Posts Tagged ‘Advertising Campaign’
Pizza Menus and Seasonal Advertising Campaigns
Did you know that your pizza menus should change every few months in order to maximize your sales? That’s right – those hard working pizza menus that you send out with every order need to be maintained and updated just like any other advertising campaign.
Pizza Menus Are Just Like Any Other Advertisement
Have you ever received ads for weight loss programs during the summer? Do you receive ads for flat screen televisions during football season? Did you ever notice that those $5 pizza places tend to advertise more when the economy is slow? You probably answered yes to all of those questions.
It pays to be smart in advertising. The early spring months present an opportunity for you to promote healthy menu items as people become weight-conscious. Help your customers achieve their beach figures by including healthy takeout menu options such as salads. During the summer months you might to offer package deals for families and friends. The summer is also a perfect time to hire out-of-school teenagers to distribute your menus and flyers. During the winter months, you may have better results with loaded pizzas and wings (think football season) as hungry sports fans satisfy their appetites.
By adjusting your menu to reflect seasonal holidays, current events, and national pastimes you can increase sales and grow your business. It’s simple to do and can lead to major profit increases. Take a look at the following calendar to plan your 2008 pizza menus.
2008 Calendar of Holidays/Events:
January 1 – New Year’s Day
February 3 – NFL Super Bowl
February 14 – Valentine’s Day
March 17 – St. Patrick’s Days
March 24 – Easter Sunday
May 5 – Cinco De Mayo (Mexican Holiday often observed in U.S.)
July 4 – Independence Day
September 1 – Labor Day
October 31 – Halloween
November 4 – Election Day
November 11 – Veterans Day
November 27 – Thanksgiving
November 28 – Black Friday
December 25 – Christmas
More Advertising Opportunities:
Little League baseball season – offer free slices for home runs, stolen bases, etc
Beach/Bikini Season – promote healthy menu items and weight loss
Graduation Day – offer discounts for new graduates
Mother’s Day – work with a local florist to offer a free flower with every pizza
Father’s Day – create a special for hungry fathers that includes pizza, wings and drinks
Local Festivals & Fairs – be a part of local community activities
Getting the Most Out of Your Pizza Menus:
Your pizza menus should follow time-tested and proven design layouts that present your menu items and pricing in the most effective way possible. Here are 5 design and printing tips to get started:
Always print in full-color on glossy paper – you must look good to the customer! Only use high quality images of your pizza and menu items Hire a graphic design service if you do not have graphic design experience Gather menus from other pizza shops – note what you like and dislike about them Choose a menu printer that specializes in pizza menus and will send you free print samples
Remember: Your menu has to sell for you when you are not there!
By: Chris Barr
About the Author:
Chris Barr is an experienced marketing professional and graduate of Christopher Newport University. For the lowest prices on printed fliers, newspaper inserts, brochures, menus, and postcards please visit http://www.taradel.comCopyright © 2008 Taradel, LLC. All rights reserved.
Creativity and Common Sense in Non-consumer Advertising
by Philip Yaffe
“I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half.”
This succinct resume of the advertiser’s dilemma is often attributed to John Wanamaker, the department store pioneer. Some people prefer to give the credit to Henry Ford, the automobile pioneer, or other favorite business giants. Whoever said it first, it is certain that it has been said thousand and thousand of times since.
The significance of the observation is nothing short of astounding. These are people whose business is investing and harvesting financial assets, yet when it comes to advertising, they freely admit to wasting at least half of their money!
But the observation can be turned on its head. Viewed from this perspective, it means that these same extremely clever and resourceful marketers believe that the power of advertising is so great, even at only 50% effectiveness they still get their money’s worth. This is equally astounding!
The value of advertising can most easily be seen with mass marketed products. For example, a breakfast cereal launches a major advertising campaign; within a few days to weeks the sales figures will reflect the impact of the campaign. With technical and industrial products, the picture is not quite so clear. Few people buy a car or a piece of industrial equipment on impulse. They build up to it over a long period of time, so that the cause-and-effect relationship between advertising and sales is virtually impossible to evaluate.
Nevertheless, advertising is indispensable. So the question is, can you construct advertising campaigns that will assure the best return on investment (ROI), even when that return cannot be directly measured?
The answer is both yes and no. It is “no” if you believe that advertising by nature is more of an art than a science. It is “yes” if you believe that advertising is a combination of both art and science.
It is certainly true that advertising has a major “art” component, i.e. that people who have a “feel” for it are likely to produce better, more effective advertising than people who don’t. Unfortunately, this verity has led to the false conclusion that advertising is predominantly art, i.e. a matter of taste.
When advertising is viewed as largely a question of personal preference, the rational component of the exercise takes second importance. Worse, it often degenerates into a kind of pseudoscience of rules and regulations with no scientific justification:
– Be positive: no one likes negative advertising
– Avoid simple, straightforward headlines; headlines should “tease” readers into the advert
– Use big, bold visuals; people are impressed by pictures
– Show the solution, not the problem: this is reassuring to potential buyers
– Never write more than 15 – 20 words of body copy; no one reads body copy anyhow
– Make payoff lines (slogans) clever and memorable, not explicit and to the point
The summation seems to be: Advertising is entertainment. If you can attract attention and give a show, then you will sell.
One writer on the subject bluntly stated: “Advertising consists of first hitting people in the face with a pie, then delivering your message.” It is of course true that you must attract attention before you can deliver your message. But just how seriously is anyone like to take your message while he is wiping whipped cream off his face?
Advertising may have elements of show business. But if it is only show business, it will fail. On the other hand, if we are more detached in our analysis — i.e. if we put the art of advertising and the science of advertising into better balance — we many learn some valuable lesions. And gain some valuable commercial leverage.
