I recently had a boss who disagreed with me when I told him that an advertisement does not necessarily have to like, amuse, entertain or be accommodating for it to be effective.
Many of today's advertising designers or producers seek to entertain, entertain, or win contests - primarily between advertising agencies - in the design of their promotional ideas. Is that what advertisers are really looking for in advertising? Is that why they hire an advertising agency? Are our advertising campaigns contests of occurrences or true efforts strategically well directed, on course?
Judith Charles defines the advertising writer as "a salesman behind a typewriter." From this then we will conclude that the goal of every advertiser should be that their ads sell, not like or dislike.
The advertiser should not be concerned with whether or not people like their ads or if they are entertaining. If this happens, great, but the ads are primarily intended to increase the advertiser's sales and profits.
Everywhere we see print ads, on television, in movies or on the internet, also on the radio, very beautiful and impressive. The question is: Do these ads really persuade you to buy? Do they generate positioning? Were these ads created to sell or to win contests between ad agencies?
Advertisements with very deep concepts (only understood by the creative who had the idea) and a large investment in production, suddenly are not as effective in selling or generating brand positioning. Sometimes very cheap ads written in a simple and direct way do a good job of sales and positioning.
Experts say that for an ad to be effective it must be perfectly understood by a 10-year-old. If this child understands it, then anyone understands it, more if it is about consumer products.
Be careful, I am not against creativity or genius, but if our advertising does not sell, it is not useful in terms of promotional communication. I worked for many years as an account executive for an international advertising agency and was able to experience and observe the frustration of more than one advertiser who made large investments of time and money, in the end, obtaining very bad sales results.
Before approving an announcement we must ask ourselves:
- Is it correctly focused on our target market? Are the media selected for dissemination (press, radio, billboards, POP material, TV, internet, etc.) the ones that reach my "target"? Does it capture the attention of our prospects ? Does it communicate the benefits of our products and / or services? Does it persuade them to take action? Does it generate positioning for our brand?
It is not advisable to launch an advertising campaign if it has not been pre-tested through research studies such as focus groups or surveys, because it is useless for my agency and I to like commercials if they do not motivate my target market to buy or to prefer my brand among all the competitors in the market.
These notes are also valid in corporate communication, on crisis management, lobbying campaigns, communication and political propaganda, etc. The principles and processes of communication are similar in commercial communication and corporate communication.
In the end, it's all about the same thing: Generating a position to sell, be it products, ideas or proposals that require popular consensus.
I end it all in one sentence: Advertising before anything else must communicate, not only and only amuse or entertain or be accommodating.
