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  Campaign
    Advertising
      Big Idea
Communication
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Demonstration of "Big Idea"

The quote above from your textbook emphasizes the importance of a big idea to an advertising campaign. Although your textbook showed you some examples of the big idea, I would like to further develop your understanding of the big idea using two very different TV commercials for the same product, automobiles. The examples, illustrated with videos below, demonstrate that there is no single "big idea" for a kind of product. The focus you choose depends on your understanding of current trends in the marketplace as well as your understanding of your target audience.

The first example is the famous Dinah Shore commercial from the 1950s. In this commercial the "big idea" for the ad strategy and execution is that a car is your ticket to freedom: "See the USA, in your Chevrolet." At the time this commercial was produced, the target audience was the new post-World War II suburban middle class who were just beginning to do a great deal of family vacationing by car. The mobility provided by the car was a big selling point in 1950s.

VIDEO CLIP: See the USA (650 K)

VIDEO CLIP: See the USA (5.7meg)

The same product, a car, in the late 1980's uses a very different big idea for their ad strategy and execution. In this example, for Mitsubishi's 3000 GT, the big idea is that the car is a fun way to experience speed and power on the road. The target audience again is upwardly mobile young families. However, the trends in the marketplace are very different from the 1950s. American middle-class families in the 1980s take for granted the mobility offered by the automobile. Therefore, Mitsubishi instead focuses on the handling and speed of their car, rather than Chevy's concept of the freedom a car can give you on the open road.

VIDEO CLIP: Mitsubishi 3000 GT (486 K)

VIDEO CLIP: Mitsubishi 3000 GT (3.8 meg)

Send E-mail to Prof. Rich Lei.
or call (520) 523-2490