Leia Arvat

Most alcoholic beverages will advertise with hot girls and a good party, dog food brands will feature happy, healthy, and playful dogs, male hygiene products will be endorsed by a sexy man with a lady waiting to smell and ravage him. While advertising to a specific demographic makes sense, one style of advertising doesn’t. What if there are calm, quiet, introverted people out there that want to enjoy tequila without the pretty girls or loud parties? What if someone has a hellion of a dog and the one thing in their crazy hectic pet owner world they can count on is the quality of their dog’s food? Maybe there are guys out there that stink to high heaven and it’s their girlfriends or wives that need to bring them the hygiene products to make things better? These buyers may not be so taken by the perfect little lives portrayed in this style of commercials or ads.

There are companies that seem to get it. Take a look at Allstate and their Mayhem commercials; they’re not only hilarious, but they appeal to so many different lifestyles and potential realities that someone is likely to relate to at least one of their ads or commercials. They have GPS Mayhem, Snow Mayhem, Lawn Game Mayhem, Quarterback Mayhem, Deer Mayhem, Large Espresso Mayhem, Raccoon Mayhem, and my two personal favorites Teenage Girl in Pink Truck Mayhem and Toddler Mayhem. There are plenty more of their hilarious ads and commercials online, but just from this variety alone you can see that the advertising and even the target markets change with each one.

In advertising it’s important to appeal to everyone or as close to everyone as you can within your target market. If you end up pigeon holed then not only do you lose a large audience, but some of the lost audience will see your company as stereotypical and go out of their way to use a brand they can relate to over yours. All marketers have demographics they’d prefer to hit, but broadening your advertising style is essential for growth and for social approval. I believe that a lot of companies could take a class or two from the geniuses at Allstate; their commercials not only make us laugh out loud, but they also hit home to issues we can relate with and that is why they were named the number one insurance company in the United States by the “The Truth About Insurance” website. Relatable sells more than glam and fake realities which is something that marketers everywhere really need to understand and hone in on. It worked for Allstate!

What ad campaigns grab you?

Photograph Credit:
Sabrina Segal