We all see it: The Internet is changing the way companies advertise. No longer are choices limited to TV, radio, print publications, and billboards. The online world has opened new possibilities almost too numerous to list.
Yet certain fundamentals of advertising remain immutable. Here are a few bits of wisdom gleaned from a previous career in advertising, and just from life in general.
1. You’ve got to back it up. Your product (or service) had better be as good as your ads claim. Advertising pioneer Jerry Della Femina said, “There is a great deal of advertising that is much better than the product. When that happens, all that the good advertising will do is put you out of business faster.”
I experienced this rule when, as a college kid, I bought a can of chili based on a TV ad that said, “It’s not exactly tame!” I took it to my apartment, cut the lid off the can, heated it up and found...the absolute worst kind of tasteless, pasty stuff. Ever since then, I have looked with suspicion on any product with that company’s brand name. So avoid raising expectations, only to have the customer’s experience trash them.
2. Spend smart. And that doesn’t only mean being frugal. As American Advertising Federation hall-of-famer Morris Hite put it, “There is more money wasted in advertising by underspending than by overspending. Years ago, someone said that underspending in advertising is like buying a ticket halfway to Europe. You’ve spent your money, but you never get there.” In other words, your campaign simply crashed, and all the money you spent was wasted.
3. Repetition (frequency) counts. Boxing great Muhammad Ali understood that: “I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.” And he did convince a great many people. Of course, remember that he backed his words up in the ring. And remember, too, that frequency alone is not enough. Said ad legend William Bernbach, “In communications, familiarity breeds apathy.”
4. People buy benefits. One advertising instructor admonished students: “Sell a good night’s sleep – not the mattress.” Or as the same rule is more often stated, “Sell the sizzle – not the steak.” What are you really selling? Surely not a pipe liner or a cable machine or pictures on a pipe’s insides. No, you’re selling things like a healthy and functional home, peace of mind, absence of hassles, and disruption.
5. Remember the basics. As ad agency founder Leo Burnett observed, “Advertising says to people, ‘Here’s what we’ve got. Here’s what it will do for you. Here’s how to get it.’” Under-emphasize any of those and your advertising will fail. Above all, make the “how to get it” clear, simple, memorable, and easy.
6. Don’t let the ad get in the way of what you offer. Burnett again: “We want consumers to say, ‘That’s a hell of a product,’ instead of, ‘That’s a hell of an ad.’” How many times have you seen a spot on TV that’s so clever you remember it for days – but you can’t remember what it was advertising? There’s an ad that did no good, no matter how many awards it won for creativity. Make sure that when people remember your ads, they also remember the name of your business.
7. Remember the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid. In the words of Timo Everi, an ad man from Finland, “The number of ideas to implement in advertising design should be odd – and three’s too many.” In other words, one ad, one idea. Sure, you’d like your radio spot to tell everything about your business. But listeners will more likely remember if you stick to one thing. Then to tell more of your story, maybe you can run more than one ad.
Finally, don’t ask your advertising to do too much. A business is too complex for magic-bullet solutions. In the words of Los Angeles ad man Lee Clow, “I’ve never found a client’s business problem that could be solved solely through advertising.”
