One of the basic axioms of Marketing Wisdom is that wise marketers win customers with wit, humor and entertainment. One of the latest examples of this is series of ads promoting AT&T’s Family Talk program with Rollover Minutes.

Like AT&T’s other recent stellar ad campaign, the Alter Ego series (More Bars in More Places), the Rollover Minutes campaign features excellent writing, fine acting and a wonderful choice of characters – especially the casting of the mom and the oldest son. As the series progresses, the ads increasingly emphasize the tension between the mom’s frugality (“Rollover minutes are still good!”) and the son’s obstinate insistence that the Rollover Minutes are old and therefore useless. (“Mom, these minutes are from September”).

I’m guessing that the campaign’s focus on the interaction between the two characters evolved as the series progressed. The two initial spots featured the entire family with mom, dad and the two sons in the kitchen eating. In the first spot, mom finds the discarded minutes in the trash and in the second spot milk is spilled on the minutes. Later spots feature just the mom and the son. The most recent spot ends with a silent glare-off between the two, which exquisitely portrays the mom’s anger at her teen-age son’s rebellion.

So, what’s the point? First, like the spots in AT&T’s Alter Ego campaign, these spots bear repeated watching that reveals nuances in the performances. This is no mean feat when you consider that the dramas are only 30 seconds long. As an aside, this is yet another example of commercials that are vastly superior in writing, casting and production to many of the TV shows they interrupt.

The second point is that the spots do an excellent job of conveying the advertiser’s message in a memorable fashion. Let one be tempted to pass over this point too quickly, the hold grail of television advertising has always been memorability.

And third, both AT&T campaigns show that paying close attention to the details of dialogue, casting, wardrobe, and set design matter when doing any kind of movie regardless of the length or budget.

One final point – unlike of the arch and hokey devices employed by all too many packaged goods commercials since before television was broadcast in color, the drama depicted in each of the spots in both AT&T campaigns derive its effectiveness from finding the humorous and/or ironic possibilities in common, real life experiences.

Perhaps the essence of Marketing Wisdom is found in the definition of wisdom itself. Wikipedia’s article on wisdom contains a useful list as a guide to identifying wisdom in another:

“A wise person can discern the core of important problems.

A wise person has self-knowledge.

A wise person seems sincere and direct with others.

Others ask wise people for advice.

A wise person’s actions are consistent with his/her ethical beliefs.”

Fair enough. Now let’s see  what happens if we modify these five statements by substituting the word “successful” for “wise” and “company” for “person.”

A successful company can discern the core of important problems. And provide reliable and effective solutions. Since primitive man began divvying up his tasks so that he could focus on, say, fishing confident in the knowledge that another was skinning his previous catch, and yet another was cooking it, enterprises have been born and thrived on meeting peoples’ profound needs.

A successful company has self-knowledge. By differentiating its strengths from its weaknesses a business can concentrate on doing what it’s best at. All too many companies expand to the point of incompetence. Jay Chiat, who founded Chiat Day Advertising and is by many accounts one of the pioneers of modern advertising, once remarked when discussing the growth of his agency, “Let’s see how big we can get before we get bad.”

A successful company seems sincere and direct with others. In other words, its marketing messages avoid hype, borrowed interest and self adulation. As with individuals so many companies, in their pursuit of “importance,” forget that they are still human. Sharing one’s humanity was, is, and will always be one of the basic tenets of successful communication.

Others ask (a) successful company for advice. A hallmark of industry or business category leadership is that others recognize you as an authority. Because of this, the urge to claim leadership is so strong that the FTC regularly has to slap down advertisers for false claims of superiority. Smart businesses constantly reassess themselves, evaluate the results honestly, and invest in improvements to their products and services.

A successful company’s actions are consistent with his/her ethical beliefs. Lately it seems that financial companies, in particular, succeeded by avoiding ethics altogether, though now that the weasels have been dragged from their holes ethics may enjoy a renaissance. However in many other industries a determined commitment to critical standards has turned brands into adjectives for quality or excellence. Once the benchmark of American cars, Cadillac fell on hard times and the brand declined dramatically. Lately however, the company pulled up its shocks and reemerged to reclaim its position as a preeminent luxury car.

Now that people have started using the word “recession” in a positive context, while praying that it doesn’t become replaced with the dreaded “D” word…as in “depression”… here’s a bit of Marketing Wisdom.

As a marketing business, my own personal recession began a couple of years ago, when the more prudent, or petrified, of my clientele began to cut back on their marketing and promotional budgets. Now – I’m glad to say – I see some signs that more forward-thinking businesses are tiptoeing, albeit gingerly, back into marketing.

Despite this ray of hope I believe the future of marketing will not be a replay of the past. This week, the Wall Street Journal says that the stock market is at 1997 levels. Investors – well everybody – is hunkered down for the long haul thinking, “Maybe things will turn around in 2010…maybe not.” So, how does a business communicate with a world of people who are expecting things to get worse, while praying that they don’t?

For starters, I would tell anyone who wants to connect with future customers, or reconnect with current or past customers, to “Be Real.” Coincidently, as I was musing about this I checked in with Brandchannel.com and came across this article: Get Real, by Claire Ratushny (March 2, 2009 issue). You can find it at www.brandchannel.com / brand features / brandspeak, or click on this link: http://www.brandchannel.com/brand_speak.asp?bs_id=213.

In point of fact, “reality,” that is to say a connection with a genuine, profound personal need or concern, should be the basis of an enterprise’s brand in the best of times. Unfortunately more and more “me-too” businesses searching for some sort an edge over their “me-too” competition have seized upon the idea of a brand as a differentiator, with the result that a great deal of branding has slowly retreated from being a meaningful expression of a company’s value into just more advertising hype.

Still, as long as one is still standing, there is always opportunity to repent and rebuild. And, with that in mind, I suggest that your communications begin to reflect four qualities – if you will – the Four H’s of Reality. Okay, okay, I wish I could have made them the “3 R’s of Reality,” but these will do.

Honesty – Tell the truth in a clear and direct manner. Communicate the “who,” “what,” and most importantly the “why” of your product or service in plain language. If your message lacks the “magic” that you hoped would disguise the fact that you’re just one among many, and then perhaps your candor can make the connection with the reader or viewer.

Humanity – Appreciate that you’re most likely better off than a lot of others and as such you’re in a position to offer some help. Next, figure out a way to do so, whether it is a price roll-back, added value, or a real person who speaks English, lives in this country and actually understands the product to answer customer concerns.

Humility – Recognize that we’re all in the same boat. In other words, you customer is not a “them,” he or she is you. A reality with generic businesses (Who of us really unique?) is that they need their customers more than their customers need them.

Humor – Lighten up. Very few of us who labor in commerce are selling essentials. This current recession points up the fact that most of us were selling and buying discretionary stuff – otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to cut-back so quickly and – in view of the impact on our economy – so disastrously.