pThe big sin in b advertising/b and marketing is being boring. A market will forgive almost anything else. But a boring sales letter, commercial, or video will generate absolutely no interest in your product. The advertisement must be interesting to the prospect. Not interesting in general, but to that prospect./ppMost small business advertisers who are putting together an ad, think of trying to be funny as their first priority. This is because many think of b advertising/b as a form of entertainment. b Advertising/b isn’t entertainment, it is selling. Making someone laugh when they see your ad, may make you feel better, and it feels like the ad should be working, but this isn’t the case./ppYou do not want to hear Wow, I saw your ad. How clever (or how funny). You want people to see your ad and then want to buy the product it is showcasing./ppIs humor ever effective in your b advertising/b? Sure. A viral video should be either very funny or very shocking. This will cause the video to be spread to all corners of the internet. You may even make some sales off of that video. Humor also has a place in b advertising/b because to tends to stick in the mind of the consumer. Humor in b advertising/b makes the company seem a little more cool because if the humor. But the humor should never get in the way of the appeal of the ad, which is to make someone want to buy the product advertised./ppAdvertisers should always put Selling first in their ads. After there is a strong appeal in the ad, then you can think of ways to say it in a funnier way. But never let humor get in the way of the selling./ppHere is the danger of using humor in your ads. Some people may simply not get the joke. If they don’t get the joke, the ad will actually irritate them, because they won’t understand your point./ppYou may actually offend a few people. The humor, if really funny will direct the consumer’s attention to how funny the ad is, not how great your product is./ppA funny and dramatic demonstration of your product, that really drives home a buying benefit, is useful because now they are talking about the demonstration, which is the same as talking about your product. See? You want them taking about your product, not the commercial./ppWhat is almost universally useful in your broadcast ads, is smiling, friendly faces. They don’t have to be funny, but just happy. The prospect assumes they are happy because they are using the product. In print, it’s harder to be funny anyway, so you are trying harder to be funny, which doesn’t translate well to print. In print, ads should always try to sell, not be funny./ppYou can be interesting without going for a laugh. Do you know what prospective customers find interesting? Anything that will make their life easier, or will solve a problem that is bothering them. That’s what they find interesting. And not being interesting is the major sin in b advertising/b./ppDo you see the title of this article? Originally it was going to be b Advertising/b Humor: It’s No Joke. Do you know why I changed it? Even though it is a semi-clever play on words, it wouldn’t make you want to read the article as much as the title I used. See the difference?/p p a href=http://advertisingandpromotion.ndesignsblog.com/ rel=dofollow title=Advertising And PromotionAdvertising And Promotion/a /p
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Advertising Humor – Smart Advertising Choice?
sâmbătă, 23 octombrie 2010
Avery's run at 3M: Differentiate. Demonstrate. Directed Humor.
I help small business owners...mostly main street people, the brick and mortar types with their marketing.
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Follow this blog « On Your Market: Open for Business |Main| Ding Dong SEO Gone Bad »Avery's run at 3M: Differentiate. Demonstrate. Directed Humor.Avery (the label folks) are taking a run at one of 3M's core products...the ubiquitous Post-It note.
I like this campaign because the ads do a good job of differentiating the Avery products from the competitors, they demonstrate their use and advantages and the humor in the ads is directed in the right direction. That is, it reinforces the message rather than just being funny for the sake of funny. It's funny when the wife wipes out the guy's fantasy football board with the leaf blower and the Avery note is still firmly attached.
Sidenote: I'm growing weary of the male=doofus theme of our present society, but I'd better get used to it. Not sure what I'm talking about, start with this post from Michele Miller's Marketing to Women blog, Wonderbranding.
I think these ads, obviously targeted at women, will be enough to get people to grab an Avery product when they are displayed alongside the 3M product in a store.
Here's one of the Avery ads...the other two will be after the jump...
The third spot focuses on a product that is more aligned with the core of the Avery brand, shipping labels.
What do you think? Hit or miss?
Want to know more about advertising? Try OnYourMarket.com
Dave Young on August 05, 2010 in Advertising, Advertising Performance Equation, Market Share, Television | PermalinkTechnorati Tags:Avery ads, Post-it, TV commercialsReblog (0) | | Save to del.icio.us | | TrackBack
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Comments Avery's run at 3M: Differentiate. Demonstrate. Directed Humor.Avery (the label folks) are taking a run at one of 3M's core products...the ubiquitous Post-It note.
I like this campaign because the ads do a good job of differentiating the Avery products from the competitors, they demonstrate their use and advantages and the humor in the ads is directed in the right direction. That is, it reinforces the message rather than just being funny for the sake of funny. It's funny when the wife wipes out the guy's fantasy football board with the leaf blower and the Avery note is still firmly attached.
Sidenote: I'm growing weary of the male=doofus theme of our present society, but I'd better get used to it. Not sure what I'm talking about, start with this post from Michele Miller's Marketing to Women blog, Wonderbranding.
I think these ads, obviously targeted at women, will be enough to get people to grab an Avery product when they are displayed alongside the 3M product in a store.
Here's one of the Avery ads...the other two will be after the jump...
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