10 Ad Mistakes: Online or In Print

 

1. A one-time exposure is not an adequate investment to get the return you seek. Avoid running an ad infrequently. This is the most classic of all advertising errors. Viewers need to see an ad multiple times.



2. Don’t have unrealistic expectations. The first time someone sees an ad, they normally don’t go running for the phone or even click on the link. The first ad creates awareness. Exposure increases interest and, over time, the possibility of action.

3. Avoid including too much information. The message is more effective if it is focused. Instill one to three key thoughts. Studies show people can remember this amount -- much more and they do not retain it well.

4. Don’t draft your message around what you want to say but around what your clients want to hear. Understand their hot buttons and then craft your message. If you are not sure of what they want to hear, ask them -- before the ad goes to print. 

5. Avoid the dull and boring stuff. Make the ad more memorable by considering the use of color or unique imagery. In todays digital world a picture showing the benefits of using a product is better than a picture of the product itself - sell on emotion.

6. Don’t use poor quality photos and graphics. While pictures get more attention, poor photos and graphics can convey negative information about you. Make sure your graphics are optimized and scales for use in digital mediums properly.  

7. Don’t forget to insure you identify all the ways the client can contact you in the ad. Websites and e-mail addresses are often forgotten as valid communication channels. 

8. Don’t run the ad in varying positions. Readers for both traditional and digital media get used to seeing the same things in the same places. Try for consistent placement. In electronic ads and banners the placement will change depending on the site or service offered but usually the ad will appear consistently.

9. Don’t do it by yourself. Call the advertising department of the newspaper you seek to publish in to see if they help with design. They can also explain the impressions, circulation, demographics depending on the medium. Many digital publishers now have tools that allow you to create ads automatically, try and avoid these - well thought ads offer much better value.

10. Don’t forget to collect data and analyze it to understand if your ad is effective. By adding a distinct phone line or web page address you will be easily able to identify traffic generated from your ad. Always ask where you heard about us on phone calls and put in place a system to collect that information.  

Art Direction: A Product of the Adaptive Unconscious?

Art Direction, where do I start? There is little or no prescribed training for becoming a Creative Director or Art Director. This position, or should I say profession is perhaps the most important position in any media production regardless of the media or the message.

It combines years of experience working in a variety of media, a natural passion for expression and an innate curiosity about the human condition.  This skill draws upon your ability to think laterally and a passion for history, art, literature, popular culture, music and poetry and often demands “gut reaction” decision making.  It is also well served by a healthy curiosity about what motivates people emotionally and that can be expressed into a very defined work space like advertising in radio, print, videos, web sites, interactive design, etc.  

Many of today’s creative deigns are just that, simple designs made to look nice by a graphic artist but with little depth and understanding of subtle creative nuance that uses white space, layout, messaging and unique ideas to capture an audience and engage them emotionally. Why are good Creative Directors rare? ...well, because it is an impatient process, driven largely by a client’s subjective appreciation of good creative and an industry that values a process driven by time and cost rather than effectiveness. Quite a mouthful but true none the less…in a world dominated by short term goals and often young, short-staffed marketing and communications people, there is little appetite or ability to defend the creative process and all that it can achieve.  

Advertising or any media project, when done well can be a work of art, literally, and must be allowed to breath, and that often takes time and money to create something that will truly inspire people rather than simply inform them. An art director is a leader...he or she ...must trust their instincts, gained from exposure to a broad range of media, artistic ideologies and artists, emerging artistic trends and historical relevance. They must inspire the best out of their production team and in the end; the Creative Director must communicate that vision to clients and stand behind what are unorthodox ideas and unique creative concepts.  

I have been fortunate over the years, having been mentored under a number of good art directors and I have come to understand that my natural instincts, fostered over time through exposure to many unique artistic projects, and love of the humanities serve as important fuel for great creative decisions.  Understanding the use of typography, videography, imagery, white space, asymmetry, composition, depth of field, ideology, passion, curiosity, language, culture, boldness, spirit, truth, size and texture are but a few of the learned instincts that go into making an artistic decision.  Bringing these innate instincts to the creative decision making process, which often takes the form of quick gut reaction to a creative idea, take years of experience as postulated in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink through his term the “Adaptive Unconscious”.