I have done considerably work in pharmaceutical marketing. Doctors are perhaps the most difficult targets in the world, because what you “sell” them is ideas and information, which later on they may or may not turn into prescriptions for their patients. Thus, while the following examples relate specifically to doctors and medicines, the underlying principles are universally valid. Throughout this article, wherever you see the word “doctor”, mentally substitute the name of your potential technical and/or industrial customer and see how well these ideas fit.
Facing the Facts
David Ogilvy, one of the most highly regarded gurus of consumer advertising, asserts: “Very few advertisements contain enough factual information to sell the product. There is a ludicrous tradition among copywriters that consumers aren’t interested in facts. Northing could be farther from the truth.”
If this contention is valid for housewives, how much more valid must it be for doctors!
Medicine is a serious business. When a doctor reads a medical journal, he is looking for medical information. Otherwise, he would be reading something else. It therefore follows: Advertising in medical journals that gives real medical information is likely to attract more attention and achieve better results than advertising which doesn’t.
If this seems self-evident, medical journals bear witness to the opposite. The majority of adverts tend to fall into two categories:
1. Lots of words, but little real information (lack of a focused message).
2. A clever headline, a pleasing picture—and no information at all.
The excuse for the first kind of advert is often: “It is a new product; we need to create a personality for it.” It is hard to imagine how an empty personality, based solely on errant prose, will result in positive promotion.
The excuse for the second category of adverts often is: “It is a well known product; this is simply a reminder advert.” Certainly it makes sense to remind the doctor that a medicine exists. But it makes even more sense to remind him of why he is using it, if he is already using it. Or why he should be using it, if he isn’t.
The 80/20 Rule
The objection will now be raised: Doesn’t this “art + science” concept of advertising necessitate long body copy? Does it make sense to write long body copy when no one reads it anyhow?
Let’s examine this contention in reverse order.
For every 100 doctors who read the headline and look at the visual of an advert, let’s say only 20 will actually read the body. Does this represent an 80% wastage? Emphatically no.
The 80/20 rule is a fundamental tenet of technical and industrial marketing, i.e. in general 80% of sales come from 20% of customers. The same principle applies to advertising.
Readers who just look at the headline and visual, then turn the page, at that moment are not the real customers for the product. Those who remain to read the body copy are the real customers for the product. This is the ideal moment to tell them bout it, because this is when they want to know about it. Otherwise, they too are likely to turn the page and an excellent selling opportunity will be lost.
Body is important, in fact vital, because it is your only real chance to make the sale. But how long should that body copy be?
This is like asking how long is a piece of string. You don’t answer this question by counting the number of words. Rather, you consider the value of the words. The best guide is: If the body copy contains one word more than needed to deliver the message, it is probably too long; if it contains one word less than need to deliver the message, it is definitely too short, regardless of how many words are used!
Of course, it makes no sense to simply print the prescribing information. As Bill Bernbach, a legendary practitioner of consumer advertising, has written: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer; that it informs and renders a service. Then be certain that it says what it has to say in a way no one has ever said it before.”
Notice the balance in this advice.
First: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer.” This is advertising as a science. Determining what you want to say about your product and what you ought to say about it are two different things. This is why most good advertising starts with market research. And never lets anything go to press before it has been thoroughly tested.
Second: “Be certain that your advertisement says what it has to say in a way that no one has ever said it before.” This is advertising as an art.
How the advert expresses its message, both visually and verbally, can vary dramatically depending on who is saying it. The total impact the advert will achieve intimately depends on the talents of the art director and the copywriter, the so-called “creates” of the business.
The Use and Abuse of Creativity
Introducing the copywriter and art director into the discussion raises the vexing question of creativity in advertising.
“Creativity” is probably one of the most abused and misused words in English or any other language. As we have seen, some people think it means hitting people in the face with a pie. We have also seen the dangers of this approach. Surprising and shocking people in order to gain their attention can:
– Undermine the credibility of the serious message you are trying to deliver.
– Lead to rapid advertising “wear-out”. You can surprise and shock people only once; after that, you are likely to have no effect. Worse, you may have a negative effect!
Stripped of mythology, saying what you have to say in a way that it has never before been said simply means: Putting forward the essentials of the message in such a way that they cannot be ignored — on the first exposure and on subsequent exposures.
So much emphasis is placed on attracting attention and conveying a message on the first exposure (“pie in the face”), very little thought seems to be given to what will happen, if anything, on the second, third and subsequent exposures. This is the concept of “wear-out”; after how many exposures does the advert stop having any useful impact?
The concept of wear-out is closely allied to the idea of repetition. Unlike supermarket adverts, adverts for prescription pharmaceuticals seldom appear only once (“Buy now before supplies run out; Special discount prices, stock up now”). Instead, they usually run for at least several months, and often a year or longer.
True, few doctors read the same advert more than once, but they cannot help seeing it more than once. They will certainly see it much more often than they will see the pharmaceutical representative who visits them. Advertising is the most frequent and most consistent point of contact between the doctor and the company.
A truly efficient advert should have impact each and every time it is seen — whether it is read each time or not. This is why the fundamental structure is so important. And why it is well worth spending the time and energy to get it right, i.e. concept development not only for journal adverts, but also for brochures, mailings, oral presentations, symposia, etc.
How do you create advertising with such power and longevity?
In general, any advert that communicates the product name and main sell proposition in a flash should continue to work as long as the underlying strategy remains the same. The assumption is, each exposure — even if it is only as long as it takes to turn the page — reinforces previous impressions of the message in the journals, mailings, etc. Adverts that rely on “teaser” headlines or other indirect approaches are more problematical. It is far more likely that the doctor will perceive this kind of advertising as promotion rather than information, and will turn the page with no reinforcement of the selling message.
