Romulus, good points.
Of course advertising is always about selling the emotion not the product, but it needs to be clear to the punters that the emotions follow on from the particular product. Otherwise the message gets murky and I think that's the problem with this ad. Any ad has to say 'this is our product and it will make you happy'. The reason for the happiness depends on the product (maybe it's a Big Mac, one of the most successfully advertised products of the 20th century, maybe it's a Jaguar with a supermodel/Daniel Craig in the passenger seat) but the message doesn't change. I don't see that message in this ad. What to Qantas do and why will they make me happy? The ad doesn't answer that, in fact it doesn't even ask the question.
They are a luxury goods company (in the target market of this ad) and need to advertise accordingly.
Agree entirely, but it's a luxury transport product, not (for example) a luxury drink product or a car product. I don't think the ad makes that clear at all; even if it looks premium, you're left wondering if a top of the range leather sofa is going to float down from the sky or if everyone's suddenly going to march into David Jones.
I think an effective ad needs to specify at some point what the luxury product actually
is. It 's like advertising a top of the line Aston Martin and never showing the car.
AFAIK this never happens in luxury car ads, and I think that's for good reason. Even companies who target the $300,000 vehicle market make sure they show the $300,000 vehicle. In a lot of cases I reckon luxury goods advertisements are actually more conservative and formulaic than cheaper equivalents, with some alcohol brands being the notable exceptions. The big fashion houses (who of course make most of their money on non-premium products like perfume), the big jewellers, the premium unit developments and other AFR magazine regulars tend to stick to very conservative ads. Possibly the luxury market actually prefers that.
I guess other examples of luxury transport would be top level cruises and escorted travel, scenic train trips, trips to Antarctica and similar. The advertising for those products tends to follow the well worn theme of 'here's our swanky seats/cabin that will get you to these amazing places, surrounded by wealthy, attractive people like you believe yourself to be.' This ad doesn't do that; in fact it's wall to wall bogans doing bogan things.
Nor does it use the classic 'humour/irony' mix that's been effective for a number of price sensitive or bogan targeted products such as Freedom Air, BCF or the RACQ.
As for the Socratic question, like most of us on here it's really impossible for me to answer, because I work in the dreaded Industry. My perception of an airline (any airline) is radically different from that of the average punter and coloured by inside info and personal biases. I agree 100% that people are confused about what Qantas is at the moment. Like most of us I have the battle scars from a thousand barbeque discussions with non aviation people to prove it, particularly since the grounding.
However, I don't think this ad gets anywhere close to helping people answer the question. Maybe
they don't know what the product is.
The question on this one is what value does this person bring to your brand and brand values? As far as I can tell the answer is zero in this case.
Agreed. Who wants to be Daniel Johns? Half the country won't have heard of him and the other half has forgotten him. We're not talking Nicole Kidman here. With a few notable exceptions like Jimmy Barnes, people who were in famous bands don't usually transcend the band and gain their own individual fame. I agree that it was another 'let's impress our friends who also work in advertising' move on the part of the creators.
Mind you the Screaming Jets did an awesome job for Impulse's inaugral flight many moons ago...
I took on some marketing postgrad courses to try and understand what it is they do and how they think...
Brave. I've got a great book on Afro-Carribean Voodoo which may be of more assistance...lots more fun too.
