I know this is a common theme to save money but I have seen it in full force lately. I was driving down the road and heard a Geico advertisement where the gecko talked about customer service compared to a “biscuit and jam”. Then when I got home I saw the same audio paired with visuals on a TV commercial for Geico. It is repurposing material at work.
Reuse
Many products have some powerful campaigns like the Geico customer service push. This is a main theme they will always want to push. I heard the same commercial for the last 6-12 months. So, why make different audio for radio and TV? If it is successful than find a way to reuse it. There is no reason to make 2 different scripts for the same concept.
Length is a great way to reuse a material. Make a 2 minute spot or the longest commercial you can for TV or radio. Then you can take a little more time to edit it into many different 30 second spots with the same concept in mind that will fit in more spots that could cost less.
Reduce Costs
Reusing doesn’t have to stop after one year-long campaign. I also recently saw a spot from Frosted Mini Wheats celebrating the 2011 school year. I thought, “Wait…I’ve seen this before.” And in fact I had. Last year.
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I bet I am not the only one that thought it was odd to see a commercial 2 years in a row but if it fits then use it. I don’t see them loosing profits because of a repeat commercial.
Plus this isn’t the only commercial that is repeated on a yearly basis. Coke use to do it all the time with their Santa Claus commercials. They maybe came out with one new one but you always expected to see the old one at least once or it wasn’t really Christmas yet.
Do you think it cost them money to show the commercial again? Probably quite a bit less because all they had to pay was for the time on TV. No production costs, no actors, no agency. Just the same commercial with the same purpose.
Recycle
If your goals are good and your ideas sound then why not recycle the idea or the goal. As long as you do it in moderation, so not to annoy your customer, there should be no problem.
I think if anything reminded us of moderation then it was President Obama’s spam-ish campaign to get Congress to compromise. Recycle but make sure that it is relevant and do a little research if you are worried that your audience has, “heard this before.”
What Did I miss?
Do you know any other examples of an ad campaign being reused? I would love to have more examples.