Courage and Conviction
A truly effective long-life advert may not always appear smashingly striking at first sight; however, if it is well constructed it will grow and gain strength over time. By contrast, an advert that is extremely striking at first sight — this being its major attribute — may in fact lose power over time. Sometimes overnight.
Developing advertisements that sell on first and subsequent exposures admits of no hard and fast rules. Some times it may mean an extremely factual advert that looks almost like editorial copy; other time it may be an advert with a highly emotional content. It all depends on the nature of the product; the nature of the market, and what ideas, true or false, are already in the doctor’s mind.
There is more to good technical and industrial advertising than meets the eye. Indeed, a superficial analysis is likely to be very misleading, with very expensive consequences. To properly evaluate an advertising campaign, it is necessary to know the underlying strategy and the objectives that strategy is designed to achieve.
By way of example, here are the descriptions of three advertising campaigns I produced when I was creative director of a specialized medical advertising agency. You may not fully understand the products, but look closely at the description of each advert.
1. Product: Vasodilator
Objective: Increase prescriptions by repositioning it as the first product of a new, more effective therapeutic class
Headline: “6 Actions on the Blood and the Vessels to Combat Claudication and its Premonitory Symptoms”
Visual: 6 symbols in the form of a rectangle representing the 6 modes of action
Body copy: factual, moderate length
2. Product: Benzodiazepine
Objective: Stabilize leadership position/market share in an anti-benzodiazepine marketing environment
Headline: “My Conditions for Prescribing an Anxiolytic to My Patients”
Visual: Intelligent, serious-looking general practitioner speaking the headline
Body copy: factual, short
3. Beta-2 mimetic bronchodilator
Objective: Maximize sales potential by overcoming market prejudice to using oral beta-2 mimetics in the treatment of nocturnal asthma
Headline: “Asthma: Night Is the Enemy”
Visual: Artist’s impression of the experience of a night-time asthma attack, painted by an asthmatic artist who actually suffers such attacks.
Body copy: factual; extremely short
At first glance the vasodilator and benzodiazepine adverts might appear uninspired, even banal. They are unlikely to win any awards for advertising “creativity”. On the other hand, the asthma advert is exactly the type that could win a creativity award.
Despite their superficial differences, fundamentally they are quire similar. All three adverts had very high awareness and credibility scores. One of the so-called “banal” adverts was so well received — and had such an impact on sales — that when we proposed a more “imaginative” version, the product manager, originally unconvinced by it, growled: “If you touch my advert, I will break your arm.”
Conclusion: All three adverts were extremely creative in the real sense of the word, because they:
1. Clearly reflected the nature of the product
2. Precisely addressed the needs of the market
3. Elicited the desired response (won prescriptions)
The serious advertiser would do well to bear this functional definition of creativity uppermost in mind.
It takes courage to reject an advertising campaign proposal that is striking, cute, funny, artistic, etc., in favor of one that doesn’t seem to possess these desirable characteristics. A so-called “unimaginative” campaign that clearly responds to the needs of the market and has the innate capacity to grow and develop (i.e. continue generating sales) is considerably more creative, in the true sense of the word, than one that flashes like a meteor, then dissipates its energy and loses impact before it has had a chance to do its job.
Philip Yaffe is a former writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing communication consultant. He now teaches courses in persuasive communication in Brussels, Belgium. Because his clients use English as a second or third language, his approach to writing and public speaking is somewhat different from other communication coaches. He is the author of In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional, available from the publisher (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com). Contact: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com
By: Philip Yaffe
About the Author:
“I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don’t know which half.”
This succinct resume of the advertiser’s dilemma is often attributed to John Wanamaker, the department store pioneer. Some people prefer to give the credit to Henry Ford, the automobile pioneer, or other favorite business giants. Whoever said it first, it is certain that it has been said thousand and thousand of times since.
The significance of the observation is nothing short of astounding. These are people whose business is investing and harvesting financial assets, yet when it comes to advertising, they freely admit to wasting at least half of their money!
But the observation can be turned on its head. Viewed from this perspective, it means that these same extremely clever and resourceful marketers believe that the power of advertising is so great, even at only 50% effectiveness they still get their money’s worth. This is equally astounding!
The value of advertising can most easily be seen with mass marketed products. For example, a breakfast cereal launches a major advertising campaign; within a few days to weeks the sales figures will reflect the impact of the campaign. With technical and industrial products, the picture is not quite so clear. Few people buy a car or a piece of industrial equipment on impulse. They build up to it over a long period of time, so that the cause-and-effect relationship between advertising and sales is virtually impossible to evaluate.
Nevertheless, advertising is indispensable. So the question is, can you construct advertising campaigns that will assure the best return on investment (ROI), even when that return cannot be directly measured?
The answer is both yes and no. It is “no” if you believe that advertising by nature is more of an art than a science. It is “yes” if you believe that advertising is a combination of both art and science.
It is certainly true that advertising has a major “art” component, i.e. that people who have a “feel” for it are likely to produce better, more effective advertising than people who don’t. Unfortunately, this verity has led to the false conclusion that advertising is predominantly art, i.e. a matter of taste.
When advertising is viewed as largely a question of personal preference, the rational component of the exercise takes second importance. Worse, it often degenerates into a kind of pseudoscience of rules and regulations with no scientific justification:
– Be positive: no one likes negative advertising
– Avoid simple, straightforward headlines; headlines should “tease” readers into the advert
– Use big, bold visuals; people are impressed by pictures
– Show the solution, not the problem: this is reassuring to potential buyers
– Never write more than 15 – 20 words of body copy; no one reads body copy anyhow
– Make payoff lines (slogans) clever and memorable, not explicit and to the point
The summation seems to be: Advertising is entertainment. If you can attract attention and give a show, then you will sell.
