Larry the Ad Man's Blog

I hope you learn from my small business marketing and advertising tips.

"Advertising is to trade what Steam is to machinery" Thomas Cook.
It was an honor to be nominated for 2011 Canadian Weblog Awards.


Sunday, June 12, 2011

Stick your message !

I had a recent discussion with one of my clients about some television commercials. There is a disturbing trend of nonsensical commercials that have VERY little "stick" value. An example of stick value would be is I said "2 all beef patties"... did you finish the song? Thats sticky. McDonalds could stop advertising for years and you would still remember that and it will still resonate and make people visit their restaurants.
Recent commercials have clearly decided that they do not want to stick. This client mentioned commercials he had seen that didn't mention the product it was advertising until the end. I asked, did you remember the product the next time you saw the commercial? He thought for a second and said "no, good point" with a smile. Large multinational companies spend Millions perhaps Billions of dollars on marketing and I don't remember the product the next time the commercial runs, let alone when the commercial is not running. How was it that this is an effective commercial? Arguments can be made that perhaps he and I were not in the target market, BUT I am sure we do know people that ARE in the target market and we have nothing to say to those people about the product. I don't have dentures, but know about the products.

So, how do you stick your message? Not easy, but not that hard either. First thing to acknowledge is you must stick with your tag line over time. McDonalds used this jingle for many years. Rhyming can be an easy way to get a message to stick.. "Nothing sucks like Elecrolux" or a real life universal truth, like "Nothing runs like a Deere". One of my favorites I use with my client who owns a coffee shop, "Smiles are always free". If you stick a catchy jungle to it, memories will ring. Until next time I am Larry "The Ad Man".

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