|
|
| | |
|
|
|
Strategy Advertising
Microsoft's Bing Search Engine |
|
|
|
"...an ad should be simple enough so that it is the strategy."
--Al Ries & Jack Trout, Positioning, p. 207
In the above linked 30 sec. TV spot, JWT has positioned Microsoft's Bing well; they're up against a competitor that already owns the human mind for seach engines.
So rather than fight it out with Google, Bing created and claimed a new position in the search engine marketplace...
"Decision Engine"
 Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
PC as TV
25% of households watch TV on their CPUs |
|
|
|
Since my father-in-law is in network computers, I pointed this LA TImes article out to him this morning.
After reading it he was instant in his response to me...so I'm sharing it here with you because I agree with him.
Josh's Father-in-Law: "Josh, this article missed the opportunity to talk about WHY this is happening? Or even what this means to local stations, networks, or advertisers.
Continuing with finger gestures:
Why it's happening:
- Watch on your schedule, not the television stations or the network schedule. It's like Tivo. This is just a web version of Tivo
- Better control over the annoying advertising. We are sick of the lousy boring annoying commercials
What it means:
- Local television stations are doomed unless they get their heads out of the 50’s and 60’s way of doing TV
- Businesses that depend on TV to attract customers need to re-think their marketing. Because the internet will do to TV what TV did to Radio. Maybe even worse
Old school TV advertising THINK is the problem Josh; you can help your clients here because you don't THINK old school TV do you?
Josh: I do not.
Josh's Father-in-law: That's right, you don't.
And besides the convenience of watching on your own schedule, the TV ad industry has run their customers off by being boring and annoying.
Just look at one factor… Everyone complains about how loud the commercials are, everyone says they mute and walk away. EVERYONE. Even with everyone telling what they don’t like, no one in TV listens.
Think about it, what if at the door of Target or WalMart a greeter had a bull horn, and every time you walked in they stuck it in your face and screamed “WELCOME TO WALMART, TODAY WE HAVE A SPECIAL ON….”
Then on every aisle there was another employee with a bull horn…full volume…”PANTEEN SHAMPOO IS SOOOOOO GOOOD TO YOUR HAIR, BLAH, BLAH,BLAH….”. And, sometimes you had to get through two, three, four, or even five of these people just to get to the product you wanted on THAT aisle!!
If this happened, you and everyone you know would stop going to that store. They would complain to the store manager and either the store would listen or go out of business.
Why then is it so hard to understand why consumers are turned off by Old TV THINK and why it means the end.
Josh: "Okay. I think you make some good points there; I need to be on my way now. Thanks."
(do you think I touched a nerve giving my father-in-law this article to read this morning?)
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Wizard of Freelance Copywriting
ON AN AS-NEEDED BASIS |
|
|
|
Your Go-to Freelancer:
I’d like to be your go-to copywriting freelancer; this means specifically being an extension of your ad/copywriting dept...for any media copywriting.
Non-traditional Media:
· voicemails, website copy, tweets, facebook profiles, blogs, podcasts, online videos, etc.
Traditional Media:
· print, radio and TV too…(print being newspapers, magazines, outdoor, pamphlets, brochures, etc.
Why you'll want another copy voice:
The reason I’d like to help your company with copywriting is because I’m not inside your bottle (if you will); in other words I’ll bring a freshly powerful perspective to your inattentive and nonresponsive readers/listeners/viewers.
My goal:
My goal will always be to make your prospects STOP, PAY ATTENTION, and RESPOND to your ads.
And to further ramp up the voltage of your ads, here’s what I do:
- Call your prospects by name with Renewable Words (read: uncommon insight)
- Be bold as a 1st World dictator…we’ll have to get approval for some of this
- Be message clear (with the action we want prospects to take, response mechanisms, etc.)
Goal for you:
The goal is that you and all your family members get to open Swiss bank accounts :P…
And don’t forget what my Austin ad-mentor once said to me (AKA: The Wizard of Ads); “when you’re inside the bottle, you can’t read the label.”
Why this arrangement is best for you:
You get to hire my services without a monthly commitment.
With Pen behind Ear,
Joshua Stevens
Stevens Writes
MESSAGES WITH MAGNETISM
A Wizard of Ads, Houston Partner
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
(:60) @ Wizard Academy
How the Wizard of Ads taught me Everything to Grow Business |
|
|
|
Spring 2005:
I had a good redneck opening line for a radio commercial, to rent tractors.
In one of the classes taught by the Wizard of Ads, I told him my good redneck opening line, plus my idea for a guarantee in the commercial.
But I was having trouble putting it all together into something that works.
He looked at me, a bit discontented, that I hadn't already figured it out.
His 60 second response to my pleading for power follows:
"Josh...
You never saw a horse stuck in the mud,
But tractors, it seems like they get stuck all the time.
So we decided that we're only going to rent tractors out that are at least as smart as horses.
Now it took us a long time to find these tractors,
Because not all tractors know how to keep from getting stuck in the mud.
But if you rent a tractor from...
what was the name of the company?
Josh: Conroe Tool
Roy: But if you rent a tractor from Conroe Tool, we guarantee it won't get stuck in the mud.
And if it does we'll come out personally and help you get it unstuck.
Now even if you get it stuck on purpose, just to see if you can,
We'll still come out and help you get it unstuck.
We may be talking about you for a few weeks, but we do what we say.
What's the name of the company again?
Josh: Conroe Tool
Roy:
Conroe Tool...
'Smarter Equipment for Smarter People' *
Ads need to
- begin with uncommon insight
- need a bold offer (that's backed up)
- need to be message clear about the action we want the reader/listener/viewer to take.
All that was learned in 60 seconds at the Wizard Academy...
You should go there too, and prepare to be amazed...
