Find Your Chances

When planning a media campaign for any product, marketers typically try to reach as many target audience members as possible as frequently as a campaign budget will allow. A good example of effective and efficient reach and frequency is the new Lincoln MKZ commercial.  Lincoln has been hitting the public hard and often with this commercial:

No matter what channel I am watching, this advertisement always seems to find me. Still, the Lincoln MKZ commercial is just like so many other car commercials with the typical images of the interior and exterior of the car spliced with shots of the car in action.  Typically — no matter how many times or how often I see this commercial — I would be inclined to completely tune out the advertisement.  However, this commercial catches and holds my attention EVERY time I see it because there is no voice over — just a song playing throughout the whole spot that’s quite, well, interesting.

After a bit of Googling, I learned the song is Shiny Toy Gun’s cover of Peter Schilling’s Major Tom (Coming Home). Those who like the song can download the MP3 — for FREE — on Lincoln’s MKZ web page. And, more Googling revealed that this commercial is part of a series of commercials that Lincoln is running, which do not have a voice over, but, instead, feature a Major Tom song. Major Tom is a fictional astronaut created by David Bowie, and he “appears” in Bowie’s Space Oddity, Ashes to Ashes, and Hallow Spaceboy as well as Schilling’s Major Tom (Coming Home), Rocket by Def Leppard, and Rain or Shone by Five Star. In Lincoln’s MKS commercial, Cat Power covers David Bowie’s song Space Oddity.

So, although, marketers strive for the perfect mix of reach and frequency to achieve top of mind awareness for their products, making sure the the advertisement is memorable with elements like music is just as important.  Oh, and free MP3 downloads on your website always helps to build your customer base too!