When to stick with or drop an unpopular ad campaign

14 June 2010 • 23 Comments

It’s World Cup season and we’re being inundated with TV adverts in between the games. As usual there are the creative ones as well as really bad ones. One bad advert in particular is the MyEG advert featuring Deborah Henry. Twitter users were not shy in expressing their thoughts of the advert.

Count me in as one of those who thinks the MyEG advert is a poor effort.

However, as bad as the advert is, I’m not sure that MyEG should drop it. In fact they may even be doing the right thing by sticking with it.

MyEG has been running other adverts with this theme for a while now–this theme being girls in striking red outfits, and more recently – Glee style show tunes. The adverts aren’t particularly clever but seem to be doing the job of raising awareness, generating word of mouth and getting the message across that Malaysians can get of e-Government services done through their website. (This is my own opinion – I have no numbers to back this up)

I would argue that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Sure it’s a silly advert and maybe even downright stupid, but if it works and it’s generating an acceptable level of return then by all means MyEG should continue with the campaign.

Many times brands try too hard to appear hip, cool and witty. Unfortunately they don’t always pull it off. Also take note that hip, cool and witty ads aren’t guaranteed to grow your market share or win new customers. If you are lucky enough to find a formula that works, you should stick with it and try to improve on the formula.

This applies even more so to small businesses. Small businesses don’t have the luxury to create clever campaigns and promotions. What small businesses have to do is to win customers, even if they only have old school, run-of-the-mill tactics and ideas.

And to tie it back to the World Cup theme – a scrappy goal is better than no goals. So don’t worry about scoring a well-placed lightning strike. Just side foot the ball into the net.

What do you think? Should MyEG stick with or drop their ad campaign?

For the record though, I think MyEG should take this experience to heart and get their ad agency to come up with better, less cheesy ideas.

23 Comments

Tswong

Hi David,
Interesting article !! You were spot on in your analysis… actually we were running a few informative ads before this.. but nobody saw it I guess…

cheers
TS Wong
MyEG Services
Tswong

Hi David,Interesting article !! You were spot on in your analysis… actually we were running a few informative ads before this.. but nobody saw it I guess…cheersTS WongMyEG Services
http://twitter.com/wongpk Andrew Wong

So, do you think it is good for long term? Just wondering…

P/S: Something wrong with signin with Facebook

http://theclickstarter.com David Wang

Since you should be constantly improving your campaigns your ads &
tactics *should* improve in the long run

http://twitter.com/wongpk Andrew Wong

So, do you think it is good for long term? Just wondering…P/S: Something wrong with signin with Facebook
http://cleanpapercut.com Juan

as annoying and as bad as it seems, i think the ad “accidentally” became successful.

now MyEg is stuck in everyone’s head, like it or not. Which means the ad worked! But whether or not the public is going to use MyEg services, that we will need to know from them
Kritik

Haha. Looks like MyEG is trying to rationalise their stupid ad by saying it’s intentional. If MyEG wanted ppl to talk about their crappy ad, they could have gotten some cheap talent in a clown suit sing that crappy song and it still would have made it on Twitter.

That could have at least saved them some big bucks on hiring Debra Henry, all those dancers and the choreography. Cheap talent = RM500. Clown suit rental = RM 300. Wedding video guy to shoot it = RM1500. The realisation that you’re stupider than your ad = Priceless.
Asif Khan

Hi David – As usual it is an interesting analysis of the MYEG ad.

I agree that MYEG has created the buzz they wanted to around their e-Government portal, even-though the Ad makes no sense and has no relevance to their brand and services. Their maid permit ad still made a little sense and has attracted expats like me working in Malaysia on the easy application procedures.

But the brand personality they carry on Twitter is quite un-impressive. I feel they are a bit confused or are not aware on their brand personality. Their tweets are rather defensive, not funny, annoying, SPAMMY, sometimes rude. I do not understand what their prime objective is for using Twitter, is it only to reply to comments in a humorous manner or something else?

