Dogs and Wine

A short note at the beginning…The art association redesigned their ads and look much better and the Willamette noodle company dropped their fax number out of their ad. Perhaps I’m having an effect, or just coincidence.

I wanted to start out with a good ad today. Peaceful Puppy Paws does a good job. They do three things good here.

1. Contact info is clear and powerful at the bottom

2. Headline (which is also the company name) and picture draw you in immediately no guessing

3. Bullets are quicker and easier to read than body text. The three bullets are interesting, compelling and to the point. Well done.

Under the bullets and the contact info there are colored boxes that may have looked good on the proof, but once the newsprint soaked up that color it was kind of faded on the final product, so a little more color would have not faded as bad. Not really a criticism, just note for future, newsprint fades color.

Compare that to the ad that appears directly beneath in this month’s Salem Monthly…there are lots of problems here it is hard to know where to start.

1. Black on red rarely works. The Red background tends to eat up the black and make it very difficult to read. Here is an old trick, hold the paper at arms length and see if you can read the print in your ad, if you can’t you have a problem. I have a difficult time making out what the scripted fort says under the logo even up close.

2. Too many graphic elements weaken the impact of this ad. You have 3 logos, 4 cut out photos of product, a photo of the front of the store, a photo of wine glasses, and two boxed subheads. The problem is everything is now so small, you no longer know what the ad is about.

3. Every ad needs to have a compelling reason to act. What is the call to action here? Why read the ad and why act.

A more effective ad would have been a headline of “Over 40 Gift Packs to Choose From” Subhead of “Starting at only $18.00” Use one photo of a gift pack. Drop the red background, the photo of your store front and the wine glasses and 2 logos at the bottom.

The main point here is when you have less space you have to trim your message. Simply making everything smaller rarely results in good advertising.

Los Dos Amigos and Salem Art Association

Los Dos Amigos

I have eaten at Los Dos Amigos. It is a good place; their ad however has some serious design problems.

The concept of advertising is to present a compelling actionable message quickly. What the Amigo’s designer has done here is find a way to convey an interesting message in such a way that you don’t know where it is coming from. You don’t want customers seeing “free” then wonder “where?” Messaging and design needs to work hand in hand so they complement each other. In this ad the design is hurting the readability of the text.

The crux of this problem is the multi-colored bands and dark lines separating the ad into four separate parts. At first glance you don’t know if you are looking at one ad or four. If it was just colors maybe you could get away with it, perhaps faded one into another, but what we have here is dark line separations. You eye automatically recognizes them as separate elements; you have been conditioned to read them as separate ads.

The information in the ad is good. The offer is compelling. Now, just get your graphic artist to tie everything together.

Holiday Showcase

Is it a good idea to critique an art showcase? I’ll do it anyway.

The ad itself is good. Excellent text and the information is pertinent and interesting. Anything I say here is, in my opinion, to make a hot rod go faster.

The Holiday Showcase logo, make it bigger. If you resize it and keep it centered, you will not lose much of the photo space. It will however make a bigger impact on the eye.

The three photos at the top: Good photos and they show items I assume that will be at the showcase. At the same time you have an opportunity to frame the center photo. If you are going to use three photos, it is a little strange to have a white center photo that disappears into the photo on the left and has a hard border on the right. If you want to have unbordered photos sandier putting a photo that will frame the center with color.

Overall it is a good ad.

This week we have two pretty good ads to look at. Both are from the September edition of the Northwest Senior and Boomer News. They are bottom strip ads, which the NW Senior News seems to sell a lot of…it is a good buy. If your ad is visible the full width of the paper gives your graphic artist a lot of room to work with.

Hollywood Station

This ad is OK. On the plus side it is packed with information and that info is pretty good. One the negative side it looks a little like a classified ad that has been transplanted into the senior paper. There are three things to discuss here: design, contact confusion, contractions, and design.

There are a few design elements of this ad that don’t do it justice. The first comment is a little industry specific: when advertising to seniors contrast is king. Yellowing vision will blur black text on blue backgrounds. Your target market might not see your logo.

This is one ad divided into two different sections a photo section and a text section…but it also looks like two separate ads. This is made worse because the gutter above the ad splits the page in half so the reader questions if this is one ad and location or if it is two? The artists tries to bind the two halves together with the star burst “only 12 left” which is a great urgent message. Rule number one of design is to not leave readers with questions about advertising. Ad are supposed to deliver little knock out punches and confusion only blocks the message.

