DIARY: Rant

<p>Hands up who thinks the new ads for Hong Kong's MTR are any </p><p>good. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Hmm, not many takers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>For those of media's readers who live outside Hong Kong, here's a quick </p><p>description. In one ad, a child plays forlornly on its own, draws a </p><p>picture and has no one to show it to. Time passes and eventually it's </p><p>bed time. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Later, his father gets home, and realises that he can't play with his </p><p>child. In another execution, a mother plays with her happy baby because </p><p>she took the MTR. Message - if you take the MTR, you have more time for </p><p>family, ie for the important things in your life. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Well, pardon me, but doesn't this miss the point somewhat? What we have </p><p>here is an ad for transport, or maybe for fast transport. What we don't </p><p>really have is an ad for the MTR. Because the campaign seems to imply </p><p>that the MTR's core proposition, its key differentiator, the thing that </p><p>makes it great, is its speed. And that patently isn't true. Don't get me </p><p>wrong, I like the MTR. It's cheap, it's clean, it's efficient. But the </p><p>idea that it's the quickest way to get home is nowhere near the most </p><p>relevant claim its ads could be making. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>It's a problem that so much advertising suffers from: the idea that your </p><p>brand can stand for what you want it to stand for, rather than what it </p><p>actually does stand for and then promoting that. The MTR wants to be </p><p>about making more time for the important things in life, and that leads </p><p>it down the route of ads that try to differentiate it in an irrelevant </p><p>way. Why not promote what the MTR is good at? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Until the advertising industry, clients and agencies alike, realises </p><p>that its brands and its advertising need to reflect the reality of what </p><p>consumers actually experience when they use products and services, this </p><p>kind of thing will continue. It doesn't build touchy-feely brand </p><p>associations - it just disappears right over people's heads. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Whoever you are, and whatever you want to get off your chest, send your </p><p>rants to rant@media.com.hk, and we'll print them anonymously. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>