But hey, it's almost Christmas time, and advertising is hitting hard already, so I figured it was time to come out of hiding and start throwing in my two cents here and there again. To get us started, the Living Brands blog points us to this great little bit by Robert Heath (a lecturer at the Bath School of Management):

Not exactly groundbreaking stuff, but you know what? So many agencies and clients still get this wrong that it is worth repeating and repeating and repeating.

Unless you are an anal-retentive geek who gets his rocks off by spouting out the most arcane specs that even your other geek friends don't know like the backs of their hands - in which case, by all means, let the facts and nothing but the facts rule all advertising - EMOTION rules.

And by emotion, I don't just mean "make people laugh."

I mean connect with them on an emotional level.

Inspire them. Make them dream. Remind them of their childhood. Remind them of their dreams and aspirations.

Sure, if advertising's role is mainly to create awareness, who cares, right? Well, there's awareness, and there's awareness that lasts.

The key isn't just to come upwith a gimmick either... Unless the gimmick is so strong that it will quickly come to carry the banner of a brand (like Verizon's "Can You Hear Me Now" tech, or Nintendo Wii's two traveling ambassadors "Wii want to play.").

Speaking of the Wii TV advertising, excuse me in advance for saying so (some of you will cringe at the thought), but I think that the concept is brilliant. The two Japanese guys kind of remind me of (NBC) Heroes' Hiro and Ando, only a little more playful, and with a cooler car. Even he little bow that the ii in Wii does at the end of each spot is smart.

What does this have to do with emotion? Simple: The concept of the Wii console is fun. and the ads do an excellent job of conveying that through a quick but effective sampling of the brand and product experience.

Other emotional connection winners over the years have been Nike, XBox, Coca Cola, Levi's, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Gatorade, Kodak and hp, among others.

Emotional connection losers over the years make up the bulk of TV advertising today... like pretty much all of your locally produced ads, most car companies, most restaurants chains, and most recent theatrical releases. I'll also add The Gap to the mix (they haven't had a decent ad in years), and almost all of the ads for home products (detergents, soaps, shampoos, vacs, kitchen items, etc.). Sad.

But... Olivier, how do you establish an emotional connection with a small tub of margarine or a roll of aluminum foil?

That's a question best answered by your most hardcore customers, your ad agency, or someone like me. It's actually not that difficult. Unfortunately, way too many CMO's and ad execs don't do the real work and settle for the same, tired, easy touchpoints.

And please, if anyone else creates an ad for a razor company that turns a razor into a spaceship or a fighter jet or any manner of poorly designed "futuristic" technology that wouldn't impress an eight-year-old, let them be kicked out of the Advertising world forever.

All you have to do is look around and be playful. Everything you need to create engaging, emotionally potent ads for every type of product is right there for the taking.

Have a great Monday, everyone.