One writer on the subject bluntly stated: “Advertising consists of first hitting people in the face with a pie, then delivering your message.” It is of course true that you must attract attention before you can deliver your message. But just how seriously is anyone like to take your message while he is wiping whipped cream off his face?
Advertising may have elements of show business. But if it is only show business, it will fail. On the other hand, if we are more detached in our analysis — i.e. if we put the art of advertising and the science of advertising into better balance — we many learn some valuable lesions. And gain some valuable commercial leverage.
I have done considerably work in pharmaceutical marketing. Doctors are perhaps the most difficult targets in the world, because what you “sell” them is ideas and information, which later on they may or may not turn into prescriptions for their patients. Thus, while the following examples relate specifically to doctors and medicines, the underlying principles are universally valid. Throughout this article, wherever you see the word “doctor”, mentally substitute the name of your potential technical and/or industrial customer and see how well these ideas fit.
Facing the Facts
David Ogilvy, one of the most highly regarded gurus of consumer advertising, asserts: “Very few advertisements contain enough factual information to sell the product. There is a ludicrous tradition among copywriters that consumers aren’t interested in facts. Northing could be farther from the truth.”
If this contention is valid for housewives, how much more valid must it be for doctors!
Medicine is a serious business. When a doctor reads a medical journal, he is looking for medical information. Otherwise, he would be reading something else. It therefore follows: Advertising in medical journals that gives real medical information is likely to attract more attention and achieve better results than advertising which doesn’t.
If this seems self-evident, medical journals bear witness to the opposite. The majority of adverts tend to fall into two categories:
1. Lots of words, but little real information (lack of a focused message).
2. A clever headline, a pleasing picture—and no information at all.
The excuse for the first kind of advert is often: “It is a new product; we need to create a personality for it.” It is hard to imagine how an empty personality, based solely on errant prose, will result in positive promotion.
The excuse for the second category of adverts often is: “It is a well known product; this is simply a reminder advert.” Certainly it makes sense to remind the doctor that a medicine exists. But it makes even more sense to remind him of why he is using it, if he is already using it. Or why he should be using it, if he isn’t.
The 80/20 Rule
The objection will now be raised: Doesn’t this “art + science” concept of advertising necessitate long body copy? Does it make sense to write long body copy when no one reads it anyhow?
Let’s examine this contention in reverse order.
For every 100 doctors who read the headline and look at the visual of an advert, let’s say only 20 will actually read the body. Does this represent an 80% wastage? Emphatically no.
The 80/20 rule is a fundamental tenet of technical and industrial marketing, i.e. in general 80% of sales come from 20% of customers. The same principle applies to advertising.
Readers who just look at the headline and visual, then turn the page, at that moment are not the real customers for the product. Those who remain to read the body copy are the real customers for the product. This is the ideal moment to tell them bout it, because this is when they want to know about it. Otherwise, they too are likely to turn the page and an excellent selling opportunity will be lost.
Body is important, in fact vital, because it is your only real chance to make the sale. But how long should that body copy be?
This is like asking how long is a piece of string. You don’t answer this question by counting the number of words. Rather, you consider the value of the words. The best guide is: If the body copy contains one word more than needed to deliver the message, it is probably too long; if it contains one word less than need to deliver the message, it is definitely too short, regardless of how many words are used!
Of course, it makes no sense to simply print the prescribing information. As Bill Bernbach, a legendary practitioner of consumer advertising, has written: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer; that it informs and renders a service. Then be certain that it says what it has to say in a way no one has ever said it before.”
Notice the balance in this advice.
First: “Be certain that your advertisement says something to the consumer.” This is advertising as a science. Determining what you want to say about your product and what you ought to say about it are two different things. This is why most good advertising starts with market research. And never lets anything go to press before it has been thoroughly tested.
Second: “Be certain that your advertisement says what it has to say in a way that no one has ever said it before.” This is advertising as an art.
How the advert expresses its message, both visually and verbally, can vary dramatically depending on who is saying it. The total impact the advert will achieve intimately depends on the talents of the art director and the copywriter, the so-called “creates” of the business.
The Use and Abuse of Creativity
Introducing the copywriter and art director into the discussion raises the vexing question of creativity in advertising.
“Creativity” is probably one of the most abused and misused words in English or any other language. As we have seen, some people think it means hitting people in the face with a pie. We have also seen the dangers of this approach. Surprising and shocking people in order to gain their attention can:
– Undermine the credibility of the serious message you are trying to deliver.
– Lead to rapid advertising “wear-out”. You can surprise and shock people only once; after that, you are likely to have no effect. Worse, you may have a negative effect!
Stripped of mythology, saying what you have to say in a way that it has never before been said simply means: Putting forward the essentials of the message in such a way that they cannot be ignored — on the first exposure and on subsequent exposures.
So much emphasis is placed on attracting attention and conveying a message on the first exposure (“pie in the face”), very little thought seems to be given to what will happen, if anything, on the second, third and subsequent exposures. This is the concept of “wear-out”; after how many exposures does the advert stop having any useful impact?
The concept of wear-out is closely allied to the idea of repetition. Unlike supermarket adverts, adverts for prescription pharmaceuticals seldom appear only once (“Buy now before supplies run out; Special discount prices, stock up now”). Instead, they usually run for at least several months, and often a year or longer.
True, few doctors read the same advert more than once, but they cannot help seeing it more than once. They will certainly see it much more often than they will see the pharmaceutical representative who visits them. Advertising is the most frequent and most consistent point of contact between the doctor and the company.
A truly efficient advert should have impact each and every time it is seen — whether it is read each time or not. This is why the fundamental structure is so important. And why it is well worth spending the time and energy to get it right, i.e. concept development not only for journal adverts, but also for brochures, mailings, oral presentations, symposia, etc.
