I worked in advertising long enough to know that nothing appears in a TV commercial endframe by accident.
At the end of the last day of the shoot the 1st AD lets most of the crew go. The senior clients and the copywriting half of the the creative team bugger off to the pub too…
…leaving the director, the lighting cameraman, the art director and the brand manager to shoot the endframe in a secluded corner of the studio.
This is the brand manager’s time. The bit of the film he or she can most influence. Out come the brand guidelines, an endframe checklist (which was approved by the marketing director at the pre-production meeting, and from which there shall be no deviation), and a slide rule.
Ninety minutes and several takes later…
The point of this story is not the overly anal approach to shooting commercial endframes.
The point of this story is that nothing appears in a commercial endframe by accident.
Endframes are deliberate products of extensive deliberation.
That Nurofen syringe did not get to be front and left of centre by accident.
It is the deliberate hero of this endframe.
It also gets its own loving close up demo sequence during the commercial.
The Nurofen syringe deserves this hero status.
The syringe and the bespoke bottle opening into which it docks are a highly valuable and highly differentiated aspect of the Nurofen (for kids) user experience.
Key words: valuable, differentiated, user experience.
It is a brilliantly simple piece of product design on a number of counts.
- It is a mess free means of dispensing sticky liquid from a bottle.
- It is an accurate means of measuring the correct dosage for your child.
- For younger kids, who might resist taking medicine even though they need it, it is also a handy way to administer the dose. If you’ve ever tried to give a hysterical toddler medicine from a spoon you’ll know what I mean. Whereas you put the syringe in their mouth, aim into the side of the cheek and empty all in one smooth, well-practised motion.
The syringe gets rave reviews on various parenting forums. Users appear to be as likely to comment favourably about the syringe as they are about the efficacy of the liquid that it was designed to dispense.
No wonder Reckitt Benckiser has patented this “technology”.
It is user experience as unique selling point.
UX as USP.
UX as TV advertising proposition.
You don’t have to be Apple to be good at this stuff.
Related post : User Experience As Branding.