Ad Glut…

Chicago’s PACE suburban transit service now broadcasts entertainment videos on their buses, says the Chicago Tribune. The commercials generate $500,000 for PACE. Looking up, I see a PACE bus out my window wrapped in a funny ad for Citibank.

The upside? All this ad revenue stretches PACE’s budget and subsidizes the cost of public transportation for patrons. It also helps advertisers reach a captive audience.

The downside? As every square inch of America gets covered with ads, each ad’s impact is reduced. I call it ad glut. Others call it ad clutter. Whatever you call it, it means it takes more ads to get the same response. What once generated 100 leads now generates 60.

To be more successful you need to do one of two things: buy more ads or be more creative.

Obviously, buying more ads is a numbers game: more ads means it’s more likely people will see them.

Breakthrough creativity uses novel or daring approaches to get noticed. For instance, when French Connection United Kingdom started using the company’s initials to get people’s attention, North American sales jumped from $35M to $84M! Definitely breakthrough – but a little too edgy for my sensibilities.

You could do both and hedge your risk, but it’s obviously much more expensive.

Stretching the envelope can help you stretch your ad budget. How can you breakthrough the ad clutter in your market? What can you do to get more noticed and more remembered? How can creativity make your ad jump OFF the page—without OFFending?

- Phil Sasso