Gary Dahl. Advertising for Dummies
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
Nike knew what it was doing when it coined the slogan “Just do it.”
Grammatically, this phrase makes no sense. Your high-school English
teacher would scold the copywriter for not being clear about the antecedent
for “it.” (That’s grammar-speak for “what does ‘it’ refer to?” or, more likely,
“to what does ‘it’ refer”?) But forget those teachers (don’t worry — I won’t
tell!); Nike’s slogan was great and memorable because it reflected the way
people really talk.
Though ignoring grammatical rules can be effective in advertising, don’t go
overboard. Depending on how you phrase something, or depending on the
products or services you’re selling, it’s all too easy for a grammatically incor-
rect ad to make you look like an idiot rather than clever. If you’re advertising
a used bookstore, for example, you definitely want to use good grammar in
your advertising!
Making Your Ads Effective
Whether your advertising budget is a million a month or a thousand, you’re
wasting your money if your ads aren’t effective. And what makes ads effective
is a combination of content and creativity. Your ads must do the following:
Give the consumer a good reason to act (content).
Be unique enough in design and copy to attract the consumer’s
attention in the first place (creativity).
Consumers are exposed to so much advertising on a daily basis — some of it
so subtle, they don’t even know they’re absorbing it — that you need to make
sure your ads cut through all that clutter. For more on how to do just that, go
to Chapter 5.
Knowing Why People Buy Your Products
Most retail businesses (and many manufacturers and other small businesses)
don’t know why people buy their products. They just know that people do buy
their products, so they’re somehow satisfied with their less than in-depth mar-
keting knowledge. Before you begin the creative process of finding your inim-
itable message, ask yourself a few simple questions:
What are you selling, and what makes it so unique?
To whom do you want to sell it?
Why should people buy it from you as opposed to your competition?
282
Part V: The Part of Tens
27_045833 ch19.qxp 11/22/06 3:47 PM Page 282
Some companies come right out and say in their advertising who they’re
targeting — witness Volkswagen’s slogan for “Drivers wanted.” But you don’t
have to create the next big advertising slogan to attract people to your store
or business. You just have to use a bit more creativity than the other guys in
devising a compelling message so people choose your business over your
competition’s. (To dig a little deeper on this topic, turn to Chapter 4.)
Finding a Creative Hook
Because you want your ads to stand head and shoulders above the crowded
universe of advertising, you need to work hard at finding a creative hook —
something that grabs potential customers (but not necessarily by the neck)
and drags them to buy your products or services. A creative hook is an emo-
tional trigger that attracts the buyer, something that appeals to the self-image
of the buyer, an affirmation that you provide what the buyer is looking for. It
may be a slogan, a phrase, a jingle, a single line of copy, or a unique look that
appears in all your ads. But whatever it is, your creative hook must be yours
and yours alone, because you use it, across all media, to differentiate your
business from all the others.
Take a moment to glean from this example: DeBeers is the most well-known
diamond dealer to most people, and it continually updates its advertising. It
has been wildly successful in developing creative hooks for its ad campaigns.
Check out the following DeBeers slogans and how the company adjusted its
message to its target audience:
“A diamond is forever.” DeBeers created this now-famous slogan to
ensure that people wouldn’t sell their diamonds, which would create a
secondary market.
“Tell her you’d marry her all over again.” To expand its market
beyond just engagement rings, DeBeers targeted a new market of the
husbands of older, married women, with the “eternity ring” for anniver-
saries and a creative ad campaign that pitched this slogan.
“Your left hand says you’re taken. Your right hand says you can take
over. Your left hand celebrates the day you were married. Your right
hand celebrates the day you were born. Women of the world, raise
your right hand.” To appeal to women directly, either single or married
women who want to buy a ring for themselves, DeBeers crafted the cre-
ative hook of “the right-hand ring.”