What makes tops off the confusing design is the contact confusion. On the left hand side is “call Cathie Miles” at one phone number on the text side you are asked to call “Sam Labbe” at a different number. That is what really makes it confusing. Maybe one contact is for leasing and one for purchase? I assume that is the way it is. Anyway again it raises more question marks among potential customers and decreases the effectiveness of the whole.

Finally the contractions. HOA I assume is home owners association. For most people outside the real estate industry that acronym it takes a few minutes to figure out what it means. Again speed of understanding positively affects your ad performance.

Another word choice I thought was strange was “Steel appliances.” I keep getting a visual picture in my mind of a large clunky box with rivets holding it together. I assume Stainless steel is the appliance type discussed. “Stainless” is probably the more accepted contraction of stainless steel, as even if they didn’t get that is was steel it would be at least easy to clean. Of course if it is some other kind of steel using the space to simply put a modifier on steel would be well worth it: “Brush steel” etc.

The basic of this ad are good; a clear idea of what is being sold, some urgency and clear contact info. Some fine tuning will increase responses.

River Road

I have always been torn about this ad. On one hand it really pops off the page. It is clear. The photo is good. The headline is clear. The contact information is up front. It has a great call to action.

I think because of this ads location in NW Senior News we can assume at least a glancing idea of what assisted living offers among the readers. So for the readers of this senior publication it is sufficiently targeted.

I think the problem I have with this ad is that every other Assisted Living community Salem can say this exact message. The question is…do you need to. In the end the answer is probably no.

It used to make me crazy when I’d ask an assisted living community, what makes you different from your competitors, and the answer would be, “We are real homey” or words to this effect.

At the end of the day I think for this specific market location is way more important that market differentiation. Most to all assisted living communities provide the same services in the same way and try to be homey and none ever really achieve it. The best don’t look tacky. The really best don’t try to ape at a homey pretence and instead try to deliver good service in a kind and caring atmosphere.

Well I am a little off track here. Suffice to say, this ad is a good one. Clear and hopefully effective.

Reverse Mortgages

OK where to begin?

This ad is not a bad ad. At the same time it is not a particularly good ad either.

The attempt here is to perhaps educate people about reverse mortgages and entice them to call Eva Cutler. The contact information is clear and there is a solid call to action…lots of declarative statements.

This ad comes in four parts: header, subhead, bullets and text. I think the information is good, but perhaps a little out of order.

“Your local lender Reverse Mortgage Specialist – Eva Cutler” is the header to this ad. The job of a headline is the prick interest, pick up people sears and make them want to read the rest of the ad. Does this header drive attention to the ad?

I think the subhead of “Set a hedge of protection around your financial future!!” is a little long and out of place. This statement is too wordy for its own good and the word choice is real suspect. When I think of a “hedge” two definitions come to mind, something that is not particularly strong that is put around your lawn and an action you take to protect a wager. So the word “hedge” here is probably the wrong way to go. But, the problem really isn’t with the “hedge” it is that the word is unnecessary. In reality the statement should be something like “Protect Your Financial Future” and make this statement your header and move Eva Cutler statement to be a subhead.

Additionally, I have a pet peeve about two exclamation points. If it is exciting enough for one exclamation point use it, giving a statement two exclamation points does not make what ever you are saying more exciting, and in may ways comes off as disingenuous or silly: The Turtles are Coming!!

Next, move the box with the text up above the bullets. Move the last sentence “Change your life for the better” from the end of the text block to the beginning. Delete the portion of the text “it’s a great advantage” this statement is very general and doesn’t help the copy it merely makes it longer.

Finally the bulleted items…the first bullet is good and the last one is OK. Replace the middle bullet with something specific, a specific benefit. Give the reader another reason to pick up the phone and call.

After you make these changes look at the photo and decide if you want it or some other image.

After you make these changes, you should have a more focused more active ad.

Salem Monthly

I like the Salem Monthly. I like the articles and features. As an advertiser I find it ad friendly for one major reason. Instead of putting ads near the inside fold like the Statesman, they are mostly along the bottom and the outside of the page where more people will see them. So probably cheaper and better ad locations, hmmm seems like a good place to advertise to me.

