How Many Licks Does It Take To Get To The Center Of A Tootsie Pop?
How Long Should You Run Your Commercials Before Mixing Them Up?

Written by Rich Harshaw.

The year I was born—1969—Coca Cola had already been in business for 83 years, and they were on their 27th advertising slogan, “The Real Thing.” The campaign ran in various forms for 6 years, until 1975, when they introduced a bicentennial theme, “Look Up America.”

Here’s a reminder of “The Real Thing,” and it’s more famous sister, “I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke.”

The Real Thing:

I’d Like To Buy The World A Coke:

In the years since the mid-70’s, Coke has rolled out a startling 19 additional campaigns—about one every two years—including the memorable “Have A Coke And A Smile” and “Coke Is It!” slogans. And several that were not so memorable: “Official Soft Drink of Summer,” “We’ve Got A Taste For You,” and “The Coke Side of Life,” among others. They even tried to resurrect variations of “The Real Thing” a couple of times, including 1985’s “America’s Real Choice,” 1990’s “You Can’t Beat The Real Thing,” and 2005’s “Make It Real.”

Meanwhile, that same year, the Tootsie Roll corporation introduced us to a figure that would be elevated to iconic status over the next several decades: The Tootsie Pop Owl.

Here’s the original (and rarely seen) 60 second version:

And the more familiar 15 second version:

So here’s the funny thing: If you watch the right children’s programming on the right channels, you can STILL see the owl commercial now. FORTY-FIVE YEARS LAER. (Fortunately this frightening ad from the 90s never got any traction.)

In an industry (advertising) that likes to change its creative messaging more frequently than some people change their underwear, this is a staggering factoid. I almost called it an “accomplishment,” but that seems a bit overstated. But it’s interesting at the very least.

All of which begs the question: How long should you run your advertising before changing up the theme and/or individual advertisements?

As with just about everything in advertising and marketing–yep, including contractor marketing–the short answer is “it depends.” Let’s explore the factors:

Factor 1: How Many Selling Points Do You Have?

Rule of thumb: If you’ve got multiple selling points—and most companies/products/services do—then you’ll probably want to create multiple ads that highlight various elements of your sales argument. A large air conditioning company I work with has at least 9 major selling points—speed of service, quality of service, bedside manner of technicians, ability to fix problems in one visit, and so forth.

And those points can be broken down into multiple points. For instance, quality can be broken down into technician training and skill, superior diagnostic processes, guarantees & warranties, etc. That’s a lot of ads to write. In fact, during the last 3 years, we’ve written over 100 different radio ads, and over 30 television ads to showcase all the various sales points.

On the other hand, some situations require very few ads. We advertise for a life insurance program that’s pitched as an alternative to a qualified retirement account. We’ve run the same exact radio ad—unchanged—for 4 straight years. It continues to pull great results. But there’s really only two selling points: 1) there are massive tax benefits vs. qualified plans (IRA, 401k), and 2) there is much less risk of losing money in the market compared to qualified plans. That’s it—two major selling points. The single commercial covers them both and asks the listener to call for a DVD that will give more information.

Score this way: 3 points for lots of sales points, 2 points for a moderate amount of sales points, 1 point for very few sales points.

Factor 2: How Much Does Your Product Change Over Time?

Tootsie Pops haven’t changed in 45 years—at all. It’s the same piece of candy with the same wrapper and it still comes in the same flavors. You could argue that Coke hasn’t changed much over time either—and you’d be right. But some products clearly change a lot over time: You’d never run the 1975 Ford commercial in 2014. And as cool as the famous Apple 1984 ad was, it’s not really the right message for the company any more.

Score this way: 3 points if your product changes a lot over time, 2 points for slow but steady change over time, 1 point if your products never or rarely change.

Factor 3: What Style Are Your Ads?

The Tootsie Pop used a cartoon that is outdated-looking given today’s snazzy computer-generated animation… but still, it’s at least still quaint and interesting. Watch that Coke commercial again with the girl singing though… yikes! That wouldn’t really go over too well with teenagers today. They’d think it was weird and ridiculous—not exactly what you want people to think of your brand.

This is something that can be controlled, of course. In the radio ads we run for the aforementioned air conditioning company, the style is straightforward and consistent throughout all the ads. The owner does a straight read with light, pleasant music in the background. The ads might have sounded weird in the 1940’s… and they might sound weird in the 2040’s… but I think they’ll be “in style” for at least another decade. On the other hand, some of the TV commercials feature people and houses that will surely date themselves within a decade or less.

Score this way: 3 points if you prefer “evergreen” ads, 2 points for tweeners, 1 point for ads that show any kind of fashion or trends (hair styles, pop music, clothing, etc.)

Factor 4: What Kind Of Campaign Are You Running?

Direct response ads tend to need to be changed up less frequently than branding ads do. The insurance commercials previously mentioned are hard-core direct response. They are simply looking people who are “ready” to hear that particular message at that particular time. We are counting on those who are not “ready” to simply tune it out. We also don’t continually run the ads over a long period of time in the same market. Instead, we move it around the country and try not to be in the same market more than a handful of weeks per year. Multiple ads really are not needed.

Branding campaigns, on the other hand, will suffer from “viewer fatigue” if repeated too often. People who hear the exact same ad over and over will develop a subconscious resistance to the ad—meaning that when it comes on, their subconscious brain will tell them they don’t need to pay attention because they ALREADY know what the ad says. Keeping the content fresh and varied can help “interrupt” the brain and cause people to pay more attention.

Score this way: 3 points if you run a branding campaign, 2 points for tweeners, 1 point hard-core direct response in varied markets.

Total It Up!

The maximum score is 12 points, and the minimum is 4. The higher your number, the more l would encourage you to create new and varied ads on a regular basis. This isn’t an iron-clad rule, of course, but it should be considered a useful rule of thumb. After all, the last thing you want is viewers/listeners to get burned out on your ads… burn out equals tune out.

But then again… there’s the owl….

© 2014 – 2016, Rich Harshaw. All rights reserved.