Tuesday, February 02, 2010
tired of the talking babies?

Tough. They're not going away. In fact, you can count on them making an appearance in the Superbowl. Because people love talking babies.

Make your own talking baby video message on the eTrade BabyMail site. (No babies were actually mailed in the making of this stunt.)

Labels: ads, superbowl

posted by darryl ohrt @ 7:50 AM   2 comments

2 Comments:

At 8:48 AM,  Ben Kunz said...

I read somewhere that 85% of brand purchases are made by women and yet only 5% of employees in the ad industry are women. I can't confirm if this is true (the ad industry stat seems low) but there is no question we are a male-dominated industry focused in urban centers with hip sensibilities -- and often out of touch with what the real buyers of America like. Alan Wolk has called this Nascar Blindness.

So, baby ads (and ads with cute dogs and cats and men who don't know how to hang up toilet paper) can be derided by us, but they probably work very well among Americans who have basic family interests. And as for positioning, eTrade's baby is brilliant. In a boring males-in-suits world of stiff business types having quiet conversations, here's an investment company that breaks the mold by showing hip babies who are funny. I'd suggest the majority of people who start to get serious about their finances (and pick the financial services they use for the rest of their life) are in their mid-30s, just having kids, realizing they better start saving.

So eTrade breaks out of the clutter, resonates among the target demo, captures the attention of moms who make or influence most purchase decisions ... as annoying as that is, it works.  

At 2:52 PM,  Alan Wolk said...

Agreed Ben. The ad industry likes to pretend that it's the indie film industry and adopt the sensibilities thereof. But most products, as you note, are not marketed to upscale urban 30something male white hipsters. And as DO notes, people do love those talking babies.  

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