Oscar’s biggest winner… Advertising… dum, da-dum, da-da-dum-dum-dum.

On a night when many declared that Birdman the big winner of the Academy Awards, I disagree. The biggest winner of the night – advertising. It still works.

Right after the first major award was won by J.K. Simmons (Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash), host Neil Patrick Harris had his best moment of the show (granted, there weren’t many from which to choose) when he said,

“He won an Oscar… dum, da-dum, da-da-dum-dum-dum.”

Yes, he hummed the Farmers Insurance jingle. He hummed an advertising jingle to the allegedly coolest, most affected audience that can be assembled. And the audience got it. And people recognized it. And Farmers Insurance got one of the best product placements on one of the year’s most watched television events.

This doesn’t just happen. For every company who will say to their marketing team today, “I want our jingle mentioned in the Oscars,” I have some news for you. Farmers didn’t just get lucky. They worked with their agency, RGA, to create an interesting campaign that is quirky, well-written and memorable. They hired an excellent actor to be their spokesperson.

They also did something else pretty revolutionary – they stuck with it. They didn’t panic and change directions every year. When it comes to marketing, this is harder than you would think. People change jobs. Companies buy other companies.

Everyone wants to make their mark. One of the most obvious ways to do this is to change the marketing and switch up the advertising. Change agencies. Let’s get our people in there. Forget about whether the current work is actually working. Let’s get some excitement and new energy in there.

In pulling the plug, all of the equity, all of the investment, all of the money and all of the real marketing value, goes down the drain. It can take years to recover. Some brands never do.

Not Farmers. They planted the seeds (with a great idea), nurtured them water and sunshine (a realistic marketing budget) and protected their investment. They reaped what they sowed. Their harvest was a clever product placement that far out-valued all of the big budget sponsors of the show.

To all of the nay-sayers who say advertising does not work anymore, I say, “Nay.”

Just ask the coolest crowd in the world.

Advertising works…. dum, da-dum, da-da-dum-dum-dum.

If you would like to discuss how to make good advertising and marketing work for you, drop me a note at jhenke@henkeinc.com. 

Thanks.