Business

Wonga – An Advertising Case Study

Welcome internet users and potential business owners. This short post is going to serve as a vehicle for me to discuss some of the broader aspects of what makes a successful modern advertising campaign. The things I’ll be talking about are not specific to website advertising, but rather these principles will generally transcend most mediums and context barriers. The focal point of my case study is in brand recognition and memorability of an advertising campaign.

Select a Simple Logo

Okay so to begin please visit one of the Wonga sites. I’ve linked to their South African domain (you’ll see why in a moment.) But for now you should observe the iconic blue speech bubble graphic that forms the logo for ‘Wonga’.  I feel like this simple logo is well on it’s way to becoming iconic. Of course it still needs the white text to make it 100% clear who is being represented but the Wonga team are pumping a lot of time and effort into reinforcing this logo. They’re spending millions of pounds on football team sponsorship, television, radio and online advertising. Although their advertising campaigns are through a diverse range of media, it is always the simplicity of their minimalist logo that people will be remembering. This will go from strength to strength and help to solidify their brand identity to the point where people will instantly recognize the brand.

Make Your Advertisements Memorable

As for the memorability of advertising campaigns I’d like to point you once again to the South African domain I linked to earlier. A quick browse across the homepage and I’m sure you will see a few familiar (and wrinkly) faces. That’s right – it’s those old puppets. It seems like they’ve been on television for absolutely ages. Although maybe it just feels that way to me because I really don’t like the puppets. I think they’re kind of creepy and the humour isn’t really up my street. So you might have guessed that I don’t personally like the adverts that use the creepy old puppets. But I still consider these Wonga television commercials to be a success, why?

 So Your Audience Will Never Forget…

When I think of anything to do with loans or money now all I can think about is those puppets! They’ve managed to lodge themselves into my brain and it doesn’t matter that it’s not in a positive way. All that counts is those adverts have successfully penetrated into my memory and have linked their creepy puppets to the term ‘finance’ and ‘loan’ in my head. So even if I see an advert for a competing loans company my brain still triggers the haunting image of the old puppet man so my brain is thinking about Wonga again even though they’re not advertising to me directly. Now if that isn’t successful advertising memorability then I don’t know what is! I hope you enjoyed the read and if you don’t believe me about the creepy old puppet man just take a long look into his eyes and see for yourself…

 

 

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