Advertising – Page 2

Super Bowl Madness 2018

We’ve just seen the latest orgy of self-indulgence from “Big Advertising” at Super Bowl 52. Great game apparently (I confess I’m not a fan of NFL) and the ads shown over the course of the game have become a major talking point. However, it seems unlikely that the folks paying for it all…the advertisers…will see a decent return on their money.

“64% of Super Bowl viewers are unable to connect a memorable ad to the brand it was advertising, according to research from research consultancy Communicus. They also found less than 20% of Super Bowl ads produce significant impact on the brand.”

More at “super bowl advertising” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne.

Not only were the viewers unable to remember the brands advertising, there were fewer of them as ratings declined, resulting in the smallest audience in 9 years…

“With 103.4 million watching, last night’s game on NBC from Minneapolis is down 7% from the total set of network eyeballs from the 2017 Super Bowl.”

Back to the ads themselves… [Read more…]

Online Advertising Vendors – Having A Laugh?

“Having a laugh”

1. When someone is being inconvenient, or taking advantage of someone else
2. To insult someone and then claim it was a joke

( The catchphrase of Andy Millman’s (Ricky Gervais) in the tv-show-within-a-tv-show, “When the Whistle Blows”. (from Extras.) Spoken in a high pitch and followed by “Is s/he havin’ a laff?”) Source: UrbanDictionary.com

***

Today is “April Fool’s Day” but long-suffering online advertisers might think that online giants such as Google and Facebook regard every day as as one for “Having a laugh” at their expense. You see, the issue of fraud in online advertising has once again raised its ugly head.

Of course, this problem has been around in some form from the very beginning of online advertising. In pay-per-click, one problem used to be fake clicks on ads to boost revenue to the sellers of online ads. Now it seems to have moved to a more worrying level as Malcolm Auld explains…

“Media companies have now admitted they have been falsely charging for online advertising and are returning $millions to clients, rather than face messy legal action. Dentsu was the first to raise its guilty hand.

I have one client about to go to court with its global media agency because the agency refuses to use the client’s programmatic advertising account. The reason is simple. The moment the client gets access to the account they will discover how much they have been ripped-off over the terms of the contract to date. It seems the agency is hiding behind a clause in the contract that says bookings must be on its account. The media agency would rather lose the client’s business across the globe than be found guilty of fraud.

Facebook admits it has overstated video viewing by as much as 80%.”

Well worth reading the whole post at “Would you encourage your children to work in marketing? I doubt it…”

And there’s another problem that advertisers don’t find in the least bit funny… [Read more…]

Christmas 2016 UK TV Ads…Humbug?

In the UK, once Halloween and Bonfire Night are out of the way, retailers go into full “Christmas Marketing” mode. Part of that is the release of Christmas TV ads.

Christmas TV Ads have been around since the beginning of TV but, in the UK at least, the “Big Christmas Story Ad” is a relatively recent addition to the festive schedule.

John Lewis launched their first Christmas advert in 2007 and it has since become something of an annual tradition and one of the signals that the countdown to Christmas has begun in the UK.

Naturally, pretty much every big store took note and…copied the idea.

The “Big Two” are generally reckoned to be John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. So here they are, first John Lewis…

https://youtu.be/sr6lr_VRsEo

Can’t say that I’m terribly impressed with this. Here’s the ad from… [Read more…]

Tear-Jerker Ad Sensation…

…most likely won’t help sales or profits (although it might well gain plaudits and awards for the agency).

The video below has become something of an internet sensation. Launched on YouTube on 27th January (2015) as I write this it has already attracted 5,794,334 views and has picked up coverage in publications like the UK “Daily Telegraph”.

And yes, even a hard-bitten type like myself was moved to tears…

It certainly packs an emotional punch…

…but as an ad it is very unlikely to produce worthwhile and measurable results for the advertiser.

Let’s start with what’s good about the ad…

…that it’s firmly focused on the prospective customer and what they care about. It makes an emotional impact because it taps into a very powerful trigger, the love of a parent for their children.

And it holds the attention and draws the viewer in with the unexpected twist in the story where the little girl makes an unexpected and shocking statement. [Read more…]

Is Classic Direct Response The Best Advertising For iPad?

Something to ponder…

…is classic direct response copywriting the most effective way to approach advertising through channels like the iPad?

Arguably, of course, it’s the best approach to ANY advertising.

I raise the question because of a conversation over lunch the other day with a good friend and client.

This particular friend is a gadget-fiend of the first order. A big Apple fan, there’s probably no modern electronic gadget he hasn’t got or at least tried out.

Naturally, he has an iPad…

…and he has subscriptions to quite a few publications.

As an aside here, I doubt if I have to tell you that the traditional print media is struggling badly these days because of the disruptive change caused by the internet.

I’ve touched on this before…

“Could Direct Response Marketing Save The Newspaper Business?”

…and yesterday’s post has some relevant points about dealing with changing conditions…

“The Artist, The Copywriter And Adapting To The Market”.

The advent of the Kindle and the iPad (and similar devices) caused a great deal of excitement in the media industry. There was the hope that people would be prepared to pay for access to read on their mobile devices.

In effect, the old physical print medium would be replaced by the shiny new electronic medium.

It may work, although from what I can see, people aren’t prepared to pay too much for electronic access.

There’s one other big problem…

…old-style media never made their money from charging for their content.

Sure, it made a useful contribution, but the profits all came from…

…ADVERTISING!

And it’s the loss of advertising revenue that’s causing the legacy media such big financial problems.

Back to the conversation with my friend.

He was telling me how the various publications he subscribes to carry advertising…

…but you come across them as you’re “swiping” through the content to get to the next article.

Obviously it’s super-easy to skip over the ad (in the old physical print medium, of course, you couldn’t do that…it sat there on the page).

So, if ads are going to attract a response…

…how do you get people to stop mid-swipe?

How about…

…an arresting headline and copy that looks a little like an article?

Perhaps something that looks very much like a classic direct response ad with very dense copy (plus some suitable attention-grabbing images)?

It might sound crazy and I’m sure all the hip creative types pushing their clients to use this channel wouldn’t even have this idea on the radar…

…but well worth testing, I suggest.

Especially when, as I suspect, the mainstream approach produces dismal results.

(Of course, they may not even bother to measure the effectiveness of the advertising…

…which is another story.)

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