In the battle for Australian ice cream cone supremacy, Nestle and Streets are currently going head to head with expensive TVC campaigns, promoting their Drumstick and Cornetto respectively. Here are their commercials:

Watching the ads, it seems that Streets have a better handle on the ‘what’s in it for me?’ factor – their tagline of ‘no boring bits’ is a compelling difference between their cone and the competition. The axe-weilding maniac clearly demonstrates the difference – we don’t need to believe Streets, we can see the difference.

Nestle, by comparison, appear to be taking a social proof / nostalgia line, that Drumsticks have been part of the Australian summer experience since 1963. This might encourage us to get to the corner store to buy an ice cream, but standing at the fridge which ice cream will we choose? Maybe the one with ‘no boring bits’ rather than the one that was first made in ’63.

Ensure your products have a compelling advantage over the competition (one that consumers will find compelling, not you) and in every instance of your customer-facing material, ensure that it passes the ‘what’s in it for me?’ test – clearly communicate that compelling advantage. If you don’t, you’re wasting your precious cash, your time and another opportunity to turn consumers into customers.