Ad Of The Week: Beats By Dre "Got No Strings"

This new advert from Beats by Dre is fun. Imbued with a healthy dosage of nostalgia in the form of a classic disney song, and filled with all our favourite celebs dancing and miming the lyrics perfectly, it certainly leaves you with a big smile on your face. But I can't help but feel there is missing something.

Now, not every advert needs a call to action or wants to "sell" you something. Living in an age when an ad-blocker comes as standard on every iPhone, and consumers are becoming increasingly immune to traditional forms of advertising, an old school "let me sell you something" ad just doesn't work. Content is king and the impetus is now on brands to provide us with interesting, innovative, shareable pieces of content or contribute meaningfully in the passion areas of lives.

However, ultimately brands need to sell their products or get us to do something and all the above is basically a new way to do just that . Therefore, every advert or piece of content needs to contribute to the customer journey. 

So what does this advert do? Well, it introduces the consumer to the audio brand's new range of wireless headphones and induces positive feelings towards the brand i.e. brand love. That I suppose is enough, but I think there is room for more.

This is big shift for the brand. They are no longer selling the headphones with wires. They should be celebrating this, right? In my opinion they need to communicate the product benefits e.g. "Why should I buy beats wireless headphones over sony ones? or as an aspiring lifestyle brand tell the consumers what purchasing these headphones say about them. Heck, even just explaining why wireless headphones are better than wired ones would be nice. Indeed, the products are implicitly conveyed via the lyrics "I got no strings". These words imply that you are not impeded or constrained by the wireless from traditional headphones, something that is amplified with the celebs dancing freely throughout the spot. But I still think there is room for improvement.

The clever use of celebrities and brilliant art direction overshadows the significance of this product's innovation. Hopefully the next iteration will let us know a little bit more about the product itself.