James Ready - Blurred Memories

Consumers are blocking out advertisements because the majority of them are pointless and never compare to an ad that is memorable. Some would argue that the reason they don’t remember has nothing to do with the Ads, and more to do with “the internet making us stupid.” When  in fact, the human memory is more powerful today, than ever before.

Most of us go through life with an average memory. We remember the moments that take our breath away. And those, that if we do forget, will result in someone else taking our breath away (anniversaries, birthdays, etc). The power of live experiences cannot be beat by an advertisement or social media campaign. The tweet that McDonalds sends you after trying their free coffee; isn’t going to have nearly the same impact as an extraordinary experience.

As hard as marketers try; there’s just no way.

Marketing Agency, Leo Burnett from Toronto Canada; developed a campaign for an inexpensive beer, James Ready. The campaign was meant to target university students throughout the province. The campaign ran  across several campuses and was a success not only because it was beer – but because they created an extraordinary experience. Take a look,

In this article titled, The Secret to Memorable Marketing – The author says,

Memorable Marketing must make an impact and that impact must be long term. To be truly effective, you need to differentiate yourself from the clutter and associate your message with other memorable things that the audience either has an affinity for or has personal experience to draw from….Ultimately, marketing needs to persuade purchase decisions — and by marketing with recall in mind, you may have a better chance influencing your customers’ decisions.

Blurry but Memorable

Long Term Impact

The long term impact is present because students will always remember how they were able to drink beer to get food while in college. They will feel as if JamesReady did them a service by allowing them to enjoy a night with their friends without having to worry about supper. I wouldn’t be surprised if this became a story that the freshman pass on to every student that walks on campus. Not to mention when the students wake up from their hangover and eat a bowl of  Kraft dinner they’ll be thinking about James Ready – whether they want to or not.

Pursuade Purchase Decision

90% of the beer purchased on Bar-Ter nights were Jon Ready. Sounds like the pursuasion worked.

Differentiate from Clutter

I highly doubt there were any other beers on campus that were doing something similar to this. In fact, on the Bar-Ter Nights 90% of the beers sold were good old James Readys. This stat on its own shows that they were able to differentiate from the other brands.

Associate with other Memories

The college days are some of the best times that you have in your entire life. Of course some of them are a bit blurry; but the stories you leave with are stories that will last a life time. By James Readys being on campus and having an entire night focused around their products; they have embedded themselves forever in the minds of several students forver. When these students get older and think back to their glory days; a lot of them will reminisce about late night studying and stressful assignments. But then there will be another group . A groupwho will always remember  trading a J.R. bottle caps for Kraft Dinner or better yet – a girls shirt (even if they’re stretching the truth).

photo credit: mccun934