30.05.2008 by Zoltan

Honda – When execution falls short of strategy

Yesterday everyone was abuzz about the new Honda skydiving spot “Difficult is worth doing” – the first ad to go out ‘live’ without post or editing. Whilst I appreciate the spectacle and the notion of being first, the result leaves me somewhat underwhelmed considering the strength of their previous ads.

If your position is “difficult is worth doing” then its a no-brainer that you would illustrate it by doing something difficult. More importantly though, you would choose something which is instantly appreciated courtesy of previous experience. The problem for me is that neither ’skydiving’ nor ‘creating an ad’ falls under most people’s list of previous experiences.

Granted, spelling out H-O-N-D-A probably is very very hard to do whilst rushing towards the earth at terminal velocity, but it just doesn’t look like it. And unless you’ve actually been skydiving (I haven’t, but what % of the population has?) then you just wouldn’t know. The same applies to the act of creating an ad. Does anyone outside the industry care whether the spot is live or not? I really can’t imagine so.

So that’s where this falls down for me, the strategy is great but its the execution is (forgive me) up in the clouds.