283
Chapter 19: Ten Secrets for Writing Memorable Advertising
27_045833 ch19.qxp 11/22/06 3:47 PM Page 283
All of DeBeers’s campaigns have strong creative hooks. They focus on the
emotional trigger of buying a diamond and appeal to the self-image of the
buyer — whether it’s a man trying to impress his future wife with the size of
the diamond in the engagement ring he’s offering or whether it’s a “right-hand
ring” symbol of self-worth that a woman buys herself. The creative hook can
mean the difference between a first-place ad and a dud that nobody notices.
Remembering That Creativity
Is Hard Work
Advertising agencies, when designing new ad campaigns (or redesigning old
ones) often hold what is called a creative session — a meeting where all the
people who are working on a particular account gather together to come up
with ideas. Owners, creative directors, copywriters, artists, and even the
account service people contribute. These ideas then beget more and more
ideas, which, eventually, result in the perfect creative answer to the problem
at hand. The only rule of these meetings is that no idea is laughed at or dis-
carded out of hand. No idea is too far-fetched or too stupid. Everything gets
tossed onto the table.
Even if you’re not a part of an agency, you can hold these kinds of brain-
storming sessions with your coworkers, your partners, your family, and your
friends to come up with ideas for your business’s advertising campaign.
Ideas don’t just jump up and bite you. You need to search for them very
diligently.
Letting Your Creative Hook
Dictate Your Media Buy
When your great new idea hits you right between the eyes, when the light
bulb of creativity suddenly shines brightly, it’s time to begin incorporating
this message into a full-blown ad campaign — or, at least, as full-blown an ad
campaign as you can afford. Assuming you’ve identified all the reasons you
truly do have a unique product or service and have put your finger on a hard-
to-resist reason that people should seek you out in order to buy it, you need
to find ways to make this idea fit into various forms of advertising.
284
Part V: The Part of Tens
27_045833 ch19.qxp 11/22/06 3:47 PM Page 284
Often, your creative hook dictates what media you use — your creative hook
literally drives your campaign. For example:
If your hook is visual, then you can use print, collateral, TV, or the Web.
If your concept is audio-driven, you want to use radio.
If your clever new idea is a catchy slogan or a headline, you can con-
sider using any variety of media, including billboards or other outdoor
signage; you can also use online here.
For the ins and outs of these ad mediums, check out Parts II and IV in
this book.
Considering Your Budget
Before you get carried away with all the great things you want to do in your
ad campaign, you need to think about your budget. You can’t buy a 50-pound
ad campaign with a 10-pound budget. So you need to carefully pick and
choose your media and adjust your message accordingly.
You don’t need to buy every media in town to get your message across. You
can accomplish your goals with not only a creative message, but also with a
creative media buy. So, before you start writing your campaign and before you
get too carried away with your creative hook, come to grips with how your
message translates into various media and how much of this media you can
afford. (For a more complete discussion, Chapter 2 is where you want to be.)
Striving for Continuity
Whatever your unique message turns out to be — whether it’s a headline, a
sentence, a slogan, a graphic, or another creative hook — use that message
consistently in all forms of media. You need to apply the same message in all
the forms of media in order to establish that message as yours and yours
alone. Plus, continuity gives the consumer a better chance to remember it.
Don’t say one thing in your radio advertising and another in print. Don’t
advertise one item in the newspaper and another on TV. Many businesses
(large and small) make this mistake over and over again, and it only serves
to confuse the consumer and to water down your overall advertising impact
(and budget). If your radio commercials are talking about a half-price sale on
a specific item, then your newspaper ads should be featuring the same price
and sale terms for the same item.
285
Chapter 19: Ten Secrets for Writing Memorable Advertising
27_045833 ch19.qxp 11/22/06 3:47 PM Page 285
Keeping It Simple
Here is the best rule you can use as you work toward creating memorable
advertising for today’s marketplace: KISS. That simple acronym is something
to keep uppermost in your mind as you go through the process of writing
and producing your ads. As you probably know, KISS stands for “Keep it
simple, stupid.”