How do you create advertising with such power and longevity?
In general, any advert that communicates the product name and main sell proposition in a flash should continue to work as long as the underlying strategy remains the same. The assumption is, each exposure — even if it is only as long as it takes to turn the page — reinforces previous impressions of the message in the journals, mailings, etc. Adverts that rely on “teaser” headlines or other indirect approaches are more problematical. It is far more likely that the doctor will perceive this kind of advertising as promotion rather than information, and will turn the page with no reinforcement of the selling message.
Courage and Conviction
A truly effective long-life advert may not always appear smashingly striking at first sight; however, if it is well constructed it will grow and gain strength over time. By contrast, an advert that is extremely striking at first sight — this being its major attribute — may in fact lose power over time. Sometimes overnight.
Developing advertisements that sell on first and subsequent exposures admits of no hard and fast rules. Some times it may mean an extremely factual advert that looks almost like editorial copy; other time it may be an advert with a highly emotional content. It all depends on the nature of the product; the nature of the market, and what ideas, true or false, are already in the doctor’s mind.
There is more to good technical and industrial advertising than meets the eye. Indeed, a superficial analysis is likely to be very misleading, with very expensive consequences. To properly evaluate an advertising campaign, it is necessary to know the underlying strategy and the objectives that strategy is designed to achieve.
By way of example, here are the descriptions of three advertising campaigns I produced when I was creative director of a specialized medical advertising agency. You may not fully understand the products, but look closely at the description of each advert.
1. Product: Vasodilator
Objective: Increase prescriptions by repositioning it as the first product of a new, more effective therapeutic class
Headline: “6 Actions on the Blood and the Vessels to Combat Claudication and its Premonitory Symptoms”
Visual: 6 symbols in the form of a rectangle representing the 6 modes of action
Body copy: factual, moderate length
2. Product: Benzodiazepine
Objective: Stabilize leadership position/market share in an anti-benzodiazepine marketing environment
Headline: “My Conditions for Prescribing an Anxiolytic to My Patients”
Visual: Intelligent, serious-looking general practitioner speaking the headline
Body copy: factual, short
3. Beta-2 mimetic bronchodilator
Objective: Maximize sales potential by overcoming market prejudice to using oral beta-2 mimetics in the treatment of nocturnal asthma
Headline: “Asthma: Night Is the Enemy”
Visual: Artist’s impression of the experience of a night-time asthma attack, painted by an asthmatic artist who actually suffers such attacks.
Body copy: factual; extremely short
At first glance the vasodilator and benzodiazepine adverts might appear uninspired, even banal. They are unlikely to win any awards for advertising “creativity”. On the other hand, the asthma advert is exactly the type that could win a creativity award.
Despite their superficial differences, fundamentally they are quire similar. All three adverts had very high awareness and credibility scores. One of the so-called “banal” adverts was so well received — and had such an impact on sales — that when we proposed a more “imaginative” version, the product manager, originally unconvinced by it, growled: “If you touch my advert, I will break your arm.”
Conclusion: All three adverts were extremely creative in the real sense of the word, because they:
1. Clearly reflected the nature of the product
2. Precisely addressed the needs of the market
3. Elicited the desired response (won prescriptions)
The serious advertiser would do well to bear this functional definition of creativity uppermost in mind.
It takes courage to reject an advertising campaign proposal that is striking, cute, funny, artistic, etc., in favor of one that doesn’t seem to possess these desirable characteristics. A so-called “unimaginative” campaign that clearly responds to the needs of the market and has the innate capacity to grow and develop (i.e. continue generating sales) is considerably more creative, in the true sense of the word, than one that flashes like a meteor, then dissipates its energy and loses impact before it has had a chance to do its job.
Philip Yaffe is a former writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing communication consultant. He now teaches courses in persuasive communication in Brussels, Belgium. Because his clients use English as a second or third language, his approach to writing and public speaking is somewhat different from other communication coaches. He is the author of In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional, available from the publisher (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com). Contact: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com
By: Philip Yaffe
About the Author:
Philip Yaffe is a former writer with The Wall Street Journal and international marketing communication consultant. Now semi-retired, he teaches courses in persuasive communication in Brussels, Belgium. Because his clients use English as a second or third language, his approach to writing and public speaking is somewhat different from other communication coaches. He is the author of In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional. Contact: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com.
Free Viral Advertising
Now that you have built that great website, joined the perfect affiliate program, created the most sort after product, how do you get others to know about it?
In one word, advertising! In a couple of words, lots of advertising.
Well, let’s begin by reviewing some of the things we know about advertising before talking about viral advertising. What actually is advertising? According to one definition by Dictionary.com, It is “the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, need, etc., esp. by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc..” Notice how it says, “by paid announcements.” But does it have to be paid always? Not when we introduce the viral element of advertising. Remember, we want advertising for free!
There are quite a few things you can do to get others to know about your site or business or product using viral advertising .
Before going viral, lets talk about some of the things you can do with your advertising generally to start gaining some traction. You could start by telling your friends about your service or product, and have your friends tell their friends and so on. That is advertising by Word of mouth and there is a kind of viral element to that. If you have a website, you could make your site in such a way that the search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest of them would love it. You could put a lot of unique content on your site, use meta tags to do on page optimization and build related links to boost your relevance and ranking with the search engines. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And because the search engines love your site, they will bring exposure as a kind of reward for your efforts.
You could immediately go to any of the search engines such as Google, or Yahoo, or Miva and set up an advertising campaign, where you pay only when searchers click on your ad. This is called Pay Per Click or PPC advertising. You could even do the more recent variation, a kind of pay per incident called Pay Per Play, where you pay when searcher listen to your ad.