*the commercial and its copy are propietary Wizard of Ads materials.
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Magazine Advertising
Caveat Emptor... |
|
|
|
When considering magazine as media, obtain the following (if possible):
1. the circulation #s of actual paying subscribers
2. the # of freebies circulating through give-away racks (this # can be closely approximated, if not accurately determined)
3. the total distribution number in their coverage area (AKA: "circulation")
A good source for the actual numbers is the magazine’s printing company.
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Ads that Compromise
Medicority vs. Impact |
|
|
|
My client recently had me write and prepare them a ¼” vertical magazine advertisement.
They said, "We want this ad to be like nothing else in the magazine. We want to shock the ---- out of people. And we need more response to the ad."
When they received their finished product they said, "We love this; you gave us exactly what we asked for."
I told them:
1. Since there's nothing else like this in the magazine they may not run it
2. This is a really powerful ad, and it's YOUR ad.
3. Understand that I would never run an ad like this for my business
They understood all of the above and sent it to the magazine...
Instantly at the magazine’s HQ, an executive meeting was called to deliberate over my client's ad. They rejected the ad.
Until after a flurry of emails between client and media, media significantly watered down the ad to allow it to run.
I took the $500 check paid me for that particular ad back to my client; I told her this watered down ad isn't going to work as well as their original one and I'm completing disassociating myself (in client's mind) from this month's magazine effort.
She emailed the magazine and their response for the Sept. issue finally was to let my client run their original ad (the one that demanded executive counsel).
So the magazine’s final word about the original ad was, “we will let this slide and see what happens."
We shall see...and I'll let you know what happens too (maybe).
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
The New American Expense
|
|
|
|
During a meeting with lots of small business owners recently we discussed what we're all doing to save money.
Within the few minutes allotted for this discussion several dozen things were offered; here are several of them:
1. Renegotiate rates with vendors
2. Moving business meetings to breakfast instead of lunch
3. Carpooling
4. Reduction of workforce
5. Reduction of drive time (shop locally more)
6. Reduction of phone expenses
a. Less paper and more emails
b. Locking out facebook and twitter
c. Consolidating telecom
Luxury is out, and business owners are becoming street-tough again...
…because spending less money somewhere = spending more time to accomplish that task.
The new American expense is Time.
So is going out to lunch now costing you one hour too long?
However it is you choose to spend your time though, remember to consider whether you’ve budgeted for that Time or not.
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
You want free radio?
|
|
|
|
The owner of a flower shop told me:
"Give me two weeks of radio ads for free; and if I get enough business to get my money back then I'll pay you for those commercials."
So I told him:
"Deliver free flowers to my wife and if I get the response I want, then I'll pay you for them tomorrow."
He instantly saw the insanity of his request.
Because though the flowers are the media for my own personal campaign, it is still only I who can determine the response in my marketplace. In other words the flower shop's not responsible for my wife's reaction to my sending her flowers.
And neither will my station be accountable for whether his revenues increase from his ad campaign.
Flowers and radio are platforms for the potential of success.
And when they're done right both flowers and radio are powerful investments in the future.
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Simple & Signficant (and Inexpensive)
|
|
|
|
School children are walking miles on dirt roads to and from school; it's actually the late 1880s in a small town in Central, OH.
One day, right on Main St., a girl drops her books on the dirty road and soils them terribly….
And the newspaper entrepreneur who saw this...suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
He considered:
“Kids need a way to protect all their belongings back and forth to school…and my Cantwell shoe account still needs more in-store traffic. Hmm...
What if I manufactured burlap bags and imprinted them with the phrase ‘Buy more Cantwell Shoes?’
Then the kids could carry their books in the burlap bags back and forth to school, and at the same time everyone in town gets to see the Catnwell Shoe advertisement.”
So...the newspaper man approached Mr. Cantwell with his strategy to increase store traffic and media presence..."You should give a free bag to every kid who comes in your store.”
And right there in Coshocton, OH that newspaper man, Jasper Meek, became the‘Father of Promotional Products’...which is an industry that is today $19.8 billion dollars.
Do your prospects see your message all over town?
Consider if every single business owner in your town had pens, caps, clothes, coffee cups and calendars marked with your logo...
Wouldn't that increase your "presence" all over town too?
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Choice of Media will Maintain Business
But your Message will Grow it... |
|
|
|
Three local jewelers in different areas of town are maintaining their business on the same budgets...in three different forms of media.
1. BIJ spends $1,000/month on local cable TV…for 275 spots.
a. That media buy works out to $3.64/ad and is likely a broad rotator
b. Without telling me specifics he says this media is delivering the ROI he needs
2. CC spends $1,000/month on geographically targeted newspaper ads.
a. ROI: $3,000-$10,000 buying and selling gold
b. This pawn-like strategy is sustaining his business (paying his bills)
3. GN spends $1,000/month on a billboard 5 miles south of his location.
a. This outdoor signage gets close to five-million impressions/month
b. It delivers the ROI he needs
Each of these jewelers has a slightly different reason for their choice of Media: it's a reasoned invitation on television, it’s strategically stable to be in the newspaper and it’s geographically logical for the Outdoor campaign.
Since two of the three formats are passive in their ability to solicit business, because they are sight-based, the emotional tug on prospects is lacking. And only one, TV, is intrusive, because it's sound-based (Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, p. 23).
My guess is TV is performing the best of all of them. I'll find out and report back...
But it is their choice of Media that is sustaining them..
What if the messages in the various media were written by a professional copywriter and were even more appealing than they already are?
Or, is there a more attractive message at all for these advertisers in their different media?
I think not; can one ever say they are already compelling all the potential business to buy that they could possibly reach?
Read About Joshua A. Stevens
|
|
|
| |
Next Page
|
|
| | |
|
|
