|
Advertising professionals know that the heart of any
campaign is the product and the position it holds in peoples minds, and
what helps to position the product or service in the consumers mind is
effective advertising. Now the proverbial $64,000 question is: Just exactly
how many companies are using effective advertising? Would you believe less
than 10 percent?
I have addressed the topic of advertising and marketing
blunders several times in previous Publishers Outlooks. As a reference, I
suggest you visit www.tmcnet.com/cis/0901/0901po.htm
and www.tmcnet.com/ccs/0696/telpo.htm.
The Diagnostics Of Non-Performing Ads
The complexities of developing effective advertising are usually
underestimated, which is, in my opinion, the number one cause of failure for
most ads. Here is a checklist of some of the important factors that
contribute to the development of superior or inferior advertisements:
1. Headline
It is only common sense to believe that all ads must have a powerful,
benefit-driven, highly creative and innovative headline that literally
creates a major desire on the part of the reader to want to read the ad.
Without a powerful, benefit-driven headline, the likelihood of reading the
rest of the ad is very close to nil. It stands to reason that decision
makers have very little time to waste trying to read every page or every ad
without knowing what they will get out of the ad in advance.
2. Ad Copy
After the headline, perhaps the next most important ingredient for a
successful ad is the copy. Copywriting is a highly specific talent, which
takes years to develop. Unfortunately, this is not very well understood and
most small companies (particularly, those led by entrepreneurs) throw a few
words together without knowing anything about the highly sophisticated and
complex factors that go into making an ad readable or desirable to read. In
this area, one must always remember the cardinal rule of direct marketing,
which says, The first 10 words of copy in an advertisement are more
important than the next 10,000 words!
One of the greatest problems with copywriters is that by
nature they like to write wall-to-wall text in an ad. Long ago, that concept
may have worked in direct marketing, but today it simply does not work. In
todays business environment, each one of us is exposed to hundreds of ads
per week and, therefore, unless the ad is truly unique, creative and
innovative with a great deal to offer in a brief statement, then readers may
pass over your ad rather than trying to read wall-to-wall text and waste
their precious time.
3. Obscurity
Many ads simply are the triumph of style over substance and not only are
they not benefit driven, but they also do not tell the reader what it is
that they are trying to sell. Such ads usually look good, but because they
have nothing to offer, most people dont even bother reading them.
4. Creativity
We have already established that every ad is competing with dozens and
dozens of other ads for the attention of the reader. If your ad is truly
spectacular and attention grabbing and would say in less than a few seconds
what the reader will get from reading it, then that ad has a good chance.
5. Innovative And
Outrageous Indeed, an ad that is highly innovative and
outrageous will not only draw the attention of the readers but, also, it
will remain in the mind of the reader for a long time.
One such ad appeared in a yacht magazine some 34 years ago.
While most yacht manufacturers were using young ladies in bathing suits in
their ads to promote their yachts, one company chose to use an extremely old
lady, perhaps in excess of 100 years old, sitting on the yacht and saying,
When you have the best yacht in the market sonny, you dont need sex to
sell it. That ad has stayed with me for 34 years and it was successful
because it was outrageous, innovative and it went against the grain. In
other words, it uses contrarian philosophy. That is why it stands out some
34 years later. If you or your ad agency are developing an ad and you want
it to be truly successful, this is the kind of philosophy you need to adhere
to.
6. Lasting Impression
A combination of the above-mentioned factors and very little copy often
create a lasting impression.
Some 20 years ago, I saw an ad in Advertising Age that
showed a photograph of an egg at the top of the page with a caption that
read, How do you improve a perfect product? At the bottom of the same
page, there was a photograph of another egg with a Good Housekeeping seal on
it! Period, end of story. No other text, no wall-to-wall text and no
superfluous material.
7. Graphics Plus Photos
And Little Text, Or The Other Way Around Obviously, the example
in #6 above clearly indicates that if you tastefully and judiciously select
your photographs and graphics and use as little text as possible, you can
develop an outstanding ad. This gives credibility to an old saying in
advertising that says, White space also sells.
Effectively Positioning The Ad In Magazines
Most every advertiser requests the phrase, far forward right-hand
page requested. In fact, there has been plenty of research that shows
that a great ad will be read no matter where it is placed, whereas a bad ad
will not draw any attention no matter where it is placed. Extensive research
shows that if an ad is placed adjacent to related editorial material, this
positioning will favorably affect the advertisements readership.
Size Of Ads Versus Readership
Extensive studies by numerous publications, including TMCs
independent research by Harvey Research and others, clearly indicates that
the size of the ad definitely matters when it comes to readership and making
an impression on the readers. For example, such research has clearly
indicated that a two-page spread advertisement will draw 42 percent more
readers than a full-page advertisement.
Advertising Frequency
Another major area many advertisers seem to ignore (particularly in this
economy) is that an advertiser may come up with a small budget and place an
ad in a magazine a couple of times. Inevitably they then wonder why they
didnt get any results. Assuming they followed all of the above guidelines
(but the chances are they didnt follow any of them), an advertisement
must appear a minimum of 12 times in order to: a) position the companys
product in the mind of the buyer, and b) take advantage of the fact that
continuous advertising makes the buyer comfortable doing business with the
advertiser. Sustained advertising helps to instill the feeling that the
company advertising is substantial enough to still be around in a few years
when the buyer may need repairs or service of some kind for their hardware
or software whereas, if the ad appears just a couple of times, it has just
the opposite effect.
