For example, did you read a newspaper this morning ... ?
Quickly - how many ads do you recall right now ...?
I once gave a talk to the staff of an ad agency. As they filed into
the seminar room they were all given a copy of that morning's paper.
While they were waiting, most of them read it.
Of 100 Ad agency people, only three remembered an advertisement.
And that was within half-an-hour of reading the paper!
Of those three, only one was thinking about taking any action. I
noticed her studying a furniture sale ad -- because she was planning
to buy some furniture. The ad had not persuaded her to buy furniture
... she was already in the market.
(I didn't have the heart to ask if any of the agency's work was
in that paper !)
Do your ads stand out ... ? Are they noticed and remembered? Do
they cause people to act - to buy?
Or ... when readers come to your ad do they simply turn the page
... ?
Advertisers are the world's greatest
Contributors to "charity" ...
Lord Lever (of Lever & Kitchen, now Unilever) once said he knew
only half of his advertising worked - but he didn't know which half.
(this quote has also been attributed to John Wanamaker and Henry
Ford.)
Most advertisers aren't even doing that well.
If it weren't for the "charitable" contributions of advertisers,
at least half of the world's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio
stations would cease to exist.
The rest would be a shadow of their current size.
I'm in favour of charity - but it has no place in my advertising
budget, and nor should it in yours.
By testing and measuring the response to your advertising you'll
soon know which ads are working, and which are merely a donation
to the medium which you're using. The fastest way to increase the
response to your advertising budget is to put more money into what's
working, and less into those avenues that are not.
