Advertising Archives - Page 6 of 6

BUT WE DID THAT LAST YEAR

July 13, 2010 by Scott Flood

How much of what you saw or heard yesterday do you remember? Estimates vary, but the consensus tends to be that the average American is exposed to thousands of marketing messages each day, from TV commercials to billboards to slogans on fast-food drink cups. And of those, you’re likely to remember just a couple – maybe a few if you really strain your memory.

For some reason, though, companies often believe that the audiences for their own marketing messages somehow remember each one in excruciating detail. So when given an opportunity to communicate again, they assume that only something fresh and new is appropriate.

WHAT SHOULD THEY DO?

June 8, 2010 by Scott Flood

One of the most common mistakes in marketing communications materials is forgetting to tell the reader, viewer, or listener what you want them to do. It happens all the time: someone crafts a brilliant, memorable message, but forgets to include some sort of instructions.

Do you want people to buy your product? Visit your website? If you don’t point them in the right direction, they’ll come up with a course of action on their own, and odds are good that it won’t be the one you intended.

WRITE TO MOM, WRITE MORE EFFECTIVELY

May 25, 2010 by Scott Flood

Looking for a simple way to write more clearly and effectively? When you begin to write a letter, a memo, or an ad, start writing it to your mother.

Okay, it doesn’t have to be your mother. If you prefer, you could write to your best friend or your Aunt Agatha. The key is that you want to write to someone you know instead to of a faceless customer or peer.

THAT NOT-SO-FRESH FEELING

March 18, 2010 by Scott Flood

I entered the advertising industry at about the same time that women began to play a much bigger role in the field. It was long enough ago that the only way for a woman to break in was behind a typewriter (yes, we still used those) as a secretary (yes, we still called them that). I don’t ever remember men being asked about their typing speed during job interviews.

As in so many other fields, the old boys were terrified about the effect these chicks and broads would have on their profession, but looking back, I think that women may have been the best thing to happen to advertising.

JOE SWITCHED THE BREAD

March 16, 2010 by Scott Flood

One of the most inane commercials I’ve ever seen dates back to my much younger days and a product called Beefsteak rye bread. I’d guess that it was somewhere in the early 70s, and while that time may have been considered creativity’s golden years, this one was as leaden as they get.

The scene was a construction site full of stereotypically macho men (this was pre-Village People). A grizzled journeyman is doing something to his young new co-worker’s lunch, and two other workers chuckle, “Look – Joe’s switched the bread on him.”

ARE YOU TELLING THEM WHAT THEY ALREADY KNOW?

March 11, 2010 by Scott Flood

Are you wasting precious time in ads, direct mail, and brochures telling prospects what they already know?

Instead, tell them what matters. Talk about benefits, not features. Don’t say your product uses a three-handled veeblefetzer unless you can explain what that will do for them. “The three-handled veeblefetzer lets you core twice as many radishes in the same time.”

YOUR SILENT SALESMAN

February 25, 2010 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 essence, they’re actually salespeople for your organization, conveying messages when you can’t be there to do it.

ADVERTISERS, DON’T GIVE IN TO GUILT

February 11, 2010 by Scott Flood

Nearly every local newspaper publishes special editorial sections and pages like the Spring Sports Review, the Home Improvement Preview, or the Celebrate America’s Freedom tabloid.

I call them “guilt sections” because many sales reps use guilt to sell the space. “You don’t want to support high school basketball? You don’t think Independence Day is important? You know, your competitor down the street is going to be in there.” Have you ever known a point guard to sit depressed on the bench or miss a shot because a particular business didn’t buy an ad?

GET FIRED OR FIRED UP?

January 21, 2010 by Scott Flood

One of the most effective business-to-business ad campaigns of a generation ago was built around the concept that nobody ever got fired for recommending IBM. At the time, new computer companies were springing up left and right, offering promising but unproven technology. IBM may not have been exciting, but it was considered to be the safe choice.

What made the campaign effective was not what it said, but what it implied. IT managers and other corporate executives read the ads and thought, “They’re right. If I recommend one of those other companies and the technology doesn’t work, I’m going to get the blame. IBM may cost more, but everybody knows and trusts them.”