In Germany Toyota launches the new Auris today with the country's biggest poster campaign ever (200'000+ billboards throughout the country). This happens only weeks after Volkswagen announced they would launch Germany's biggest poster campaign (ever). Advertising events like this, seems to be increasingly popular. Nevertheless, they leave me with a feeling of watching one of the last dinosaurs dying. The dinosaur, obviously, being neither Toyota nor Volkswagen.
The megalomania will probably work just fine for both car makers. It is unlikely to hurt either brand. And it probably will boost sales. Yet, from an advertising perspective, there is something about this loud-louder-loudest-everywhere-logic that doesn't seem too sustainable. Sadly, these Tamtam-Advertising-Events are nevertheless symptomatic of a lot of advertising these days. As available media channels diverge, and everyone is a bit at loss as for what to do, the reaction seems to be to make the message simpler. So a lot of the advertising left, gets dumber. (I still like this idea, though.) In short, advertising appear to aim for what direct marketing used to be about: boosting sales, getting the price across, trigger some kind of short-term action. Branding-wise the opposite reaction is likely to prove more rewarding: Make it complex. Make stories that work on several levels. Make it interesting and more or less a natural part of whatever channels people actually use anyway. Allow them to be a part of it. Stop just being THE LOUDEST KID ON THE BIGGEST BLOCK. If you believe in branding, that is.
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