Today, consumers are deluged with information at a rate unheard of in kinder,
gentler times. The fact that people are even capable of absorbing a tiny per-
centage of the information available to them is remarkable. And into this
cauldron of information, you now must inject quality advertising for your
business, and hope that, at the very least, consumers notice, recall, and act
on your ad. And the best way to accomplish that is to keep it simple.
Being Clear in Your Message
Whether you’re writing advertising for print, radio, television, direct mail,
or any of the myriad forms of media, deliver your message in clear, easy-to-
understand terms. That way, consumers can see at a glance what it is you’re
selling and make a snap decision as to whether they want to read or listen
further.
Place your most powerful selling message at the beginning of the radio or TV
spot, or in the form of a headline for your printed advertising. Cut right to the
chase! Don’t get bogged down in details — the consumer doesn’t care and
won’t take the time to decipher too much copy or superfluous information.
Consumers need to read or hear your selling message immediately, and it
must be compelling enough to get them to act. If you don’t write your adver-
tising in clear, concise terms that can be easily understood, you’re wasting
your money.
286
Part V: The Part of Tens
27_045833 ch19.qxp 11/22/06 3:47 PM Page 286
Chapter 20
(Almost) Ten Ways to Know
It’s Time to Hire an Agency
In This Chapter
Knowing when the time is right to hire an agency
Being honest with yourself about your limitations
Discerning the advantages an agency brings
Y
ou don’t need a multimillion-dollar advertising budget to seek out
the services of an ad agency. Many local agencies provide you with
all the services offered by the major agencies, but scaled down to fit within
your budget and your advertising requirements. If you’re thinking about
hiring an agency, take a look at the sections in this chapter. Chapter 16
gives you pointers on hiring an ad agency, but this chapter lets you know
when you should hire one in the first place. If you see yourself in one or
more of these reasons to hire an agency, give it some thought.
Advertising is an extremely important part of your overall marketing
plan. Hiring a team of professionals to handle it for you is something
you should think about. And, with many local ad agencies, it may not
cost you as much as you think — and it may even save you quite a bit
of time and money.
Your Ad Budget Has Become Substantial
If your advertising budget has grown to major proportions, ask yourself one
question: “Am I spending my ad budget as wisely as I could be?”
28_045833 ch20.qxp 11/22/06 3:48 PM Page 287
Other clues that it may be time for you to make the call include the following:
You think you aren’t being as diligent as you could be in allocating your
advertising funds.
Your media selections no longer give you the amount of return that your
business needs and must be expanded.
You’re ready to admit that you need the services of a team of
professionals to advise you in this area.
You Need the Expertise of a
Professional Media Buyer
If you need one good reason to hire an ad agency, here it is: the media buyer.
If he is diligent and knowledgeable, he can stretch your media budget, regard-
less of its size, as tightly as it can be stretched. This person fields all phone
calls from, takes all meetings with, and gently or firmly (as the case requires)
says no to the dozens of media sales reps who want a piece of your business.
A good media buyer insists on the correct format, impressive ratings or circu-
lation, and the right audience composition and demographic before commit-
ting your hard-earned dollars to a station, newspaper, or magazine. He also
pores over media invoices to make sure you received everything he pur-
chased on your behalf. A media buyer can save you time and money.
Your Creative Light Bulb Has Burned Out
If you’re burned out with the creative process, no longer have the time to
devote to it, would rather spend your days running your business, and want
a team of creative professionals working to generate fresh, new ideas for your
business, you can find no better place than in an ad agency.
From the agency creative director to the copywriters and artists, everyone
gives you his best shot. The highly trained group of specialists employed
by most agencies work on your account with a mutual goal — to grow your
business, keep you happy, and retain your account.