I personally believe they are trying to engage people but probably there is alot of room of improvement. What does everyone else think?

Cheers,

Asif Khan (@asifmumtazkhan)

Kritik

What hope can a company have in branding when there is nothing consistent about anything they’re doing? OK, admittedly the maid permit ad does it job. It tells us what we need to know. The Debra Henry one is just plain stupid. And their Twitter personality – they have their moments depending on ur sense of humor. But look at it on the whole… nothing consistent here. They shd fire their ad agency. Or their mktg guy. Or whoever’s responsible for it all.

http://theclickstarter.com David Wang

LOL this MyEG ad has really hit some nerves.

@Juan – ya exactly. When I needed to renew my drivers license the 1st thing I thought was to check if MyEG has that service. Silly or not, it made me aware of their service.

@Kritik – having worked in a few agencies I don’t believe MyEG is rationalizing after the fact. They probably brainstormed and brainstormed with not much result so they decided to stick to what was working, silly as it is.

@Asif – Agree with you about @myegclub & that they could definitely do better. Unfortunately Twitter is so deceptive. It looks simple but it’s difficult to really engage properly without being irritating. That may be a blog post for another occasion hehe.
http://buzzmedia.com.my/ David Wang

Since you should be constantly improving your campaigns your ads &tactics *should* improve in the long run
TSwong

Hi guys,
Interesting comments and analysis. This is company management’s take, purely for use as a case study.

i) The first singing ad with Nur Fazura was aired during BPL and American Idol. It was meant to be tongue in cheeck but we did not expect so much criticism on tweeter. We wanted to pull it out after 2 weeks, but surprisingly, usage of our service soared, so we kept it on.

ii) We switched to safe, informative ads after that. Wonder how many of you saw that ad on BPL and Idol. Usage of our service dropped.

iii) We are investing a sizable sum of money to buy airtime during the world cup. Unlike what some of you may think, we ARE not paid by the government for our service nor funded by taxpayer’s money. We are funded by usage of our service, ie citizens pay a fee to use our service, just like the tolled highways. We needed an ad which can cut thru the clutter and bring attention to our maid permit renewal service, hence we did a ‘remake’ of our singing and dancing ad.

iv) Somehow, singing and dancing ads get noticed instantly. Personally, I don’t think the ad is badly produced, it is just not what viewers would expect from a ‘government service provider’, which tends to be serious and talks down to the rakyat. We want to be light hearted .. why the need to be serious while paying your road tax..

v) I agree our tweets should be light hearted in engaging our critics, but it is not easy to come up with jokes for every tweet, right ? sometimes the tweets, which are tougue in cheek gets taken seriously because emotions are not conveyed in written text.

Anyway, I just wanted to share our experience. We are all constantly going through a learning process

cheers
TS Wong
http://cleanpapercut.com Juan

as annoying and as bad as it seems, i think the ad “accidentally” became successful. now MyEg is stuck in everyone's head, like it or not. Which means the ad worked! But whether or not the public is going to use MyEg services, that we will need to know from them
Kritik

Haha. Looks like MyEG is trying to rationalise their stupid ad by saying it's intentional. If MyEG wanted ppl to talk about their crappy ad, they could have gotten some cheap talent in a clown suit sing that crappy song and it still would have made it on Twitter. That could have at least saved them some big bucks on hiring Debra Henry, all those dancers and the choreography. Cheap talent = RM500. Clown suit rental = RM 300. Wedding video guy to shoot it = RM1500. The realisation that you're stupider than your ad = Priceless.
Kritik

Haha. Looks like MyEG is trying to rationalise their stupid ad by saying it's intentional. If MyEG wanted ppl to talk about their crappy ad, they could have gotten some cheap talent in a clown suit sing that crappy song and it still would have made it on Twitter. That could have at least saved them some big bucks on hiring Debra Henry, all those dancers and the choreography. Cheap talent = RM500. Clown suit rental = RM 300. Wedding video guy to shoot it = RM1500. The realisation that you're stupider than your ad = Priceless.
Asif Khan

