No, you didn’t miss hearing the name of the product in it’s rhythmically hip voice over. And no, there were no words on the screen hinting at the name except for that floating  G. The first few times I saw this ad, I was confused, stunned and pondered, “What IS G?” My mind lingered on the question for a few seconds before the following commercial wiped the slate clean. The next couple of times, I tried to pay extra attention to the words in the voice-over desperately trying to discover what it was a commercial for. I even used the DVR once to rewind the commercial. After that, I tried to identify the people in the commercial to find a link, but didn’t know who half of them were. I was at a loss. Why did the makers of this commercial not want me to know what it was selling?

At about the 6th viewing, I decided to do some quick interneting to find an answer to what I ruled was an extremely ridiculous and inefficient ad. I was baffled to find that this was the same sports drink which once asked “Is it in you?” Whose black and white commercials once showed athletes working hard while the brightly colored liquid sweat from their pores. And (dare I say it?) actually showed it’s product and repeated it’s name in the ad—more than once.

So, what can we learn from this cryptic message? It’s as simple as this—Don’t be cryptic! Especially not in your marketing or branding. Don’t assume your consumers or potential clients will go through the trouble of researching your ad to find out who you are. Luckily for you, Bullpen’s here to help you with all your marketing needs. If you think you may need some help, give us a call at 713.652.2030.

Have you figured it out yet?
To keep in line with the cryptic ad, here’s a slightly less cryptic pictogram to provide the answer: