that is 100% an ad, zero value in it for me, zero difference from any of the other thousand cybersecurity brands.
Examples of Engaging Problem-Emotional Ads
00:12:40
Speaker
Alright, so now we're going to look at problemotional ads and look at a couple of examples so you can see what the opposite of an attention panel ads is and how it's the right kind of ad in your top of funnel. So in this advertisement, we can see that the message is about the problem. Website design platforms glitch, they stop working for an obvious reasons and cause extreme frustration trying to figure out why and how to fix it. The medium is video that uses relatable and funny metaphor to communicate the message.
00:13:10
Speaker
And the viewer response is, oh my god, that is exactly how it feels. These guys totally get it. So annoying when that happens. Finally, a website design platform built to solve that problem. Those are actually the exact words describing the ad from a web design agency owner we know. She shared this with us years after having first seen it. You can't remember most ads you saw yesterday. Remembering an ad years later, that is memorable. And the outcome here is being perceived and remembered as the irreplaceable need to have solution to the problem. Here's example number two. The message here is about the problem. Your workers waste tons of time and resources to have unproductive in-person meetings. The medium is video that uses relatable and funny antagonist character to communicate the message.
00:13:56
Speaker
Your response is yes, there's always that one guy that wants to make everything a meeting. What a waste of time for everyone. We'd be so much more productive if we could avoid them. Avoid that problem. The outcome here, your brand is perceived and remembered as the irreplaceable need to have solution to the problem. Emotional add Example number three, the message here about the problem. Taking notes and updating your CRM manually is frustrating and inefficient. The medium is a video that uses relatable and funny victim character to communicate the message. The response is, I've always felt that with my CRM. I never knew there was something to solve that problem.
00:14:32
Speaker
They totally get it. Totally need to share this with Jenny, my coworker. You've always complained about that. She'd think this is hilarious. The outcome being perceived and remembered as the irreplaceable need to have solution to the problem. So now we've seen ah differences in message and medium for attention repellent ads and problem-emotional ads. Perhaps there's still a few questions in your head. We're using attention repellent ads, yes, but it takes time and money to make the change. Does it really have that much of an impact on our whole ad campaign? How does it affect revenue? Even if I agree that we shouldn't use AR ads, how do I show the rest of the team how important it is? In the next two articles, we show you how the difference between AR ads and problem-emotional ads are the difference between campaign budget waste and ad campaign success. I recommend that you check those out.