Hi David – As usual it is an interesting analysis of the MYEG ad. I agree that MYEG has created the buzz they wanted to around their e-Government portal, even-though the Ad makes no sense and has no relevance to their brand and services. Their maid permit ad still made a little sense and has attracted expats like me working in Malaysia on the easy application procedures.But the brand personality they carry on Twitter is quite un-impressive. I feel they are a bit confused or are not aware on their brand personality. Their tweets are rather defensive, not funny, annoying, SPAMMY, sometimes rude. I do not understand what their prime objective is for using Twitter, is it only to reply to comments in a humorous manner or something else? I personally believe they are trying to engage people but probably there is alot of room of improvement. What does everyone else think?Cheers, Asif Khan (@asifmumtazkhan)
Kritik

What hope can a company have in branding when there is nothing consistent about anything they're doing? OK, admittedly the maid permit ad does it job. It tells us what we need to know. The Debra Henry one is just plain stupid. And their Twitter personality – they have their moments depending on ur sense of humor. But look at it on the whole… nothing consistent here. They shd fire their ad agency. Or their mktg guy. Or whoever's responsible for it all.
http://buzzmedia.com.my/ David Wang

LOL this MyEG ad has really hit some nerves. @Juan – ya exactly. When I needed to renew my drivers license the 1st thing I thought was to check if MyEG has that service. Silly or not, it made me aware of their service.@Kritik – having worked in a few agencies I don't believe MyEG is rationalizing after the fact. They probably brainstormed and brainstormed with not much result so they decided to stick to what was working, silly as it is.@Asif – Agree with you about @myegclub & that they could definitely do better. Unfortunately Twitter is so deceptive. It looks simple but it's difficult to really engage properly without being irritating. That may be a blog post for another occasion hehe.
TSwong

Hi guys,Interesting comments and analysis. This is company management's take, purely for use as a case study.i) The first singing ad with Nur Fazura was aired during BPL and American Idol. It was meant to be tongue in cheeck but we did not expect so much criticism on tweeter. We wanted to pull it out after 2 weeks, but surprisingly, usage of our service soared, so we kept it on.ii) We switched to safe, informative ads after that. Wonder how many of you saw that ad on BPL and Idol. Usage of our service dropped.iii) We are investing a sizable sum of money to buy airtime during the world cup. Unlike what some of you may think, we ARE not paid by the government for our service nor funded by taxpayer's money. We are funded by usage of our service, ie citizens pay a fee to use our service, just like the tolled highways. We needed an ad which can cut thru the clutter and bring attention to our maid permit renewal service, hence we did a 'remake' of our singing and dancing ad.iv) Somehow, singing and dancing ads get noticed instantly. Personally, I don't think the ad is badly produced, it is just not what viewers would expect from a 'government service provider', which tends to be serious and talks down to the rakyat. We want to be light hearted .. why the need to be serious while paying your road tax..v) I agree our tweets should be light hearted in engaging our critics, but it is not easy to come up with jokes for every tweet, right ? sometimes the tweets, which are tougue in cheek gets taken seriously because emotions are not conveyed in written text.Anyway, I just wanted to share our experience. We are all constantly going through a learning processcheersTS Wong
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http://askaaronlee.com Aaron Lee

Well, for one they got the “word of mouth and getting the message across that Malaysians” right.
When people hate something they tell 10 people
When people love something they tell 3 people
I am not sure bout the concept of the advertisement though. Listening it once is alright, then when I listen it the second time it started to annoy me a lot so I’ll just tune off whenever I hear it. MyEG is a catchy name though but it sounds weird saying it
http://askaaronlee.com Aaron Lee

Well, for one they got the “word of mouth and getting the message across that Malaysians” right. When people hate something they tell 10 peopleWhen people love something they tell 3 people I am not sure bout the concept of the advertisement though. Listening it once is alright, then when I listen it the second time it started to annoy me a lot so I'll just tune off whenever I hear it. MyEG is a catchy name though but it sounds weird saying it