Martians and an ‘ology’ named the UK’s Smashing ads

But new research reveals emotional connections are harder to achieve with increasingly cynical consumers in today’s complex, multi-channel media landscape.

The Smash Martians (pictured), BT’s ‘you got an ology?’ and Yellow Pages’ ‘J.R. Hartley’ have been voted the UK’s most memorable ‘pre-internet’ ads, in a poll of 2,000 UK consumers that also highlights the challenges of making an impact with advertising in today’s multi-channel marketing landscape. The research, commissioned by marketing data and technology specialist Acxiom, shows that these ads generated strong emotional connections, and that despite the challenges posed by a fragmented modern digital media world, this continues to be key to success.

Results are presented in a new Acxiom report, ‘Ad campaigns reimagined’, which reveals the ads from the 70s, 80s and early 90s that consumers remembered based on a series of stills, with the top five most memorable being:

1. Smash – Martians (69.4%)

2. BT – You got an ology? (68.9%)

3. Yellow Pages – J.R. Hartley (65.1%)

4. P.G. Tips – Chimps (57.6%)

5. ASDA – That’s ASDA price (57.3%)

Smash and BT were also the ads consumers most enjoyed, followed by Tango’s ‘you’ve been Tango’d’.

The new report highlights the importance of brands today achieving an emotional connection in advertising, with 41% consumers saying that an ad has appealed to them emotionally within the last year and, critically, 35% say creating an emotional response will influence them to respond positively to an ad (eg. make a purchase).

Ads challenges facing marketers

The report also explores the challenges now facing marketers, due to consumer attitudes to advertising and the media landscape evolving significantly since these ‘vintage’ campaigns. While a majority of consumers (53%) do not believe advertising is becoming increasingly relevant to them, the research indicated that we react positively when brands get relevancy right. Consistency and multi-channel marketing are key, as only a third of consumers say that they wouldn’t be more likely to interact with a marketing message if they had seen the same message on another channel (eg. an email with an offer seen on TV).

Jed Mole (pictured left), European marketing director, Acxiom, said: “These classic, much-loved ads showed us that a human, emotional connection is important in creating a successful campaign. But while great creative still counts, ensuring that it reaches and engages the relevant audiences wherever they are, on whatever device is every bit as important. Today, the creative only retains its integrity when the multiple moments of truth across channels and screens reinforce the message and build a trusted relationship with the consumer.”

Some of the key outtakes from the report, created based on a roundtable discussion involving media and advertising experts from Acxiom and Starcom MediaVest Group, include:

• Leveraging simple emotions has been overdone and marketers need to notch up the sophistication of their ads’ emotional appeal
• Consumers are looking to be engaged with on a ‘human’ level
• Marketers need to create a unified ‘brand world’
• Great creative still matters, but today brands need to do much more and combine intelligence, data and innovation to reach and engage audiencesData and technology, alongside this great creative, is key to achieving impact