I noticed in the last issue two ads that could demonstrate a point. The point of less is more.

Weathers is a full service music store and they have an ad featuring drums. This is a good ad. It features pictures of drums. Has drums on the headline. Drum manufacturer logos on the right hand side. Clear location information at the bottom. Offering a discount never hurts…if it was a specific discount it may be better, but no points off.

All in all this is a solid ad. A drummer would notice this ad and be motivated to read it. So job done and in black and white so the cost stays relatively down.

Take this ad as comparison to this one from the Tea Party Bookshop.

This ad breaks the rule of “Too Much.” For the space they have, they want to say too much, and in saying too much they really don’t say enough.

We have a headline about a remodel. We have big black text lists of products. We have red text about localness. We have a starburst about events. The best and most clear portion of this ad is the address and phone number.

Even with an ad space as large as the Weather’s ad, there is too much information here going in too many different directions to be a coherent advertising message.

If you are making an ad about a remodel…show me the remodel don’t tell me. What is the benefit of the remodel?
If you are making an ad about product…pick a few representational items and rotate each month.
If you are making an ad about local flavor…show me the benefit. What can I get at the Tea Party Bookshop I can’t get anywhere else because it is local?
If you are making an event ad…give me the time and date of the event or a clear reference. If your ad rep is on the ball you may even be able to refer to another page in the Salem Monthly, “See our events on page 32.”

So the message here is focus. Weathers features drums this month and makes a pretty good ad. If the Tea Party Bookshop made a remodel ad or a tarot card or a local artisan ad, or an event ad, chances are it would come out pretty good too.

Maps Part 2 and a Little Country Charm

It has been a little while since my last entry. This week we have 2 ads that are opposite. Maps has changed their ad so a short look at it and a space ad from Willamette Lutheran Retirement Community.



MAPS

In a comment a few weeks ago the Maps people had said they were thinking about changing their advertising focus. This past 2 weeks has seen a different look. These ads seem to feature Maps employees in kind of a native Oregonian branding approach.

I’ve seen 2 of these ads so far, they seem to be running a fairly heavy rotation flight plan with the Stateman, so one ad ran a few times last week and this ad is running the current week. They were virtually identical, so you can see an attempt between the two at message building.

The photo in each ad is of an attractive employee with a label: name, position, Oregon connection. The ad is dominated by two positioning statements the first having to do with things typical native Oregonians like such as camping, Crater Lake (perhaps next week eating granola?) and a second statement that reflects back at Maps services. This ad is better than the ad last week, in this version Janet loves her auto loan. Last week the employee loved their phone, and there was a question in my mind, does Maps provide phones? So this week was much less ambiguous and therefore a clearer ad.

So does it work?

In general branding ads and top of mind ads like this are harder to judge. This ad contains no hard call-to-action the way June's ad did. Its purpose is different. What it does do is inform the reader about services at Maps and who is eligible to be a member. It does the educational task very well.

This ad will cost more as it is bigger than the June ad and maintains its good position on page 2. So hopefully it will not hurt ROI.



Willamette Lutheran Retirement Community

I’d say the WLRC is probably the exact opposite of the Maps ad. I’ll break it down into 3 areas: text, color, and who cares.

This ad is pretty text heavy. The first paragraph is strange; grammatically it is one giant sentence. But the writer skillfully inserts ellipsis after each phrase dividing it into pretty good bite size chunks.

The second paragraph is a description of the retirement community. The description is pretty good. It reads well, sounds inviting, a pretty good description.

There are three specific problems with this copy. First is there is simply too much of it. After reading the first paragraph do you need the second? After reading the second, do you need the first? Would the ad be better if it were boiled down a bit?

With the exception of “42 acres,” is there anything in the text of this ad that can be said of WLRC that can’t be said of any other retirement community in Salem/Keizer? The answer is no. So we have two paragraphs that doesn’t make the community stand out, but rather tells the reader, “we are the same as everyone else.”

I was glad the copy had a call to action at the bottom. Here is an admission, steal the best from someone else: use the call to action “Call Today for a Free Lunch and Tour.” Some people look down on a free lunch, say it is a waste of time and money, say it costs too much…simply, those people are dumb. One move-in pays for everything, and offering a free treat and an opportunity for your sales person to bond with a potential resident, is priceless.

