22 June 2009

Advertising user experience

A couple of recent adverts in TV caught my attention. These adverts choose to speak of their services not mentioning the products. They championed user experience and promote it, almost deliberately ignoring the product range. The adverts I am talking about are of
Aviva and confused.com.

Aviva
The new TV commercial of Aviva is strikingly different from the run of the mill insurance adverts. In the full length of the advert, there is no mention of any insurance products, options, plans or schemes. In simple words like "remember me", "just recognise me", "don't clutter your language with corporate jargon", the advertisement claims placing customer experience over the main products. The message "a company being built around you" sums it up very nicely. Evidently this is one company where services take priority over products, or at least they claim to be doing so in the commercial.


Confused.com

This commercial revolves around functionality and usability of the web site - confused.com a financial products comparison site. The somewhat unimpressive video shows users using the site and recounting their positive experience. They also mention that the site helped them save money by helping them find financial products of their choice at a lower cost. The gist of the commercial is that the site, by being more usable, helps people find cheaper options. Again the user experience takes priority over the range of products to compare from.


This kept me wondering if we were witnessing the shaping up of 'Experience economy'. What has to be evaluated is how 'Real Real' these companies are in reality.

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