If I were to sing the name ‘Don Amott’ to you, would you respond by singing ‘King of Caravans’ back to me? If so, then I’d know that you were almost certainly a child of the 70s or 80s that grew up watching TV in the Midlands. To be clear, Don’s status as King of Caravans did not come from he himself being a giant caravan that ruled over the others. He was not the original Transformer. No, Don was the King because he had the best selection of caravans, and I’m assuming sold more than his competitors. Don was … well, he was the don, and as if to drive home the point, he had a cartoon lion as his company mascot.
The point is, I can still sing it, still remember what Don’s business was good at – he was, after all, the king – and I have had many conversations about the TV ads over the years with people who also remember them fondly.
Take a look at your video content. Is it memorable, hooky, shareable … even singable? A client once asked me to produce a 5 minute interview film extolling the virtues of his business. I said “If you saw that exact film, but it was about one of your competitors, would you watch even 10 seconds of it?”. Thankfully, we moved forward from there.
They were innocent times, when Don’s lion prowled the regional advertising slots looking for caravan buyers. It’s even harder now to get people’s attention; but that simply means we must try harder, be more creative, and innovate.
And if you’d also like to be able to sing Don’s jingle for the rest of eternity, then just one listen should do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDGd_iK6Lk
Mark Burgess
King of Video