There are also traffic exchanges and article directory sites that you can use to bring traffic and attention to your site or product. The later is called Article Marketing and is a very solid and profitable form of adverting. This is simply the art of crafting unique articles about your brand, or service or product and creating a web page for the article on your site and then submitting a variation of the article to the article directories with a link back to your website. If your article is great, other webmaster pick it up and republish it on their sites with your back link, bringing authority and traffic to your site.
But these all cost time and or money. No advertising is really free or is it? Well, No and Yes! No because it will cost you time or money or both time and money to get your advertising momentum going. And yes, because once you get your momentum going, you can add a tweak to your advertising that can really make your ads free. That is the viral part of advertising.
What are the quickest and simplest ways to get your advertising momentum going?
Some of the simplest, easiest and most cost-effective ways to get your momentum going is by running solo, sponsored or classified ads.
Solo Ads: Solo ads are ads sent to an email list or a list of ezine or newsletter readers with no other ads on it. Solo ads when sent to a target audience are very effective because there are no competing offers on the page. The reader is presented with your ad and your ad alone. That is why they are called solo ads.
Classified Ads: When placed at the right place and worded carefully, classified ads are also pretty effective. Because there are other competing ads, they are not as effective as a solo ad. By merely tweaking your headline, text format and duration of ad placement, you can improve the performance of your classified ad.
Sponsored Ads: In-between solo ads and classified ads are sponsored ads. Sponsored ads are placed at the beginning, middle or end of ezine or newsletter articles. By reason of their placement and size, they tend to perform better than classified ads but not as well as solo ads.
Pay Per Click Campaigns are also quick and effective, but they can be expensive if you don’t know what you are doing. You could loose your shirt with runaway campaigns.
Adding a viral twist to your advertising
There a few ways you can add a viral advertising spin to your advertising campaign. But what actually is viral advertising? It is simply a way of bringing attention to your products, services, brand or campaign by leveraging the help and effort of others.
Article Writing, as mentioned earlier is one way to bring a viral effect to your traffic. As you gain prominence in your niche, and other webmasters pick up your articles for publication, there is an element of viral-ness that kicks in and brings you additional exposure and traffic at no extra effort or cost.
Once you begin to bring some traffic to your site or product, you can use other tools, such as tell a friend form on your site, with incentives to leverage off of the help of your visitors. Hotmail did it and exploded their subscription base. Recently, we have witnessed the explosion of social sites such as Myspace, Facebook and several others going from obscurity to notoriety in no time. But these are just social sites and they can provide you leverage if you just want to promote your face.
But there are also sites that provide a platform for you to put a viral spin to your business for free. A quick search on Google will turn out a truck load of such sites. But how many of them actually produce the results they claim can only be known from actually participating. Without doubt, the way to go with your advertising is to go viral. Why? Because viral advertising has a compounding effect, it is free, and it is self-sustaining. You can see author resource area for more information.
By: Austin Akalanze
About the Author:
In one word, advertising! In a couple of words, lots of advertising.
Well, let’s begin by reviewing some of the things we know about advertising before talking about viral advertising. What actually is advertising? According to one definition by Dictionary.com, It is “the act or practice of calling public attention to one’s product, service, need, etc., esp. by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc..” Notice how it says, “by paid announcements.” But does it have to be paid always? Not when we introduce the viral element of advertising. Remember, we want advertising for free!
There are quite a few things you can do to get others to know about your site or business or product using viral advertising .
Before going viral, lets talk about some of the things you can do with your advertising generally to start gaining some traction. You could start by telling your friends about your service or product, and have your friends tell their friends and so on. That is advertising by Word of mouth and there is a kind of viral element to that. If you have a website, you could make your site in such a way that the search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and the rest of them would love it. You could put a lot of unique content on your site, use meta tags to do on page optimization and build related links to boost your relevance and ranking with the search engines. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). And because the search engines love your site, they will bring exposure as a kind of reward for your efforts.
You could immediately go to any of the search engines such as Google, or Yahoo, or Miva and set up an advertising campaign, where you pay only when searchers click on your ad. This is called Pay Per Click or PPC advertising. You could even do the more recent variation, a kind of pay per incident called Pay Per Play, where you pay when searcher listen to your ad.
There are also traffic exchanges and article directory sites that you can use to bring traffic and attention to your site or product. The later is called Article Marketing and is a very solid and profitable form of adverting. This is simply the art of crafting unique articles about your brand, or service or product and creating a web page for the article on your site and then submitting a variation of the article to the article directories with a link back to your website. If your article is great, other webmaster pick it up and republish it on their sites with your back link, bringing authority and traffic to your site.
But these all cost time and or money. No advertising is really free or is it? Well, No and Yes! No because it will cost you time or money or both time and money to get your advertising momentum going. And yes, because once you get your momentum going, you can add a tweak to your advertising that can really make your ads free. That is the viral part of advertising.
What are the quickest and simplest ways to get your advertising momentum going?
Some of the simplest, easiest and most cost-effective ways to get your momentum going is by running solo, sponsored or classified ads.
Solo Ads: Solo ads are ads sent to an email list or a list of ezine or newsletter readers with no other ads on it. Solo ads when sent to a target audience are very effective because there are no competing offers on the page. The reader is presented with your ad and your ad alone. That is why they are called solo ads.
Classified Ads: When placed at the right place and worded carefully, classified ads are also pretty effective. Because there are other competing ads, they are not as effective as a solo ad. By merely tweaking your headline, text format and duration of ad placement, you can improve the performance of your classified ad.
Sponsored Ads: In-between solo ads and classified ads are sponsored ads. Sponsored ads are placed at the beginning, middle or end of ezine or newsletter articles. By reason of their placement and size, they tend to perform better than classified ads but not as well as solo ads.
Pay Per Click Campaigns are also quick and effective, but they can be expensive if you don’t know what you are doing. You could loose your shirt with runaway campaigns.