Moving on from copy, the WLRC ad costs more than the Maps ad. It costs more just for the use of color. But when you spend more money on adverting, it should have more impact. The color of this as is limited to a green border, green logo, and color photo. Grab your graphic artist and shake them around a bit, you can do a heck of a lot more with color in that ad. You have the space to make a good presentation…to me the lay out just looks tired.

Finally, who cares? I have digested the copy, looked over the design, and come away with a very blasé feeling. Advertising is hard. I don’t see anything in this ad that moves me to action, nothing to excite me, or prick up my ears. Look again at the Maps ad, fewer words, clearer message. The WLRC ad wants to tell me about their country charm, the reader wants them to show me country charm, and tell me why it is important to me.

This is a Really Good Ad

I wanted to write something about an ad that was really good…An ad that is hitting on all cylinders…One I have no negatives to mention.

I took this ad from the Janco Saver. This publication is an 8 page signature size coupon book. It is typically covered with full color ads no smaller than 1/8 page. The paper it is printed on is pretty absorbent so subtlety will not work. It is delivered by zip code and the people reading these ads are looking for a deal.

The Northern Lights Theater Pub

This ad is a great ad. In a publication dominated by red and yellow, this ad is dominated by black. On a page where everything is symmetrical, this features a horizontal ribbon of white. The ribbon is designed to look like a strip of film, cueing the reader to the type of business they are viewing. Everything about the layout of the ad draws the eye, and differentiates it from the other business on the page.

It is uncrowded. It clearly states the low price of entry and also makes a compelling coupon for a free admission. Three boxes indicate features and up coming events. Contact information is clear and easy to read.

Everything about this ad works. Hopefully it is effective.

Maybe next week I'll find a real stinker.

Noodles and Steaks

I wanted to look at some ads from the Weekend section. I like restaurant ads. Chances are these are done at the newspaper for the owner directly as opposed to an agency or an in-house department. So quality can vary. And newspaper artists are usually slammed so the amount of time you have to edit is probably short for these ads.

What is more, because all these restaurant ads are jammed right next to each other, they compete. They compete for your eye. They jostle along the bottom of the page and up the inside fold trying to get attention. Those that win attention get sales.

In general the noodle ad is a little more eye catching than prime for a few reasons- it has a picture, and some interesting grayscale background, and a very good headline. I’m going to say three things about each of these ads.

Willamette Noodle Company

This is a great place to eat by the way. It is one of my favorite restaurants in Salem. The ad has some strong points. The headline is great. The website is easy to read. The logo is eye-catching.

This ad has three things to pay attention to: brains, relevance, and fax

Here is the problem with black and white pictures of food. Noodles tends to look like brains. The longer you look at the picture, the less appetizing it looks. So it really puts the advertiser in a quandary. Show the product or don’t show the product? Each advertiser has to answer it themselves but you can also have pictures of smiling customers etc.

Here is another thought though…On the left you have June specials: strawberries and ribs. Next to it is a picture of noodles. So which way to go? Noodles for the restaurant or strawberries or short ribs for the specials? If you want the photo to be relevant to the specials, then you go with that.

Finally I have a strange little peeve about fax numbers. Does a restaurant need a fax number in its ad? Do they receive many faxes? If they do then leave it in, but my guess is that they don’t get any faxes form their advertising, so take it out and upsize your location and times.

Prime Steak and Seafood

This ad in one way is more complicated and on the other hand very simple. But, one thing is clear. There is too much text. They are trying to do too much stuff in this ad. So I will say 3 things: choose, reduce and logo.

This ad is about three different unrelated things. It is about banquets and special occasions. It is about Friday through Sunday specials (I don’t know if these are specials)? It is about natural sustainable products. Any one of these topics would make a great ad. The problem is with the amount of space you have in the weekend section, you end up with an ad that looks like a big block of text. The designer does a pretty good job of separating those thoughts. But the problem is no one idea has much impact. In the end though, you really need to choose what the ad is about and go with it and drop the rest.

So choose one and reduce your text block by kicking out the rest of that now unnecessary copy. Put some design features in that draw the eye, and entice the reader. For the banquet, a photo of the patio for instance.

