Customers as heroes

Someone who clearly had a whole lot of time on his or her hands recently studied the plot lines of all major Hollywood movies for the last 20 years or so and made what some considered a startling discovery: there are no truly new ideas coming out of Tinseltown.

Instead, each movie is simply a variation on a small handful of tried-and-true themes. So, there's the boy meets girl picture. And, of course, the girl meets boy story. The fish-out-of-water tale, and so on. It seems that, according to the study, every movie in the past two decades has launched from a familiar premise.

The same can be said for a lot of advertising. For example, how many "dumb father/husband/man" television commercials have you seen recently? You know the story line:
hapless male gets shown something fairly obvious by his wife/girlfriend/mother/child and mugs a "duh" look to the camera.

In rare cases, this kind of plot may be the best way to demonstrate a benefit, such as simplicity. But, usually, it looks like the easy way out for an agency that's fresh out of concepts.

The flip side of that coin is the recent series of spots for the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association, College Retirement Equities Fund - now better known as TIAA-CREF.

Seeking to carve out its place in the crowded landscape of firms offering insurance and investment products, TIAA-CREF decided to create a compelling, heroic position for its customers, and then ride on their coattails.

So, in beautifully filmed spots the company championed its clients who work in the academic, cultural and medical fields as individuals who "serve the greater good." TIAA-CREF, it seems is there to support them in their endeavors. What the company actually does is almost presented in an "oh-by-the-way" fashion. The focus is on those wonderful customers, and the great work they do day-in and day-out.

Does it move product? Only time will tell. But it most certainly had to stimulate conversation among its target audience. One can only suspect how many professors, nurses and art museum workers popped into the office of their HR person and said, "Do we have TIAA-CREF?"

Is it possible to capture the same magic with what you write on behalf of your company or clients? Absolutely. Here are a few tips.

• Be different. The TIAA-CREF positioning is compelling, because it isn't just a "we're the best of the bunch" statement so common among similar companies that think compelling advertising means trotting out performance charts loaded with fine print. Rather, it tells the audience that they are the best, and that TIAA-CREF is there to support them.

• Keep it familiar. Notice how TIAA-CREF uses images that its target audience can relate to today - teachers in classrooms, medical folks scrubbing up, museum workers attending to art - rather than showing retirement-age folks frolicking in the surf somewhere? Those scenes, lovingly shot, reinforce the "hero" position and further differentiate the company.

• Stick to your objectives. Hooray for whoever within the client or agency resisted the likely suggestion to put a blatant "call for sale" message in these image spots. Instead, they followed the National Public Radio sponsorship model, and simply dotted the end with the Web address.

The message: Does your communication paint you as a provider or partner to your target audience? Providers have competition; partners are one-of-a-kind. Which would you rather be?