Advertainment...

"Phil, would you look at an ad for me," an old friend asked. "I'd really appreciate your honest critique."

"Uh ... sure," I responded hesitantly. I looked at his ad. It was terrible. "Did you ... uh ... design this ad?"

"No."

"Do you ... um .. like it?"

"No."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Let me be honest: when I look at most amateur ads it hurts. I wouldn't attempt to practice law or medicine on my own behalf. Yet, because the most talented people in our field make it look easy, a lot of people feel they can design a successful ad. They can't. No more than they could do their own appendectomy. But, since ad design isn't lethal -- except to profits, they'll try it. Or ask their cousin's son to do it.

Being asked for my opinion on a friend's ad is even more painful. It's a lot like being shown a picture of an ugly baby. You can't tell your friend the baby is ugly. But if you say she's cute you'd be lying. I usually say something like: "Wow, he's really big" or "She's got a lot of hair". (If I've ever said that about your baby, I apologize. I'm sure your child was really cute, too!) Everyone thinks their own baby is cute. Just like everyone thinks their own ad is witty or attractive.

When I look at an ad, I'm not just looking for clever catch phrases and great artwork. I'm looking for a strong strategy, an engaging sales message and an inspiring take-away. I've seen a lot of ugly ads over the years. But what are worse are the one's that look good but have no meaningful impact. Advertising is more than pretty pictures or funny dialog. That's "advertainment". Advertising is salesmanship in print. Successful advertising is about impact. It's about making the right impression to the right people to make sales. You need to touch a "responsive chord" to do that.

Let me ask you a simple question: What was the last ad you responded to? Not the last ad that made you laugh or cry. Not one that you told a friend about but didn't remember the brand. What was the last ad you saw that made you pull our your checkbook and buy?

Off hand, most people can't think of one. That, despite the fact that we're bombarded by thousands of advertising messages a day. Interesting, huh?

So is advertising's influence all subliminal? Yes. And no. Advertising's influence is cumulative. That means in very few cases do you see an ad once and pick-up the phone. In fact, in most cases, you won't even remember seeing or hearing an ad the first few times -- unless it's highly creative. And if the product doesn't fulfill a real or perceived need, you still won't react -- even if you've seen an ad 100 times.

My simplified advertising equation is: the right message reaching the right audience repeated with optimal frequency equals results.

There I go making it look easy again!

- Phil Sasso