Big logo…good. Logo that looks kinda like the rest of the print on the page…bad. When using a logo like this the designer has to be aware that if they are not careful they can blend the logo into the rest of the ad. For this logo for instance, think seriously about using serif fonts on any subhead or text so you can be sure there is a differentiating between your message and your logo. This will also give your ads a slightly more dynamic appearance.

Pretty Good Ads That Need Better Positioning

Today’s ads were taken from page 15A of Wednesday’s Statesman Journal. This is really not the best place to be. Sure you are on the right hand side which is an advantage, but if you are not on the back cover, being that far back in the section and at the bottom of the page is not the best place to be.

My suggestion is to have a short conversation with your ad rep about getting in a better placement next time, right hand page, high and toward the front of the section. Additionally, both of these ads might be better off in the Life Section on the Wednesday Statesman as it is food day. But that is really a call for the individuals placing the ads.

You can tell the ad rep from the Statesman which section you want to be in…believe me if you want it in the Life section he or she will get you in there. Which brings a bigger point, when placing ads, if you have a special section request, do not hold back, be forceful. If there is a specific regular run section: news, sports, life, business, where ever, you can request those positions and the paper they will put your ad there, and if they don’t or want to charge you extra, give them some heat. With the newspaper business in the straits it’s in, they are in no position to argue.

If you are relying on an advertising agency and you get this placement, it is a signal that the agency is not getting the best placement it can. So, you need to kick them around a little.

Oregon Garden Ad:

I like this ad for a few reasons; the use of blue with reversed text helps make this ad stand out on the page. Not only that, this offer is absolutely killer: $89 for a room, 2 dinners, breakfast and admission to the garden. Usually the room in most hotels would be at least $89. So the offer gets an A+. A motivating offer is half the battle really and the Oregon Garden Resort has it…this ad should be effective because the offer is so good.

I like this ad, but have 3 things to say: header, copy and contrast:

I’ll say it again: I like this ad. One weakness however is I have to get into the copy to learn what it is about. The header is OK but can be read in two ways. When you say “$89 Dinner Escape Package,” the question is “why does dinner cost so much?” After you reading you understand that the cost is for the package of dinner, lodging, and everything. But, to get that message you have to read the copy. Will your target market want to read the copy if they have a question from the headline? So look at the headline again and decide which way you want to go. Maybe “$89 Escape Package” is enough. There are lots of ways to go with that headline. I understand that the dinner is the big feature of this offer, so the task is to write a headline that is effective, short, and not ambiguous.

Because of space I understand the copy can’t be War and Peace. At the same time there is no sizzle. A single 35 word sentence is quite a bit longer than what you want in most advertising. At the same time it outlines the program nicely. I am torn about what to do. If you add a sentence at the beginning you will likely have to make everything smaller, which is not ideal. If you leave it, the copy is a mouthful. So it is really up to you. Perhaps splitting it into two sentence somehow is the way to go.

There are 2 areas where contrast is hurting you in this ad. The phone number for reservations is dark blue on lighter blue. This is never a good idea. You lose readability, particularly with older readers when you do that. The only way that color combination would work is if the letters were outlined in white. Leaving that line a white knockout and perhaps in italics might be a good idea.

The bigger problem however is the Oregon Garden Resort logo itself. The dark logo is outlined in white drawing the eye so that is good. But because of the size you can’t read the word “Resort.” At first read of this ad it is possible to go through it and literally not know who is advertising. Logos are what logos are, sometimes they have limitations, so it is probably out of your hands. Perhaps making a statement in the copy who is advertising are might be helpful.

Discount Liquidators ad:

I like this ad too. It is all about urgency and saving money. No copy to worry about, just substantial savings in red and little pictures and times and locations. You might be going a little crazy with the exclamation points but who cares.

This is a real simple ad and probably effective.

One comment only: “Habla Espanol” You don’t need it.

In general we put information in advertisements that we need to generate business…create interest…force information. If we were running this ad in a Spanish language newspaper, we would not include text that says, “We Understand English.” Here we are advertising in an English language newspaper, we can make the assumption that everyone reading it (everyone reading this ad) will be able to communicate in English up to the fourth or fifth grade level.

If Spanish speakers are a portion of your target market, find Spanish language advertising venues and advertise directly at them in Spanish. Focus your advertising for your target market, in the Statesman that would be English speakers. With this subhead, with any subhead, always ask how does this address my target market, why am I saying this, will this be effective? The other subheads in this ad answer those questions admirably, by driving home the urgency message. In this context, “Habla Espanol” does not add to your marketing message, so remove it and upsize.