288
Part V: The Part of Tens
28_045833 ch20.qxp 11/22/06 3:48 PM Page 288
You’re Overwhelmed by the
Demands of Production
If the myriad details of producing and placing your ads has you completely
bogged down, you need to think about calling in the pros. Start reviewing
agencies when:
You simply don’t have the time, energy, or desire to write and produce
your own advertising.
Creating and producing your ads has become more of a chore than
a pleasure.
You dread sitting down at the computer to create unforgettable prose.
You’re Having Trouble Keeping
Up with the Bookkeeping
If the bookkeeping process of reviewing multiple media invoices each month
has become a major chore, you may want to hand off this responsibility to a
professional who does this laborious task all day long. Make a call, hire an
agency, and relax if:
You’ve come to the conclusion that most media services (TV and radio
stations, newspapers and magazines, or outdoor ad services) write their
invoices in a secret code that you can never crack.
You’ve reached a point of frustration with trying to determine whether
you’ve received all the spots or column inches you’ve been billed for.
You’re avoiding the invoices until the media’s collections department
makes a nasty call.
You’re Leaving Co-Op Funds on the Table
If you aren’t receiving co-op reimbursements (see Chapter 3) because they’re
just too much trouble, hire an agency. Many businesses hire agencies to
289
Chapter 20: (Almost) Ten Ways to Know It’s Time to Hire an Agency
28_045833 ch20.qxp 11/22/06 3:48 PM Page 289
handle co-op funds, and, for the agency, managing these funds isn’t a big
deal. It’s time to call an agency when:
You’re fed up with all the obligations, rules, and restrictions for collect-
ing your co-op reimbursements.
You’re sick and tired of calling the various media to remind them that
you need notarized scripts and the proper tear sheets in order to collect
your money.
You recognize that you have much more important things to do than
compile invoices, scripts, tapes, tear sheets, and God-only-knows-what
in order to receive a payment from your manufacturer.
Your Time Is Being Taken
Up by Media Reps
Avoiding media reps (saving you time and headaches) may be one of the best
reasons to hire an agency. Media reps aren’t necessarily obnoxious or bother-
some, but they have a mission: to get as large a share of your advertising
budget as possible. They phone you, drop in on you, and send you faxes and
e-mails to “simply stay in touch,” and then they drop in on you again. They’re
extremely tenacious and rarely take no for answer. Their sales managers give
them a quota and, if they know your business is buying local media, they
target you. An advertising agency removes these pesky (albeit, well-meaning)
people from your life.
You’re Running Faster to
Stay in the Same Place
You need to spend your limited and very important time productively
running your business. Do you really have the time and energy to give full
attention to your advertising? When you hire an advertising agency, you
can do the following:
Eliminate a lot of daily phone calls and drop-in visits from various reps.
Remove mountains of monthly paperwork from your desk.
Receive a more-polished creative product from the agency than
you’ve been producing on your own, because you have a whole gang
of professional writers, designers, and creative directors working for
your business.
290
Part V: The Part of Tens
28_045833 ch20.qxp 11/22/06 3:48 PM Page 290
No one knows your business as well as you do (you become the best source
of information for your agency), but unless you want to sell your business
and become a full-time ad person, you do well to hire specialists who can
take an objective view of your advertising needs.
You Want a Bunch of Free Stuff
You should rush right out to hire an agency if you want to get all sorts of
free lunches; rounds of golf; lift tickets to ski resorts; tickets to rock concerts,
sporting events, and movie premieres; and even vacation trips to world-class
resorts and exotic, international cities.
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but your agency always has a good
supply of some of these freebies (which it gets from the media it’s buying
from). And if the agency is honest about these giveaways, it passes most of
the good stuff along to you and its other clients — the people whose adver-
tising budgets earned these perks in the first place.
You’re going to spend your budget anyway. You might as well get something
extra for it.
291
Chapter 20: (Almost) Ten Ways to Know It’s Time to Hire an Agency
28_045833 ch20.qxp 11/22/06 3:48 PM Page 291