Ads: replace hype with authentic grabbers

If you're in retail business, don't make the mistake of thinking you're in the entertainment business in your marketing. Awards don't sell snow blowers.

Be cautious not to use cute ideas for cute-sake. Grab attention in an unfamiliar, attention-getting way, but remember to bridge your opening line in a believable way, and support the opening and bridge in your copy.

Opening example: "Now would be a horrible time for a flat tire!"

If you've placed this ad during morning drive, at the height of morning rush hour, you now have seized the attention of every driver on the road at that moment, and each are now imagining what a flat tire would do to their day.

The ad doesn't have to be about tires or tire repair. In fact, that would be too obvious an opening even for a towing service. But now that you have their attention, carefully craft your bridge to bring people into your story.

Bridge example: "You don't have any spare time today and there are probably a pretty good number new tasks waiting for you when you hit the office."

See, a flat tire would be inconvenient because your customers are time-starved like the rest of the free world. This ad now can take any direction it needs to.

Body example: "Since the odds are squarely against your actually getting a flat, you now have a few more seconds to stop at the Barry's Good Java drive-thru to pick up an exotic coffee reward. And when we hand you the cup, we'll also give you a card good for another cup tomorrow -- on us -- as a thank you for trying us out. Barry's Good Java. A few more extras; no nickels & dimes."

Notice how we got attention without hype? Then we bridged into our story. Then we told the story, and made a suggestion that offered a benefit to the morning commuter along the way. Nothing terribly devious, just good clean attention-getting.

PLACEMENT
Now we wouldn't have been terribly selective about which radio station we used to placed the commercial; we're interested in reaching as many people as we can afford to reach. That simple. For this we pay attention to CUME (total weekly station audience) or AQH (total simultaneous listeners within a day part) during the 5a-10a (AMD) day part. Our major focus is on placing one commercial an hour M-F on the station you can afford.

Ads: A clever attempt that fails is not clever

I recently saw part of a silent television commercial for a local car dealer, and I'm frankly surprised I even noticed it. I missed at least the first half of it because I was enthralled by a piece of lint that was hovering in the air at that fleeting moment. Then my advertising brain took note of the spectacle before me.

As a broadcaster for more than twenty-five years, I've learned the power of sounds in advertising. I'm a huge believer that the right sounds are capable of longer life in the mind than a visual. I'd never let a client of mine waste that moment. It was reminiscent of that cable TV channel that's dedicated to placard advertising with some generic music in the background.

Back to the car ad. It was clearly trying to be clever in its silence, but failed miserably in the message, which unsurprisingly I cannot relay to you.

A silent television ad may as well go into a newspaper or on a web site. Use clever audio to get attention if you think it's right, but silence is anything but clever -- unless it's a well-placed pause -- and always a wasted opportunity.

Billy McGuigan on KXnO

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Billy McGuigan is as comfortable playing Beatles or Buddy Holly music and he demonstrates the ease as he sat down with Larry Cotlar on Cotlar & Company on KXnO.  Billy's next stage progect involves Beatles music, which you can see him play here.