BANG! TV’S ‘MOST IRRITATING’ ADS.

by Mark Nagurski, February 14th, 2008

This month Marketing magazine published it’s annual survey of the ‘most-irritating’ ads on UK TV. A quick look at the top 20 reveals a wide range of products including, perhaps unsurprisingly, a host of household names like Halifax, PC World, Olay and Daz.

The winner, Injurylawyers4u, is not only unrepentant but in fact proud of its accomplishment. A director of the firm was quoted as saying, ‘another word for irritating is memorable’ and cited a drop in response rates earlier in the year when the ad was temporarily replaced.

So is he right, and, if so, what can small business advertisers learn from the ‘most-irritating’ adverts around?

Certainly consumers have no shortage of choice for most products and services and being bombarded by advertising has made most consumers pretty good at mentally screening out what doesn’t interest them. The effect is to turn most advertising into a depressingly ubiquitous background noise to daily life.

First and foremost then, an effective advert has to be able to cut through that noise and make an impression – even a negative one. Much more damaging and wasteful to a business is advertising that makes no impact – which is something that no one would accuse ‘Barry Scott’ and Cillit Bang of doing (sliding a disappointing one place to third in this year’s poll).

Perhaps one point to notice is that many of the companies listed are in industries with high levels of competition and little perceived differentiation between products. No less than 6 of the top 20 are financial service or insurance related – ranging from Shiela’s Wheels signing Aussies to Churchill’s nodding bulldog. Oh yes.

Of course, making an advertisement that stands out is only one step – it also needs to be effective. Indeed, a decent chunk of the top twenty ads named are designed to encourage direct response. Whether it be to sue the council for that broken paving stone, phone for a loan or compare car insurance deals online, they all want you to take action now. In other words, when you need someone to take action, you better make sure they hear you first.

Annoying ‘presenters’, silly taglines and soul destroying jingles aside – the one thing that tends to irritate more than anything else are ads that promote products that aren’t designed with you in mind. TV has long been the perceived preserve of mass market consumer brands and supermarket favourites. However, targeting niche audiences can also be highly lucrative.

For small businesses, niche means careful selection of the right media and ads that speak directly to your target market – without fear of irritating others. As the Phones4U (cue silly hand gesture and a well-deserved fifth place) marketing director said, ‘We are not in the business or trying to be all things to all men.’

More than anything though, it is repetition that leads to irritation. The highest (or should that be lowest) scoring ads on the irritation scale have all been around for ages. The same three ads made the top three last year and the signing bank staff from Halifax (13th) have been getting on our nerves for years.

A little ‘chicken and egg’ thinking later and to be irritating you need to be remembered and so to be remembered you need to repeat, repeat, repeat. After all, one annoying ad might be quickly forgotten, but if Nadine Baggot chimes on about pentapeptides one more time ….