How to Create Commercials Women Love

Posted on | March 9, 2009 |

By Holly Buchanan

Every once in a while, a commercial comes along that totally connects with its female audience. Unfortunately, those commercials are rare. And there’s really no excuse for that.

If you want to create a commercial that women will relate and respond to, all you have to do is hang around with women and watch carefully for those real-life magic moments.

If you are a marketing creative person – when was the last time you went to a conference with almost all women? Are you reading the mom blogs? Are you following women and moms on Twitter and paying attention to what they’re saying?

I have – and the commercial ideas are plentiful.

Let me give you some examples:

At the Mom 2.0 Summit in Houston, I hung out for two days with over 300 moms.

During my keynote panel, a mom in the audience wanted to ask us a question, so she handed our moderator (a wonderful guy who went above and beyond) her baby to hold while she took the mike to ask us a question. She had been standing in the back swaying and gently bouncing her baby. Well, now the only thing in her hands was a mike, but she was still swaying and bouncing. It was great! I don’t think she even realized she was doing it. The moms in the room all got a knowing a chuckle out of it.

Surely there’s a commercial idea there.

I follow a lot of women and moms and Twitter. It’s also full of magical moments.

“I just took 79 pictures while out with my kids in the snow. Do you think that’s enough?”

“Today’s fun moment – me and my son belting out Beyonce’s ‘If I Were a

Boy’ and making up our own words.”

“It’s 3 am. I should be asleep by now. Someone sing me a lullaby.”

“I need to design Swiffer socks for the household. That way I’ll never have to sweep again.”

“So I made an appointment for my dog to see a ‘pet modeling agent.’ Times are tough. Must whore out pooch.”

Can you see the commercials for digital cameras, sleep aids/mattresses, cleaning and pet products?

Women and moms are so great. Spend some time with them. Listen to their conversations. You’ll have fabulous, relevant, memorable commercial ideas coming out your ying yang.

Category: Advertising, Holly Buchanan, Marketing to Moms, Marketing to Women
Tags: advertising to women > marketing to moms

Comments

4 Responses to “How to Create Commercials Women Love”

Bonnie Dubrow
March 9th, 2009 @ 4:02 pm

Holly, I can always count on you to get me thinking bigger, better and bolder. Thanks. My challenge beomg a professional/solopreneur who doesn’t advertise yet does do marketing… to figure out how to apply your awareness and recommendation to the channels of communication I/we use ~ websites, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

How can we be on the look-out and what are we looking for?

The Energizer Bonnie
Bonnie Dubrow, IMP
Information Marketing Professional
Kym Yancey
March 11th, 2009 @ 8:53 pm

Holly, you are providing some great ideas and insights into marketing to women. Thank you so much.

Have you heard about or seen the GLOW Project?
It’s a powerful movie that features 15 women. Half are top corporate achievers and the others our successful women business owners. Take a look at the trailer at
http://www.glowproject.org
Amy Lawrence
March 14th, 2009 @ 7:09 am

Sandra Yancey’s Glow Project is very inspiring! I highly recommend it!
Why You Need Women On Your Creative Team :
April 6th, 2009 @ 5:20 pm

[...] And remember, with the direct access marketers now have to their target audience on the Internet, there’s simply no excuse for not creating commercials women love. Category: Advertising, Holly Buchanan, Marketing to WomenTags: advertising to women > marketing to [...]