Better advertising

Just imagine with me for a minute if you can...

A world with no advertisements...

No billboards... No radio ads... No interruptions to your favorite TV program, and yes, no junk mail in your letter box!

Can you imagine how quiet, clean and pristine our life would be?

It was interesting to think that only about 70 years ago, just before the onslaught of 'the wireless', this world actually existed...

Hard to imagine isn't it!

Sometime about 70 years ago you would walk into a general store, and if you asked for a cake of soap the store attendant would get a big block and carve a cake off for you. No brand names, no price wars, no hard decisions about which one to get except perhaps which one smelt nicer.

But that's not the world we live in today - not at all - Infact it's quite the opposite to the quiet, friendly, one man general store.

You see one day, some time ago, someone came up with the idea that if people knew their soap had a name, people would ask for it. If people asked for it then the store owners would have to carry it, and if the store owners carried it then people would buy it.

Today, advertising has become a multibillion dollar industry. More than a staggering $100 billion dollars is spent every year worldwide. Day in, day out to motivate us - the unsuspecting consumer - to buy their products and their brand names, instead of others.

What an explosive cocktail of ads!

So how do we compete today in this world where every man and his dog is trying to get your customer to buy from them instead of you?

You need to first listen to your customers, find what your customers want and where they are, find a way to reach them in the most direct way possible and give them relevant information to act on today.

I guess that's all well and good for me to say, but how do you put it into practice?

Let me illustrate these ideas with a real life example of a local shopping centre advertising campaign, using a prize consisting of 'a trip for two to any destination in the world' as the major incentive.

The centre had a relatively small budget so TV was not a practical consideration.

From previous campaigns and customer research we knew that the centre had a majority of ethnic residents living in it's catchment area. This helped in developing the prize, being a trip overseas.

We knew from previous campaigns that the centre had a realistic catchment area of about 10,000 homes. In other words, there were people in about 10,000 homes around the centre which would be likely to respond.

It was also discovered that people in the area surrounding the shopping centre were normally bombarded by letterbox pamphlets and newspapers on a regular basis, and any further pamphlets would more than likely be overlooked or discarded.

1. To start with we needed something that was going to get some attention

A good way to get attention is to give people something unusual or different to what they normally get, so we invented a novelty idea. 'The suitcase promotion' was delivered to 10,000 homes directly surrounding the shopping centre.

Simply put it was a small yet convincing cardboard cutout, printed and folded to look like a tourist suitcase. It was about 130mm wide and 95mm high and gave the impression of travel.

This certainly gained a lot of attention.

2. The next step was to create interest

Well naturally when they received the suitcase they wanted to open it to see what's inside. Curiosity creates interest. Once open, the suitcase revealed a 'passport'.

As the customer was getting more involved in playing with their newly found 'toy' they were getting more interested in what it was all about.

3. Then we needed to create a desire

Once inside the passport they were informed that the shopping centre would 'come alive' with all sorts of colourful music and dance from different countries around the world.

There were several tantalizing specials in the passport from the participating shops and they were also invited to enter for the grand prize of a trip around the world by making just 3 purchases anywhere in the centre.

The shoppers were excited over the prospect of winning the prize as well as having some fun in the process.

4. And last but not least we needed action

In the passport there was an entry form. An all important 'return mechanism' critical for evaluating the success of any promotion, and of course to get the customer into the centre in the first place to spend some money.

The entry form encouraged the customer to make three purchases. Every time they made a purchase they'd receive a special visa stamp. Get 3 stamps and they're eligible to enter.

To get them even more motivated we gave them their first stamp free.

The passport was designed to look very similar in size and 'feel' to a real passport to give it that 'authentic' look. There were even 'visa stamps' on every page to authenticate the look.

A full diary of international events happening at the centre was in the front of the passport and a full listing of all the shops were included in the back as a quick reference to the centre to help people know what to expect. They even had flags and loads of topical point of sale and promotional material throughout the centre displaying airlines and countries.

The promotion was a roaring success. The public thought it was a great novelty to receive something different in the mail and the centre was ecstatic that the promotion was such a success.

So remember, if you want to cut through the clutter of advertising today and get results, you need to first listen to your customers, find what your customers want and where they are, find a way to reach them in the most direct way possible and give them relevant information to act on today.

Advertising can be fun. And people can look forward to receiving something from you if it's different.

Good luck with your next ad campaign.