Sunrise Team Reunites?

I shopped Sunrise of Metairie perhaps a little more than a year ago. I still occasionally get mailings from them. So they continue to touch their mailing list…good for them.

All in all this flyer is not really that bad. The problem is it is not really that good either. I’d like to make a few observations about the flyer: shell?, two too many, non-specifics, who cares and ours is ours.

Shell?

To me this publication has to be a shell of some kind. The colored portions of the flyer were printed first then the black color is printed in a separate run for each location using it. Note how the font under the Event Details, the text under the main copy, and the address line under the Sunrise logo is all the same font, some is bold and other is regular. The added bold text looks like an afterthought. Running a shell like this is a simple cost cutting measure that enables multiple locations to have high quality printing at a lower cost.

Here is where this idea runs off the rails. If this is a shell, it means that Sunrise printed thousands of flyers that say “Luau Celebration” and also “Sunrise Team Reunites.” What are the chances that numbers of Sunrise buildings will have a luau and a reunion at the same time? Unless it came from on high or as a some kind of publisher template this could have been a one-off flyer, in which case it is in every way much too general.

I do not want to knock shells here. The cost savings can be substantial. In an ideal world you have both cost savings and engaging messaging.

Two too Many

This flyer falls into the “too many things trap.” The flyer could be a good ad about a luau and it could be a good ad about a reunion (a 4 year reunion? Huh?). Instead it is kind of an ad about a luau with a sentence about a reunion of some kind (why reunite after 4 years, I don’t get it?).

The general advertising principle here is to have a great event and promote the event as best you can. If the event they have is a luau, then promote the luau. If it is to have a reunion then change the photo on the top, put some names down of people reuniting and entice me with why I want to meet these people for the first time who were here only 4 years ago (probably less then 4 years ago really) and are now visiting.

One of those events is enough. As it is right now it is a luau ad that is having its effectiveness weakened by the addition of additional clutter.

Non-specifics

This copy is drowning in generalities. The only specific information on it is 4 years, the time and date, address and phone number.

This is the danger of using shells with shell copy. In this flyer you get “luau fare” and “themed entertainment.” In a good ad you might get something like “We are having poy, pit-roasted pig, Hawaiian drinks, and pineapple upside down cake. While you eat, enjoy native dances from the LuLu Dance Troupe”

Specifics are where the meat of advertising lies.

In a similar vein the four year reunion, which is, come on, really a horrible idea, has no names, no photos, no specifics of any kind. I am a person on the mailing list for a year, will I know them and when it comes right down to it, and most importantly, will I care?

Who Cares Test

Advertising is force communication. Your target market is reading something they really don’t want to and your job is to force them to do something. Force them to make a call. Force them to have a good time. Force them to be interested.

To do that you have to entice them, to tease them with things they like or things that scare them. You have to move them with ideas and concepts and get them to act. The test you, as an advertiser, take is to look at the ad and ask, “who cares?”

If I look at this advertising and ask the fatal question who cares about this reunion? These people have been gone less than 4 years and I have never met them before, I don’t know anything about them. It become clear, including reunion information in this luau ad is really pointless.

Ours is Ours

Aside from the copy of this ad being incredibly bland. Aside from the second sentence of the second paragraph being completely useless in terms of motivating people to come to a luau. I have a pet peeve about the use of the word “our” in this ad.

The first paragraph is written in “you-you-you” style copy. These very nondescript and fairly uninteresting generalities can happen to you if you can stay awake long enough. The second paragraph starts with “you” again then gets all possessive: “our community,” “our team.” Why the shift? Give the reader ownership and command them to do things, perhaps even push them around a bit: “While you are here find out why Sunrise is a place seniors are proud to call home. Meet the team. Tour the community. You are going to love it.” Shift the focus of the copy from showing to engaging the reader.

We could go on. It would be easy to continue but probably a little trying to read. So I’m going to stop here. Hopefully the mailing will do well for Sunrise of Metairie, that the good times they will have will shine through this rather bland flyer…after all it only takes one move-in and the whole thing pays for itself.

