Advertising Archives - Page 2 of 6

MEET YOUR SILENT SALESPEOPLE

January 28, 2015 by Scott Flood

What is a brochure? An ad? A radio commercial? A website? You get 5 points if you said they’re all marketing communications channels. But they’re also something more. You can’t be everywhere, and that includes everywhere your prospective customers are. So you develop materials such as ads and brochures to stand in for you. In … Read more

BE WARY OF THOSE WITH VESTED INTERESTS

October 29, 2014 by Scott Flood

Most business owners and managers are eager to find good advice – and that makes sense. If someone else has expertise, why not borrow it (or at least consider it) when you’re making an important decision? But when you ask for that advice (or when it’s handed to you without a request), stop to ask … Read more

CIRCLE-Cs AND R-BALLS

September 3, 2014 by Scott Flood

A common source of confusion for many company owners and marketers is the world of copyrights and trademarks. While I’ll never claim to be an attorney or an expert on intellectual property, working in the advertising and marketing industry for many years has given me a good practical education in these legal methods for protecting … Read more

TURN YOUR MARKETING MESSAGE INTO A STORY

August 13, 2014 by Scott Flood

Want to know one of the most effective ways to connect with your audience? Instead of just telling them about you and your product or service, tell them a story. Our roots as humans go back to oral communication, and from the time we were children, stories have captivated us — not just the fairy … Read more

DON’T USE FAKE PHOTOS

June 18, 2014 by Scott Flood

I was leafing through what I thought was a great local tourism publication. It was well-written and well-designed, and the photography of local landmarks and amenities was outstanding. And then I noticed the full-page photograph opposite the Lodging page. It was of a maid in a luxurious hotel throwing open the drapes and revealing the … Read more

FOR FASTER DECISIONS, NARROW THE CHOICES

May 28, 2014 by Scott Flood

I once worked with an account executive who was a master at getting clients to approve projects in an amazingly short amount of time. One of his most effective techniques was narrowing the number of choices the client had to make. For example, consider a new ad for placement in a newspaper. Each ad … Read more

YOU MIGHT NEED TO PREP TOMATOES SOMEDAY

May 21, 2014 by Scott Flood

One of the most common mistakes made by marketers is trying to cram too much information into their communications materials. It’s often the result of saying “well, we probably need to mention this … and this … and this,” along with a bit of “well, there’s some empty space. How can we fill it?” … Read more

SUCCESS STORY: GET TO THE BRIGHTPOINT

November 7, 2013 by Scott Flood

Some companies’ missions are easy to define. Pizza Hut sells pizzas. General Motors wants you to buy a car. And Southwest Airlines flies people here and there. But what do you do if your company’s mission and capabilities aren’t so easy to define? What do you do when most people see you as a wholesaler and warehouse when you’re actually a sophisticated strategic partner?

That was the challenge facing Brightpoint. Although the company was well-known for being the world’s largest mobile device distributor (if you’ve have a cell phone in the past decade, they probably touched it somewhere along the way), their capabilities went far beyond shipping products in a timely fashion. They wanted a quick, simple way to summarize all their capabilities and the strategic role they could play for other companies for trade shows and presentations.

SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT WITH A PIZZA WHEEL

October 2, 2013 by Scott Flood

Sometimes, companies are so focused on addressing a perceived shortfall or problem that they miss more important messages, or even send the wrong message to their stakeholders.

The newest commercial for Domino’s Pizza floored me because it’s a perfect example. Domino’s has been running a series of spots in which they admit that they haven’t been perfect in the past, but golly, they’re working on getting better. Most of the spots have been okay.