As a society Malcolm suggests in his book, “I think we are innately suspicious of this kind of rapid cognition. We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went into making it.” Malcolm goes onto to say, “The power of knowing, in that first few seconds, is not a gift given magically to a fortunate few. It is ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves.”

Art Direction or Creative Direction is a cultivated skill that demands time and experiences. As Malcolm Gladwell postulates in another book, entitled Outliers, the 10,000 hour rule applies here. It claims that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. While 10,000 hours may seem like a lot...it really is only a lifetime’s passion!

The Advertising Checklist

The questions I have outlined in this strategy for selecting the right media mix for your advertising plan are not earth shattering, or even surprising,  individually, but as a whole they represent the kind of information you need to make  good advertising decisions.  The questions are relatively easy to answer …you just have to find the time to answer them honestly and take a few minutes to do a little research if you are not sure.  

Unusually, all the answers will fit on a single page. Once you have accumulated the answers, let it sit for a day or two and then come back to it. With a fresh set of eyes you will begin to see a picture emerge about your customers, your products & services and your relationship with them. You will begin to connect the dots between the information on the page and designing an effective advertising program.

 Industry

1. Does the industry you work in use leading edge technology? If the answer is yes than often an industry’s exposure to technology will predispose it to the use of new technology in its communication.
2.  Is the industry vertical you work in broad or narrow? This will help determine the “reach” of media you may wish to employ in advertising, i.e., the size of audience you are talking to will dictate a great deal.
3. Does your industry have strong recognition in popular culture? This helps determine media as well – using references to popular culture and a reaching out to boarder audience can help drive traffics, create awareness and increase sales even in a very narrow industry vertical.
4. What is your industry’s “cool” factor? If the answer is no you may want to leverage new media to improve its image or develop a message in your marketing that will underscore this.
5. What is the perceived “importance “of your industry in society? This will help you understand if the message and medium are taken seriously and trusted by your audience.

Audience

6. What is the size of your audience -“small” or “large”? This helps you understand if you should use public forms of media such as TV, radio or magazines.
7. Is the Audience well educated? This understanding will help define the creative e message and the choice of medium based on an educated audience’s preferences over those of a less sophisticated audience?
8. What is the age and gender of the decision maker buying your products? This will help decide creative approach to your message and the medium as well as men/woman old/young seek information from different sources based on these factors.
9. What kind of hobbies does your audience engage in, NASCAR or yachting? Using hobby or enthusiast media to reach your audience ads trust to your message.
10. Is your audience technology savvy? Today technology drivers many new mediums and your customers ability to be comfortable using that technology will help you define the mix of media.

 
Product

11.  Is your product a repeat, volume product or a one-off purchase? The medium you select i.e., TV, radio, internet etc. may be better suited to public consumption if you have a one a volume product but the message you select may have just as much to do with it if you are selling a onetime purchase – always seek to sell products on an emotional and trust worthy level. 
12.  Is your product extremely expensive ort extremely inexpensive? This will dictate the medium you advertise in. For example, those who have yachts do not read the same magazine’s as those who bowl.
13. What is the USF of your product? If the unique selling feature is its technology, then using technology as a media channel makes sense since your audience made need more time than15 or thirty seconds (i.e. radio or TV) to understand the technology’s benefits.
14. Is your product seasonal or is there a predictable buying cycle? When you advertise your product can be one of the most important influencing factors. Make sure you create the greatest opportunity to buy when your customers are most likely to buy.
15. Are there pipeline opportunities for your product? Changing your product incrementally or adding new variations of your product to the product line is an effective strategy. Many products have become indispensable based on their “new and improved “advertising strategy. Laundry soap’s new and improved strategy has worked over the past 5 decades yet the soap you buy today is not much different than the soap you bought in the sixties.

