Heads Up...


We've begun posting a "Bad Ad of the Week" on a bulletin board here at Sasso Marketing.

This week's "Bad Ad" has an astronaut shaking hands with a child in a wide open green field. The headline: "Be there." The subhead: "For the Grand Opening of our Franklin Park Branch." If you look closely you'll realize the ad is for a bank.

I think it's a big waste of money. The headline and visual don't work together. And it's a confusing message. (If you understand what the astronaut has to do with the Grand Opening, please let me know. Are the bankers saying their tellers are spacey? Are their banking fees out of this world? Are their mortgage rates skyrocketing?)

In a good ad, the headline will attract readers and be remembered. (Relevant humor can work. Like: "We find more leaks than the CIA" for a leak detector.) A good ad has a graphic that stops you for a second longer. (An "invisible man" ad got us talking recently.) A great ad will have a good headline and good graphic working together. (An ad we did once had a Photoshopped image of a blimp carrying a semi truck. Headline: "There are better ways to reduce tire wear." The copy explained. The ad generated double the usual responses for the advertiser.)

Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy of an ad.* That means if you can get your unique selling message across with just your headline and graphic, your ad will be more influential. But don't neglect the 20% of the people who read your ad. They are most likely reading your ad because they are interested in your product! Give them enough information to move to the next step.

My point? Get your message across quickly with a strong headline and graphic. Let the body copy fill in the details.

Don't and you may end up on our "Bad Ad" board!
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*SOURCE: Engel/Warshaw/Kinnear,1987