Current/Original Marketer: IdeaVillage
Original Hit Year: 2005 (No. 31 on JW Annual)
Watch the spot
This is an example of 'throw the old commercial up and see what happens,' something this marketer does often. It's a lazy approach to be sure, but it's surprisingly effective -- and that underscores an important point ...
Wise marketers understand that viewers don't see commercials the way we see commercials. The efficacy of old creative is proof. What looks 'dated' to us looks just fine to your average consumer. As the late, great David Ogilvy once observed: "Scores of good advertisements have been (prematurely) discarded ... largely because their sponsors got sick of seeing them."
S7 Analysis: When Pet Groom Pro became a hit in the early 2000s, ionic technology was still a hot topic -- and Sharper Image was still in business. Since then, the technology has gotten killed with bad press (e.g. from Consumer Reports), Sharper Image has gone bankrupt and an ionic pet brush no longer seems needed or different enough to generate the impulse to buy.
I'm tempted to predict that this will be a 'fool me once' type of product, but I'll refrain because I am routinely surprised by just how little credibility is needed to achieve DR success.