  Budget
 

16. What is the size of your budget? The size of your budget directly affects advertising results regardless of any other factors. Remember longevity is the most important factor – rather than one big splashy ad try repeated versions of a smaller ad but make sure you stick with it or all will be lost.
17. Trying to advertise without a budget is folly. Having no budget probably means you are trying to do it all yourself to save money. If you are going to be successful you have to invest in yourself.
18. Budgets can come for partnerships. I often recommend working out a partnership to buy bulk advertising at a reduced rate which is then shared among the group of lie minded businesses.
19. Longevity is the key. Advertise over many years not just over months or even a year. You have to make the decision to be in business over the long haul – your clients certainly appreciate that and make some buying decisions based on reliability.
20. Internal vs. external budget. Make sure you have the proper expertise inside if you are going to create your own plan and supporting budget. If you chose an external resource make sure that the knowledge gained is transferred back to you.

Creative

21. Great creative is the next most important influencing factor after budget. Most people think they are creative and can develop their own, more often than not they fall prey to poor execution and lack of appeal to the emotion of the buyer.
22. Mistaking features for creativity. Most companies left to their own devices provide descriptions of product and do not understand the emotional appeal – resist the temptation.
23. A good creative can change the fortunes of a company overnight. Never underestimate the power of humor and creating a relationship between your product and the buyer.
24. Great creative comes in many sizes. Good creative needs only a few words or a unique image to create a resonance in the mind of your audience. This is true for all media including the web.
25. Great creative takes time. Don’t rush the creative process. Good creative ideas are hard to come by and take a lot of thought - a thorough understanding of the audience, product and industry, time and a good creative mind can create a memorable media advertising campaign.

Now I am sure I missed a thousand influencing factors in helping you create a great advertising plan  but give me a break … I trying to do this  in blog. I would be happy to share any comments  and additional thoughts you might have. 

 

 
  

Choosing the Right Media Mix

To Grow Your Business
 

Media Type	Industry	Budget	Product	Audience	Creative
Digital Media
Social Networking
Tweeting
Interstitials
Ad Words
Search Engine
Web Sites
Webinars
Traditional Media
Billboards
Radio
Television
Magazines
Newspapers
Trade Shows
Trade Journals
Direct Mail
Live Events
Sponsorship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many new media channels, ranging from social networking, tweeting and web sites to interstitials, ad words, search engine marketing have made advertising increasingly complex in recent years for businesses as a new dimension has evolved, known as digital advertising.  Add these to traditional mediums such as radio, TV, newspaper, magazines, trade journals billboards, trade shows, and direct mail; and clearly it becomes a difficult proposition to decide on reach, frequency and weight let alone the proportion of each and how together they can best create a synergy for your product or service. 

The choice of the type of media, and mix of media in advertising is predicated on the audience; their habitats, likes and dislikes. For example if your product has a young audience who use tablets and PDA’s primarily for getting their information then it makes sense to utilize a largely digital advertising strategy, but one always has to be aware of cutting through the clutter in a completive advertising space so using billboards at party clubs and ads in trendy age appropriate print vehicles can create a synergy with your digital campaign. Combining elements of both traditional and digital marketing channels will result in a more effective advertising outcome. While there can be many strategies there can only by one most effective advertising plan, like Lord of The Rings where “One ring to Rule Them  all”, in advertising one strategy rules  the mix of advertising channels. 

Like a finely tuned recipe for media, their frequency, reach and weight have to be proportionally adjusted depending on the objective for an advertising campaign, the industry you are in, the size & make-up of your audience and the type of product or service you are selling and the nature of your creative message. 

To make this more meaningful let’s focus the advice in this article a little more, by removing both ends of the company profile spectrum including small companies, (they do not have the resources & budget) and large companies (they are already the resources and budget and process) and focus only on medium sized companies, (which I would define as 10 employees to 200 employees). The chart below is a simple way of considering the process and helping you select the right media and the mixture required to achieve your goals. The chart is not a magic formula that allows you to blindly design a program by plugging in numbers etc. The chart should be cross referenced with the questionnaire which will be included in my next blog  - by seeking to defining how reach category relates to your product  ranging from the kind of industry you are in , your products audience and your budget it will help provide you with clues on selecting the right media.

 

A footnote to this is that word of mouth, sales and person to person advertising is not included. These, we are assuming, are in place to some extent for most organizations since they are more effective and less expensive although they reach a much smaller audience.
 

 Stay tuned for my next article which includes the questions that help you effectively define the advertising for your product or service.