Adding a viral twist to your advertising
There a few ways you can add a viral advertising spin to your advertising campaign. But what actually is viral advertising? It is simply a way of bringing attention to your products, services, brand or campaign by leveraging the help and effort of others.
Article Writing, as mentioned earlier is one way to bring a viral effect to your traffic. As you gain prominence in your niche, and other webmasters pick up your articles for publication, there is an element of viral-ness that kicks in and brings you additional exposure and traffic at no extra effort or cost.
Once you begin to bring some traffic to your site or product, you can use other tools, such as tell a friend form on your site, with incentives to leverage off of the help of your visitors. Hotmail did it and exploded their subscription base. Recently, we have witnessed the explosion of social sites such as Myspace, Facebook and several others going from obscurity to notoriety in no time. But these are just social sites and they can provide you leverage if you just want to promote your face.
But there are also sites that provide a platform for you to put a viral spin to your business for free. A quick search on Google will turn out a truck load of such sites. But how many of them actually produce the results they claim can only be known from actually participating. Without doubt, the way to go with your advertising is to go viral. Why? Because viral advertising has a compounding effect, it is free, and it is self-sustaining. You can see author resource area for more information.
By: Austin Akalanze
About the Author:
Akalanze A is a seasoned writer. His writings have been published across the web on several directories. Some of his review works can be seen at free viral advertising here.
Eliminating the Uncertainty in Advertising…
Eliminating the uncertainty in advertising…
For many people, advertising online is a quagmire of uncertainty and complexity. Rarely is there a way of tracking how effective, if at all, your ads are and if those ads are even reaching the right people. The result of these failed advertising campaigns often causes businesses to stagnate and debts to incur. The fact is there are some people who just do not know how to advertise their online business effectively.
Advertising effectively and properly online is an important aspect of keeping your internet business making money and attracting repeat customers. There are tons upon tons of ads out there, so being smart about how you advertise and where you do it is very important.
There are many websites and tools out there to aid in your advertising campaign. Crocads.com is a top rated site with the goal of helping your business attract more customers. Crocads.com is a component site with owners experienced in marketing and advertising. They know what it takes to get your name out there and are dedicated to helping you and your business.
Unlike other similar sites, Crocads.com offers many benefits and opportunities to advertise websites and businesses. By becoming a member with Crocads.com, you will receive different benefits according to the level of membership you choose. Overall, Crocads.com allows you to advertise to a targeted audience that will be interested in your site and product, making it more likely that they will purchase from you or use your services. This takes out a large amount of uncertainty that results in using other methods of advertising. In fact, this feature can be seen on Crocads.com site. Called the Wombat Search, anyone is able to search through countless advertising by keywords or categories. Along with offering Recommended Advertising and Recommended Sites anyone can clearly see how dedicated Crocads.com is to promoting others businesses.
A membership allows further access to benefits. There are four levels of membership starting at a free member and ending with lifetime membership. The names of these memberships display the fun and whimsical attitude of Crocads.com.
The Croc Hunter membership is the free membership and offers limited abilities and benefits. Croc Hunter level is most often used by those wanting to test the waters of Crocads.com and quickly realizes that the site offers among the best advertising campaigns on the web.
Apprentice Croc Wrestler is for those wanting to use Crocads.com on a monthly basis. With more features than the Croc Hunter level, as an Apprentice, there are still many features that are unavailable at this stage. One of the most valuable of these features is being advertised on Crocads.com itself.
Expert Croc Wrestlers experience more benefits and features than the previous two and is one of the most cost effective ways of advertising through Crocads.com. Compared to the sign up cost and the cost of maintaining advertising for a year, Expert Croc Wrestlers know what it takes to be cost effective.
The last membership level is the Champion Croc Wrestlers and these members are truly champions. They understand how important it is to advertise using Crocads.com and see the most benefits of the site’s methods and resources.
Advertising does not have to be difficult or confusing. In fact, with the aid of Crocads.com, advertising can be fun, easy, and enjoyable, not to mention affordable. Or to put it another way, Crocads.com is a beaut!
_________________________________
Croc-Ads was developed by Jane Mark & Phil Basten of JAM Marketing Inc as a valuable advertising resource for their members and customers. Discover why the web’s top marketers now advertise at… http://crocads.com
By: Phil Basten
About the Author:
For many people, advertising online is a quagmire of uncertainty and complexity. Rarely is there a way of tracking how effective, if at all, your ads are and if those ads are even reaching the right people. The result of these failed advertising campaigns often causes businesses to stagnate and debts to incur. The fact is there are some people who just do not know how to advertise their online business effectively.
Advertising effectively and properly online is an important aspect of keeping your internet business making money and attracting repeat customers. There are tons upon tons of ads out there, so being smart about how you advertise and where you do it is very important.
There are many websites and tools out there to aid in your advertising campaign. Crocads.com is a top rated site with the goal of helping your business attract more customers. Crocads.com is a component site with owners experienced in marketing and advertising. They know what it takes to get your name out there and are dedicated to helping you and your business.
Unlike other similar sites, Crocads.com offers many benefits and opportunities to advertise websites and businesses. By becoming a member with Crocads.com, you will receive different benefits according to the level of membership you choose. Overall, Crocads.com allows you to advertise to a targeted audience that will be interested in your site and product, making it more likely that they will purchase from you or use your services. This takes out a large amount of uncertainty that results in using other methods of advertising. In fact, this feature can be seen on Crocads.com site. Called the Wombat Search, anyone is able to search through countless advertising by keywords or categories. Along with offering Recommended Advertising and Recommended Sites anyone can clearly see how dedicated Crocads.com is to promoting others businesses.