Mah-Ann's Pro Fitness Val-Pak

Valpak coupons: they arrive in a blue envelope. It is less expensive than a post card. Generally the Valpak artists do a good job if you have a pretty good idea of what you want. I think this is the case with Mah-ann’s fitness. Using this Valpak you can reach a few thousand people and be pretty targeted.

In the past, I have used Valpak effectively. It is not a homerun every time, but more often than not you can generate a few calls. Plus because it is a coupon, you always know exactly how effective it is. In general, for the Valpak to work you have to address the coupon clipper. Valpaks make no bones about what they are…discounts to bring you into a business. Two-for-one deals; percentage-off offers; free-with-purchase overtures; and delayed payment plans are all part of the Valpack arsenal. So, that is who your target market is, discount couponeers in a specific area code.

One of the nice things about Valpak is that usually they don’t have competing businesses from the same market segment in the same envelope. So Mah-ann is the only gym/fitness coupon in the mailing.

The ad is attractive. Mah-ann is making a status argument but doesn’t necessarily back it up, but the bullet points on side two give good weight to her claims. In general the ad is good. It is attractive and has good photos and hopefully should generate some interest.

There is only one area that there may be some problems: I call it Marc’s rule number one of copywriting…Make sure your offer is clear. When you are done reading this special offer, there should be no question in your mind what you will get if you use this coupon.

Side one has a strong statement, “half off 3 training sessions for $99 (regularly $220)” I am a fitness tyro; have no idea what to expect after reading this offer I have 2 questions. First, $110 is half of $220. So is this really more than half off, or is the price half off of something else? Second, is the $99 price for each session or is it for all 3? I assume it is for all 3. As an advertiser you do not want to have your target market assume anything.

On side 2 I love the line “Change your life!” that is awesome copy and perfect for your target market. “Only $600” might be a little high for Valpack. It is easily the highest dollar amount in the envelope…it is not however the most expensive item people are selling. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Sears vinyl siding and air conditioning are more expensive, but they made sure to let you know who much you were going to save, but left the final price off the coupon. That is probably a good idea for this type of advertising. $240 is a substantial savings, but a $600 price tag may be a bit high for Valpack recipients.

MAPS Credit Union and the YMCA

Both of these ads appeared one on top of the other in the Salem Statesman Journal on Wednesday May 27, 2009. Neither of these ads is terrible, actually both are pretty OK, but the best thing about both of them has nothing to do with the contents of either.

These ads were at the top right hand corner of page 2. Granted this is not the premo premo position in the paper, but it certainly beats being buried on the bottom of the right hand side toward the back of the section. Thumbs up for position. Call your rep up and give him a pat on the back, and he can pretend he had something to do with it.

Both of these ads have solid plusses and minuses. Black and white and small are marks of either a flight plan or a limited budget or perhaps both. Did they get their money’s worth? Only they can say, but here are comments none the less:

MAPS

This ad has two strong points and two weaknesses: hook, eye, headless, and crowd. Let me explain grasshoppa.

Hook

On the strong side, Maps uses a tried and true hook to get people into their ad, a money offer, actually two offers or four offers if you want to count them all individually. The hook is “$100 off closing costs,” everyone likes to save money; no one wants to turn down $100. So thumbs up for the headline.

Headless

Here is the other side of the headline...Because what is below is so large, the headline itself has less impact, therefore the ad is somewhat headless. The design of the APR section is big and reversed so you have to rely on that to let people know they will save money on the interest and hope they see your money offer. Because of that the ad is somewhat headless.

Eye

The three APR rates are eye catching, their size and reverse will draw the eye to it first…are these rates good or not? Who knows, perhaps a professional. But if I were in the market for a house and was looking at these types of figures the 4.00% might make sense to me. So this ad is specifically targeted to homebuyers.

Crowd

Lastly, and probably the most important part is that the ad is simply crowded. This is particularly true at the bottom where the typeface drops below the size of the newsprint. This is the tension with small ads and required information; it is a juggling act. How do you get the information you need in the ad space, plus some sizzle. The problem is, when you put the APR rates in the ad, you have to disclaim. So, for the size of ad you have, it is a necessary evil. Sadly the only remedy to this problem is to either shrink the APR rates or grow the ad. Given the size, the ad is crowded yet clear.

I have yet to see a local bank run an ad that says, “WE ARE SOLVENT” or “NO TARP HERE” or “OPEN AN ACCOUNT AND GET YOUR OWN TARP” (then give new customers an actual tarp); that would be amusing and eye catching.

