Can Your Brand Pass The “10 Second” Test?

Can Your Brand Pass The "10 Second" Test?

Aflac, the company that uses the duck as its advertising icon, has started a new "You Don't Know Quack" campaign.

Their new campaign challenges NASCAR driver Carl Edwards to explain in 10 seconds how Aflac policies help protect people. Carl's response, obviously scripted, was "If you are sick or hurt, Aflac pays you cash – fast – to help pay for things major medical insurance won't cover – things like car payments, mortgage and more."

Genius!

When I worked in Brand Management, I always tried to reduce the brand's selling proposition to the "elevator speech." In other words, if you only had the length of time involved in an elevator ride to sell your brand, what would you say?

Aflac, with tremendously high name recognition and a unique advertising icon, has used the "elevator speech" technique in its latest commercial. While I am sure the advertising agency creative team hated the idea, it is one of the clearest expositions of a selling message you will find in advertising these days.

Brilliant! Kudos to Aflac!

Why aren't more people doing this?

Here is the press release for the Aflac campaign:

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/10-seconds-to-define-aflac-84216102.html