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.