YMCA

I actually like this ad better than Maps. It is simple, clean, has a nice little photo of happy people (the photo is probably a little too small but it is fine for the size of the ad). Even smaller than the Maps ad, but I think communicates their purpose a little better.

It is generally believed that you should never open with a negative in a newspaper ad. The YMCA ad is a perfect example of how to do a negative headline…notice that their negative is actually a positive anyway. I like it, that offer should work; people really don’t like paying contracts at fitness clubs. So, well done.

I have only one observation and that is repeated information. YMCA is pushing thee points at the top: no contracts, no judgment, and no one turned away. Then they restate the three points in the reversed out section of the ad…it is also here that we discover that the program they are discussing is fitness. Then at the bottom they asterisk the last point again. Given the ad space, do we want to repeat these points 2 or 3 times?

The only change I suggest is to carefully consider the text inside the reversed out box. The text block is on large 20+ word sentence. Generally, in newspaper advertising, it is a good idea to stay away from long or complex sentences. If you broke the sentence into two and pushed fitness up towards the top of that reversed box, you would have probably a little more impact, it certainly would be a little quicker to read.

Cascade Surge 2009 Season Opening Pass

I wanted to start out with something positive; a clever marketing piece. Saturday afternoon I found one.

You can spend a lot of money on advertising, but still not have the affect you want because it misses your target audience or it is not timely or the offer is not attractive or it rains or a thousand other reasons.

On Saturday, the Cascade Surge, our local lower division soccer team was in the right place at the right time with the right message.

Every Saturday the Keizer Soccer Club plays host to a few hundred soccer players and their families. The Surge was there this Saturday with an awning, a chance for the kids to win a prize and the above business card sized coupon. It was a nice set-up visible to all entering or leaving the soccer fields, and even included their mascot, Sammy Surge.

The Surge got two things correct right away. They set up in the middle of soccer players and families. The game is only 7 days away from when they received the ticket. So the message got to their target market at the right time.

The ad itself is also pretty good; printed on glossy stock as a business card. This is something that people could go crazy about and spend more on printing than the Surge did: create a tri-fold for instance. Instead this business card size ticket does three things well: makes an agreeable and well targeted offer, clearly states its intent, and directs for more information.

Handing out a family ticket at a family venue to families is excellent. The clearly stated “Admit Four” should be appealing to their Keizer Soccer Club target audience. Their offer is a winner.

Clearly stating where and when the event will be held is half the battle and you’d be surprised at how many event type ads get printed with unclear locations, times, and circumstances. On this ticket you have May 15 on both sides. The time is clear and location as well as “Rain or shine” which is a good idea in the Pacific Northwest.

One of the most difficult things about the Surge is discovering when the games are played. The Statesman Journal’s coverage of the team is pretty spotty. Finding game times and dates can be difficult. Getting the Surge’s website into the hands of these parents is another smart move and one that is reasonably accomplished at the bottom of this card. Even if turn out is not overwhelming on the day, it doesn’t mean the advertising has not touched them, because they at least have access to the schedule.

It will be interesting to see how the promotion worked. To me it looked low dollar and highly targeted. On May 15 the Surge people should have a good idea of how many came back with the tickets. Hopefully they will have something planned for the Iris parade which happens on May 16 and draws a few thousand spectators to Keizer.

So that is my story for this week. A well done advertising piece and nothing but praise for the people who designed and implemented the ticket giveaway. I will be there on Friday night to see the game, so if the ad worked for me…then you know it’s good.

Introduction

OK so here we go.

I’m easing into this new endeavor with only a small amount of trepidation. I’ve known others who have blogged for years. My question for myself has always been, what will I write, that at the end people won’t ask, “Who Cares?” The answer is this blog, where people might still ask that question, but hopefully the answer will be more self-evident.

I started in advertising in 1989, and pretty much continually been involved in that industry ever since. In 20 years I have made a lot of people a lot of money using really simple and to me almost self-evident strategies. Over the next couple weeks, months, and if there is still interest, perhaps years, I will regularly show advertising on this blog, and discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully over time, some smaller businesses or those new to advertising and those looking for some creative ideas to promote their businesses or causes can use this blog as a resource.

Here’s to it.