Cursing is “plain English” and – exactly as we use it verbally – you can use creatively to add “color.” I would not suggest dropping an F-bomb.
This ad, the final “punch-line" in a series, was sent ten’s of thousands of times in hardcopy direct mail, magazine, email and online. It did damn well.
This is a shockingly insensitive ad for a real medical condition. It reaks of marketing desperation.
I bet the ad agency’s first headline was “Man Up Will Ya.” And then they all had a good giggle.
Print resolution (300 dpi) will not allow you to render your screen captures (72 dpi) at a physical size large and crisp enough to be meaningful or enticing. Besides, what demonstration value is a static image of your dynamic product?
I went for passion over product here.
This one statement ( forgiving the early 1960's context ) drives great comunications no matter WHAT the media. Respect others' intelligence.
From my photo-a-day series.
Don't bother trying to show features of your webportal in print. Always too small. However, you can indicate "a user's experience."
I took the assumptive sale approach here :)
I don’t even want to describe to you the quality of ads in the “smelting industry.” It was very easy to visually differentiate these 1/4 page B&W ads.
If memory serves me, this was my first professional “series.”I took the photos too.
B2B buyers may not be impulse shoppers, but they ARE shoppers – so the same tactics of “creative engagement” apply (more so in a very conservative niche). Once you have their interest, then you can follow through with the essential “tell me more” content. You know, the dull part.
This “over the top passion” concept generated a lot of leads and reinforced what clients would often tell us “I love you guys!” Due to tighter SEC regulations, clients became very hesitant to offer us documented testimonials, so I made these obviously faux ones.
I am all for creativity, but "art for art's sake" can bury the message... and the resulting revenue.
Can you tell this inside front cover two-page spread ($$$) is an ad for a app that organizes expenses for business travelers? YIKE - such a huge CONCRETE pain in the ass pain point wasted! Much like form follows function in architecture, creativity follows communications in marketing.
Pummel? Back office? (click image to enlarge)
No one reads brochures anymore. Sadly, it's too much information at once. Take each brochure "section" and MAIL it - one page at a time - in a creative manner. Make sure the visuals build on one another so the recipients easily connect your dots.
The front side of these cards are here. You'll see how they match up and how the story expands from one card to another.
The phrase "get a seat at the table" was an important battle cry within my industry. Using the clients' jargon identified me as an "insider" that understood their issues. Any other industy... this would have been a cliche'.
This campiagn was very successful. View it here.
Great lead copy is important so make it stand alone.
The stuff in the middle, not so much. But don’t get lazy. It’s essential that you put client-focused content here to reward anyone that has followed your great open text into the longer story. They want to learn more, so deliver. And you may change this text per the media and audience, but make it it rich – and no jargon. This paragraph is for true enriched content.
And people will read you LAST words too. Be clear and memerable.
Oh. People ALWAYS read captions. Be strategic.
It doesn't matter how branded your company is, please include EXACT contact information in your ad. Think of it as a convenience for prospects to contact you. Don't assume they will type ".com" after your name.
The example ad I posted here yesterday had no contact information. And when I Googled them, page 1 results listed their competitors. Certainly, prospects will Google you at some point during the buying process, but you don't want to bring attention to your competitors during the "looking for contact information" phase.
I call this type ad an "agency ad." The creative does not speak to the specific company or product. They could have sold this concept to any client. It's as open ended as a horoscope.
Forgive me...I know it is REALLY REALLY REALLY easy to critique others' ads and we all find ourselves in this situtation. However, this ad was in Bloomberg Businessweek last week: rackrate, fullpage ad: $139,000. Wow. Was this the best spend?
They BOTH need to be creative!
Advertising's Helen of Troy.
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Since 2009, I have been blogging contiguously about investor relations,
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