ØØ6: Tango Chili Sauce
Every great story has a problem.
The problem (a.k.a. conflict) is what motivates your character to get from point A to point B.
If Batman didn’t have the Joker in the movie The Dark Knight, it would’ve been a really short, boring movie.
Brands function in a similar way.
If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be a compelling reason to buy from them, now would there?
Sure, there are tons of ways for you creatives and marketers to create a problem out of thin air, but today I’m going to distill the creation of problems into two beakers for you.
First and foremost, you must know that everyone has a problem—everyone. Yes, even you, Mr. or Ms. Perfect. Whether one’s suffering or not, problems exist.
Some search for that hidden gem restaurant; others long to capture Instagram-worthy selfies in Tulum; and don’t we all seek out life-changing results from overpriced pills and powders?
Long ago, we once sailed into the unknown in search of new lands. Now, we’re the utmost bored, starting wars and protests for fun, escaping into brain-rot content, and enjoying short-lived joy delivered with next-day shipping.
Problems will always exist.
The two simplest ways to find a problem—whether life-threatening or not—are by looking at your offer’s alternatives and substitutes to see where your offer is better.
While these may sound like synonyms, they’re actually different.
Substitutes serve in place of something else—if Southwest is booked, try Delta.
Alternatives are other available possibilities.
If you’re hungry and want pizza but all the shops are closed, tacos are a solid second choice.
Either of these options, along with their respective outcomes, can be used to create your ad.
Let’s say you’re in the market for a brand-new bottle of hot sauce.
Your favorite hot sauce is Tabasco, just like mine—but the grocery store is all out. What do you do next? You look at the Cholula and Red Rooster. Pick one and move on with your day.
But what would alternatives look like?
Well, if the grocery store is out of all hot sauces, then ketchup, mayo, mustard, or barbecue sauce may be what you grab, depending on your hierarchy of sauces.
Now, let’s bring it back to advertising.
Once you have a list of alternatives and substitutes for your offer, you can now break them down by ingredients, how they’re made, where they’re made, etc.
You’re searching for something they do incorrectly that you do correctly—this is the problem.
With problems in mind, let’s head into today’s spicy write-up for Tango Chili Sauce.
ØØ6: Tango Chili Sauce
If you're cursed with the knowledge that there’s a ton of stuff in our food that shouldn’t be there, you’ll know that preservatives plague the food industry.
I’m no doctor…
BUT if you can’t pronounce the ingredient, if it has a mixture of x, y, or z in its spelling, or if you can’t picture what it looks like, it’s probably not fit for human consumption.
One of those fun ingredients is sodium benzoate, a commonly used preservative in hot sauces.
Tango doesn’t use sodium benzoate; they use all-natural ingredients that a third grader can read.
For this ad write-up, let’s use the preservative sodium benzoate as our “Joker”:
I can see this creative at bus stops, store end caps, or billboards.
It calls out the enemy found in other popular substitutes, is a bit cheeky, and even get’s the viewer to take an action.
To recap, here’s a quick summary of what you read:
• Everything’s a problem (or can be made one)
• Substitutes are an angle
• Everyone has a problem (yup, even you)
• Alternatives are an angle
Oh, and you're obviously Batman in your story.
Or Joker, I don’t really care.
‘Til next time,
Adrian