A membership allows further access to benefits. There are four levels of membership starting at a free member and ending with lifetime membership. The names of these memberships display the fun and whimsical attitude of Crocads.com.
The Croc Hunter membership is the free membership and offers limited abilities and benefits. Croc Hunter level is most often used by those wanting to test the waters of Crocads.com and quickly realizes that the site offers among the best advertising campaigns on the web.
Apprentice Croc Wrestler is for those wanting to use Crocads.com on a monthly basis. With more features than the Croc Hunter level, as an Apprentice, there are still many features that are unavailable at this stage. One of the most valuable of these features is being advertised on Crocads.com itself.
Expert Croc Wrestlers experience more benefits and features than the previous two and is one of the most cost effective ways of advertising through Crocads.com. Compared to the sign up cost and the cost of maintaining advertising for a year, Expert Croc Wrestlers know what it takes to be cost effective.
The last membership level is the Champion Croc Wrestlers and these members are truly champions. They understand how important it is to advertise using Crocads.com and see the most benefits of the site’s methods and resources.
Advertising does not have to be difficult or confusing. In fact, with the aid of Crocads.com, advertising can be fun, easy, and enjoyable, not to mention affordable. Or to put it another way, Crocads.com is a beaut!
_________________________________
Croc-Ads was developed by Jane Mark & Phil Basten of JAM Marketing Inc as a valuable advertising resource for their members and customers. Discover why the web’s top marketers now advertise at… http://crocads.com
By: Phil Basten
About the Author:
Phil Basten
www.crocads.com
Author.
Marketing Consultant.
How Can CPC Advertising Help Your Business?
Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising is one type of online advertising available today. With the growing popularity of the Internet, Cost Per Click advertising is a great way for you to put your business name is in front of millions of people. There are several online advertising businesses, and Google AdSense is the most popular.
CPC is a keyword-based advertising system. This means your advertisement is connected to searches containing the same keywords that you have chosen as your advertising keywords. You are charged a certain amount, usually anywhere from 5 cents to $5.00 every time someone clicks on your advertisement.
Even though your advertisement may be shown many times, you are only charged for the number of times visitors actually click on your advertisement for more information. If your Cost Per Click advertisement is text-based, it will be placed in an advertising unit with between one and three other advertisements.
Before you start your Cost Per Click advertising campaign, you must place a maximum CPC bid. This bid will indicate the highest amount you are willing to pay for the CPC advertising. You must take into consideration that you will be expected to pay more for the more popular keywords and for advertisement placement in locations with higher visibility.
Even though you set your own maximum CPC bid, your actual advertising cost will usually be one cent above the minimum charge required to keep your advertisement placement in its current Web page location.
Google uses your quality score and rank number to determine your CPC charge and advertisement placement. Your quality score is determined by how closely related your selected keywords are to the actual advertisement wording.
The score also considers the quality of your landing page and your click through rate. Your landing page is the Web page your visitors are directed to once they click on your advertisement, and your click through rate is the percentage of viewers that click on your ad out of the total number of viewers that see your advertisement.
Your advertisement’s placement is determined by its rank number. A higher rank number indicates a higher quality advertisement and this will place your advertisement in the more desirable advertising locations. The higher your quality score is, the lower your Cost Per Click advertising costs will be and the better your advertisement location will be.
Cost Per Click advertising allows you to set and control your advertising budget. You are able to set a daily budget for your CPC charges. Each day, if the number of click throughs reaches your set maximum daily budget, the ads will stop appearing until the next day.
You can increase or decrease your daily maximum CPC charges as needed, and you will never be surprised at how much your are charged for your Charge Per Click advertising. Keep in mind that if your advertisement does not generate a minimum amount of daily click throughs, your ad will be discontinued.
By: Sameep Shah
About the Author:
CPC is a keyword-based advertising system. This means your advertisement is connected to searches containing the same keywords that you have chosen as your advertising keywords. You are charged a certain amount, usually anywhere from 5 cents to $5.00 every time someone clicks on your advertisement.
Even though your advertisement may be shown many times, you are only charged for the number of times visitors actually click on your advertisement for more information. If your Cost Per Click advertisement is text-based, it will be placed in an advertising unit with between one and three other advertisements.
Before you start your Cost Per Click advertising campaign, you must place a maximum CPC bid. This bid will indicate the highest amount you are willing to pay for the CPC advertising. You must take into consideration that you will be expected to pay more for the more popular keywords and for advertisement placement in locations with higher visibility.
Even though you set your own maximum CPC bid, your actual advertising cost will usually be one cent above the minimum charge required to keep your advertisement placement in its current Web page location.
Google uses your quality score and rank number to determine your CPC charge and advertisement placement. Your quality score is determined by how closely related your selected keywords are to the actual advertisement wording.
The score also considers the quality of your landing page and your click through rate. Your landing page is the Web page your visitors are directed to once they click on your advertisement, and your click through rate is the percentage of viewers that click on your ad out of the total number of viewers that see your advertisement.
Your advertisement’s placement is determined by its rank number. A higher rank number indicates a higher quality advertisement and this will place your advertisement in the more desirable advertising locations. The higher your quality score is, the lower your Cost Per Click advertising costs will be and the better your advertisement location will be.
Cost Per Click advertising allows you to set and control your advertising budget. You are able to set a daily budget for your CPC charges. Each day, if the number of click throughs reaches your set maximum daily budget, the ads will stop appearing until the next day.
You can increase or decrease your daily maximum CPC charges as needed, and you will never be surprised at how much your are charged for your Charge Per Click advertising. Keep in mind that if your advertisement does not generate a minimum amount of daily click throughs, your ad will be discontinued.
By: Sameep Shah
About the Author:
For more information visit Netlyte | houston web design. You can also request more information to find out how we can help you generate more visitors at houston texas web design