Media Watch

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 a...

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...