Ever drive past a billboard and get frustrated because you can’t figure out what it says? I do. Billboards can be an extremely effective method of advertising when done right. When not done right, they can be an enormous waste of time and money.
You have a very short amount of time to get your message across on a billboard. You have anywhere from 3-6 seconds, if you’re lucky and traffic is reasonably slow. That’s not a lot of time. I constantly see businesses trying to cram in all their information on billboards. Address, phone number, a picture of the owner with his dog, the product, a customer testimonial, the product logo … it goes on and on. The message gets lost and nothing is remembered as the driver tries to drive and read through the jumble.
I spent a week in Chicago many years ago. I attended a school put on by the Giant Killers, a marketing instruction company. The first question they asked us was… What’s your USP? Well, we all looked at each other, shrugged and developed blank stares. Our instructor continued to explain that a USP is a “Unique Selling Position”. Basically, what makes our product the best buy.
YOU NEED TO DETERMINE YOU USP FOR YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
Years ago I represented a Chevrolet car dealer. He was reasonably successful, but wanted to take the dealership to next level and he hired me to accomplish this. One of the things he wanted to do was sell Chevets, a good solid second family car. It’s low price made it a great car for the blue collar family.
I produced a nice TV spot featuring the car and proceeded to map out the running schedule for the ads. When I presented the budget to the dealer he immediately threw out all the 11:00pm news spots. I protested, but he wouldn’t budge on the ads.
THE SCHEDULE WAS PRODUCING RESULTS, BUT NOT TO THE DEGREE I WAS LOOKING FOR.
About a year ago, I saw a great pizza shop ad on the back of a newspaper tab. It was full color, full page and it looked great. The ad actually made me hungry for pizza, so I decided to order. There was this great effective ad, but no phone number or address. I had no idea where the shop was. My resolve was to order from a competitor.
Bob Martin’s career has spanned almost 40 years of media, marketing and ad agencies, including 19 years as Manager of STI Creative. He’s kindly offered to provide us with weekly articles on advertising for the small to medium size business. I’m pleased to welcome him to Thinking Big Works.
Yes, it’s Monday and Bob’s posts will show up on Thursdays. So look for a bonus this week – two posts instead of one.
I had the pleasure of stumbling upon this book two years ago in my local Barnes & Noble. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but this just jumped out and said “pick me”. This book is for anyone who enjoys music, science, learning, great stories, and a pleasant change from everyday reading.
CosmoGirl Article: “Sometimes relationships can get a little too serious, and when that happens it might be a good idea to regress to childhood. Begin with some flirty kisses on his chest and abs, and then when he least expects it, blow on his tummy and tickle him.” If this is for young teen fun, what do they recommend in seriousness?”
Marketing: Enlightened Advertising
ADVERTISING DIFFERENT FROM REALITY? COULDN’T BE
“An online poll of more than 2,600 US adults conducted by Harris Interactive shows women office workers spend nearly triple the amount of time with their computer as they do with their significant other – 9.3 hours with the disk drive and keyboard compared with 3.6 hours with their human partner.
“And only one in five of the women says she wishes she could spend more time with her partner than with her computer, even if the latter causes them pain, often in the form of carpal tunnel syndrome, according to the poll.”
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