Will Your Ads Pull?
By Melvin Ram - December 22nd, 2005
Don’t you just love the commercials being produced today? My personal favorite is the Asian Dad Who is Mad (2nd Row, 2nd Column).
After watching and being entertained by these ads, I started analyzing them and here are a few questions that may help you do the same:
- Does it grab my attention?
- Does it keep my interest?
- Does it build desire to do what the ad wants me to do?
- Does it give me a good reason to take action on my desires?
The above is called the A.I.D.A. formula (Attention > Interest > Desire > Action) and is basic marketing 101. It’s an easy way to test whether someone (your ad sales person, web designer, etc) understands the basics of marketing.
If you answer No to all the above questions, chances are the ad is extremely ineffective or the ad was created for a target market that does not include you.
If you only answer Yes to the first three questions, the ad will probably be supplemented with other ads focused on driving action. The automotive industry does this a lot. They focus on Attention, Interest & Desire in some ads and in other ads try to drive people to take action with special pricing, discounts, financing plans, leasing options and more.
The FedEx ads at the above site focus primarily on Attention, Interest & Desire. Their Action component is present but is very subtle. For most businesses, a subtle call to action is the kiss of death because it dramatically decreases the effectiveness of an ad.
Without knowing the inner workings of its Asian shipping business marketing strategy, it’s difficult to make an accurate judgment on whether the subtleness is intelligent & intended or a fatal mistake.
As a rule of thumb, overt is better than subtle when it comes to benefits & call to actions.
Hope you enjoy the ads.
PS: This site also demonstrates how companies can and should leverage media produced for offline marketing in their online marketing.
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