I am reminded of a true story in which a manufacturer
offered a CTO on a complimentary basis a piece of equipment valued at six
figures and the CTO turned it down because he felt that the company might
not be around to service it when it was needed simply due to the fact that
the manufacturer did not advertise on a regular basis in any trade
publications.
Color Of The Ads
Selecting the proper color for an advertisement is one of the most
crucial elements that will contribute to the success or failure of the
advertisement. In my humble opinion, which is based on a lifetime of
experience in advertising, even if you follow all of the above-mentioned
guidelines but you use the wrong colors, the effectiveness of the ad will go
down drastically. In a very simplified way, here are a few guidelines for
effective color selection:
A. The most effective headline color is red or a
warm red.
B. The second most effective headline color is
bright orange as long as the quality of color is controlled via a PMS-type
ink as opposed to four-color process match. On the other hand, one must
never use red, bright orange or warm red for small type (eight-point or
lower) for text that runs more than two inches wide and several successive
lines. In plain English, avoid using these colors in small print because
if you are using them to emphasize something, it will be counterproductive
and will have a negative effect because it is extremely difficult to read
anything written in red in small print.
In general, black should be used in all small print and the
majority of the text because it is the most legible in any size. The colors
to avoid in general are grays, dark grays, dark greens and browns of any
kind. As a secondary color, blues, greens or magentas are recommended but
rarely as the primary color for text.
Yellow is by far the most powerful color when it is used as
a screen behind black or red or other colors provided the density or
intensity is kept to a very low level. Indeed, much research has been
conducted to show that the use of yellow as a background color increases
readability by better than 44 percent. Having said that, one must never try
to use yellow as a headline color unless some very dark circumstances are
used around it or in the background to make the yellow stand out. In
ordinary printing, yellow must never be used as a headline, text, subhead or
anything else. In some cases, yellow could be used provided a black outline
is around the yellow to help legibility.
Hopefully, you can see how important the role of color
selection is in your advertisement.
A Good Case In Point
A few years ago, our vice president of Advertising Sales and I attended
a convention where an advertiser came up to us and said, I dont know
what we have to do to make our advertisement pay. I looked at their ad
and asked him, What are you trying to do with this ad? He said, We
want to sell predictive dialers, but we are getting no response and Id
like to know why. Upon examination, I noticed that in no place did
the ad explain what product the manufacturer was trying to sell. Then I
asked the advertiser, Where does it say what you are trying to sell in
this ad? He looked at the ad and said, I guess we screwed up. I
told him, Every ad must have a powerful, benefit-driven headline, but
your ad has no headline! Then I continued, There is no discussion of
benefit anywhere in this ad that would prompt a reader to call you and ask
for information. Last but not least, the ad had two other problems: a) it
had too much copy that didnt say anything, and b) it used a repellent
color, i.e., dark green, and a pastel shade of green. In other words, the
advertiser had a lousy ad and was wondering why it was not producing any
results. As the old saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. Perhaps the
biggest crime in the case of lousy ads is that 99.9 percent of the time, the
advertisers blame the media vehicle although a useless ad will never produce
no matter where you place it.
Four-Color Versus Black-And-White Performance
According to a Cahners advertising report, four-color ads are noted by
45 percent of the readers versus 33 percent for black-and-white ads. In
short, advertising readership increases with the size of ad and the use of
color.
The Role of Advertising Agencies
As you have noticed in this editorial about the complexities of
developing a high-quality, effective ad, it becomes clear that often, if not
always, the best solution is to outsource to advertising agencies whose core
competency is developing advertising campaigns. The agencies know copy,
positioning, placement, art and graphics, the needs of the clients and can
also find appropriate publications in which advertising could get maximum
return on investment.
Having said all of the above, it must be clearly pointed out
that an ad agency alone cannot develop high-quality advertising without
proper input from the client. Such input must be extremely specific while
clarifying whom the target audience is and provide the advantages the
products and services offer vis--vis the competition. Once again, we must
always remember that if we do not provide proper and complete information to
the advertising agencies, then we should not expect a high-quality
advertisement.
What I have written here is only about five percent of what
you need to know in order to develop a successful ad campaign.
Hopefully, I have been able to shed some light on the fact
that effective advertising takes a great deal of effort and that a great
deal of detail must go into developing an ad that will be remembered and
will produce brand recognition and quality sales leads for the advertiser.
Above all, the best advice I have for you is please do not look for short
cuts because there are no short cuts in developing quality advertising. If
you are not qualified to develop an ad, seek the professional services of a
reputable advertising agency.
As always, I welcome your comments.
Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
TMC Chairman, CEO and
Executive Group Publisher
ntehrani@tmcnet.com.
[ Return
To August 2002 Table Of Contents ]
|
SUBSCRIPTIONS
TMCnet LOGIN
WEBINARS
