It was couple of months ago now that I was flicking through Campaign magazine and The week in numbers infographic really caught my eye. There was statistic that initially took me by surprise but the more I thought about it the more sense it made. The figure in question was that 53% of the British public would like to see the return of the Gio Compario to their television screens. Yes, that guy from the Go Compare insurance ads.
So what have heels and faces got to do with this guy? Well it's not literally a pair of heels or his chubby cheeks. It's actually about the wrestling terms for a good and a bad guy. A face is the beloved hero and a heel is the dastardly douche bag overdue for his comeuppance. The psychology in drawing with a heel and a face is paying to see your favourite character dish out some punishment to the bad guy. Gio Compario truly fulfilled the role of a heel, a nation was emotively engaged in loathing him. I feel this is a psychology really under utilised in advertising strategy today.
There's the age old question can ads that annoy the consumer really work? They can. But it's a delicate balance and only works for a niche of group of services. These focus around one off or annual purchases, particularly those that are a necessity. That's right, the dreaded insurance.
Grabbing attention and gaining an emotive response is paramount. One off purchases don't need to be your pal and buy your loyalty at the checkout. In the same way a heel want's to illicit a reaction to invest you in the narrative of the angle (Jargon for a storyline). Tools to find insurance is a service people need to use, car insurance is all about the best deal for your buck and this fortunately only rolls round once a year.
Gio Compario got an entire campaign based his comeuppance which pleased a great deal of people. It was great campaign that consumers could really relate to and had that feel good moment. Exactly the same way a wrestling angle should.
Wrestling fans are the most loyal fans you'll find and not in the same you devote yourself to your favourite team. We know matches are a fix but it's theatre at it's best. Fans value the performer and the effort they put in their craft. So this leads to phenomenon you don't really see anywhere else.
It's the phenomenon that a wrestler that is truly hated by fans can be gone for an extended period of time and return to heroes welcome. A huge part of wrestling now is the Pop (the loud reaction of the crowd) for the return of a performer they've come to miss. They enjoyed booing him. In short you have to be gone to be missed and for people to really value your continuity of their viewing. A great example of this the debut of Chris Jericho in 1999 after he left WCW for the WWF. He was a bad guy the fans had really missed from the wrestling landscape. They were overjoyed to see this character back in the mix resulting in one of the loudest pops in wrestling history. Don't believe me have a look below.
Importantly after the initially excitement of seeing this character come back they went straight back to doing what they loved, booing him out of the building! Exactly the reaction for Gio Compario. It's no surprise 53% of Britain want the privilege of hating the barrel belly singer back in their lives.
It's my opinion this is well over forthe Meerkats. They are perfect contenders for an alternative adaption of the being gone to be missed phenomenon. Something called the face turn. A face turn is when a heel goes from being a bad guy to a good guy. The character the audience had fallen in love with, in this scenario the meerkats have become stale and un-engaging. There is potential to play up to this animosity and illicit the potential negative reaction. It could easily be argue that this isn't necessary and just a simple absence would suffice. An example of how this works is that of Triple H in 2002 after an 8 month absence. He was the most hated villain in the company before coming back to the adulation of the fans who feared his career was over.
I'd mention the value of the teaser but that's a story for another day and I'm sure you work out it's relevance.
The strategy of utilising heels and faces with characters that we are emotional invested in is key to breathe life into campaigns that have gone stale and open space for fresh creative in between their return. So it really isn't a surprise that we can miss the thing we hate most because a lot of the time we can really enjoy despising it. As much as you hate Gio Compario you'll enjoy having him back and that's how heels and faces can work in advertising.
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