Be Rebellious

In order to get consumers (whether they are retail or service customers or business-to-business audiences) to notice an advertising message, many companies resort to loudness and one-upmanship. Neither of these tactics works in the long run.

If your competition is talking loudly and you decide to yell louder, what do you think they will do? Yep. They’ll start to scream. Nobody wins a shouting match when it comes to advertising. And usually you’ll find you even lose a few customers in the process because they can’t stand the noise.

It’s the same with one-upmanship. If you have to compete on more and better coupons or more and better discounts, giveaways or incentives unrelated to your core product, your revenue per sale decreases as well as your number of sales.

Customers see these types of games as gimmicky, fake and disingenuous; and they leave. The ones who do stay now view you and your competitors as commodities with no difference except your price. That is a dangerous place for a company to find itself.

The answer to clutter is not more clutter; it’s finding who wants to hear you and speaking to them. So how do you compete if you can’t out shout or out discount your competition? You get rebellious and radical with your advertising.

Do those words scare you? That’s okay. Remember, you’re being courageous now. You can handle it. Besides, rebellious and radical aren’t dirty words. They will help you draw attention away from your competition without resorting to screaming and insulting your customers.

It’s not about being outrageous just to get attention; it’s about being remarkable. An advertising campaign with a strong rebellious strategy is, by its very nature, different from anything your audience will find from your competitors’ marketing efforts. It’s unexpected. It’s surprising. It’s effective.

There are two keys to creating a successfully rebellious advertising campaign. The first is the big idea. This idea comes from a strategy that is derived directly from your customers and their relationship with your brand. You arrive at this idea through a discipline called account planning. We’ll get into the details of both the big idea and account planning in later articles.

The second key to a successfully rebellious advertising campaign is attention. You can’t gain attention if you don’t learn to identify and then steer clear of the norm. It doesn’t matter how great your product or service is or how large your potential market, if your target audience doesn’t pay attention to your message, your ad budget has been wasted.

Think about these two keys while you flip through the newspaper or a magazine. Ponder them while you watch TV. You should notice something almost immediately. Most ads today don’t seem to be based on any big idea. Many are so boring that you flip right past them without noticing them. Others get your attention but the ads don’t have much to do with the product so you quickly forget the brand the ad was supposed to sell you. What an opportunity for your brand!

Now, there is a caveat to being rebellious. Your ads should never be different just for difference sake. The difference should be derived from your brand’s uniqueness.•

This article introduced the second of twelve steps. Challenge yourself, your staff and your ad agency to revolutionize your advertising program. If you missed the first step, contact the author for a complimentary copy. And, remember, every revolution begins with just one step.

Be Courageous

For such a simple statement, this is one of the hardest things for people to do. It goes back to that damn survival instinct each of us is born with. If an animal draws attention to itself in the wild, it might soon find itself the main course of a larger animal’s next meal. That fear of being chewed up and spit out has survived all our millions of years of evolution and is alive and well in today’s business environment.

Fight or flight is another instinct many of us haven’t yet learned to manipulate. It’s easier to run away from a new idea than it is to stay and fight for it. With today’s leadership-by-committee mentality and intense public scrutiny, the easiest solution is unfortunately the most popular. Companies today often miss the forest through the trees. They tend to concentrate so much on short-term profit that they fail to make investments or take advantages of opportunities that promise long-term profit simply because they require a short-term loss.

It may also be argued that fighting for a new idea—whether that means pushing for the development of a new product, staving off competitors or supporting a slumping brand rather than letting it die—is usually undesirable because of such costs.

Certainly that might be true in the short term, but in the long run, giving up too soon my actually cost your company far more in lost revenues, public outrage or shrinking market share. It requires a different way of thinking. Advertising and promoting your business is an investment in your business’ future. Investments are not mere costs. They come with a benefit.

Let’s get one thing straight from the very beginning. No company ever dominated its industry by operating with a philosophy of fear. And, ultimately, no company can survive if it doesn’t learn to conquer its fear and take chances, make changes.

It is the ability to see past any short-term problems to the bigger, long-term picture that has fueled the meteoric rise of the world’s most successful companies. Nobody knew what Apple was before its history making 1985 Super Bowl commercial.

Apple paid to run that commercial only once, but it ran again hundreds of times around the country and the world during local and national news broadcasts. Stories about Apple and its commercial were front-page news for weeks.

When it comes to advertising, you might wonder what kinds of changes are needed. After all, it’s just advertising. If your ads look like your competitors’ ads, if your messages are strikingly similar, if you talk to yourself instead of your customers, if you worry more about your logo being large enough than the message being attention-getting enough, you need to change.

Now this is just the first step, so we won’t get into any more detail here. The object of this step is to let you know that you need to screw up your courage and prepare to make some changes in your advertising that will have a profound effect on your bottom line.

Fear is the greatest motivator. However, instead of motivating people to act, it usually causes people to freeze or retreat. It takes courage to make the kinds of changes that are needed to survive in today’s crowded, complicated and competitive business environment.

Conquer your fear. Be courageous.•

This article introduced the first of Jeff Berney’s “Twelve Steps to Creating Breakthrough Advertising Campaigns: A creative philosophy to help companies recover from years of playing it safe.” Challenge yourself, your staff and your advertising agency to make a revolutionary transformation of your advertising program. And, remember, even the largest revolution begins with just one step—the first.

7 tips in creating publicity for corporate events

Organising corporate events can be exciting and interesting but simultaneously stressful and nerve-racking. This is especially true when corporate event managers are faced with a dilemma in balancing the need to create an enjoyable and beneficial event, and at the same time entrusted with the responsibility to create publicity for it.

Nevertheless, if the right approach is used, creating publicity for corporate events will become an easier task to manage. The following tips will provide you with an insight on some of the best practices used in creating publicity.

1.    It’s always a good idea to work in a team, and delegate the task of creating publicity to a particular team member. This way, you won’t be caught up in the legwork, but rather be involved from an event manager perspective. Your responsibility then is to make decisions and guide others in getting things done for you.

2.    Selecting the right person to delegate this task to is also an important factor in making your event a success. It is essential for this person to possess the necessary contacts with media companies, such as television stations and newspapers, way before the event kicks off.

3.    Use short copywriting for direct mailers or newspaper advertisements. Good editing and good writing go hand-in-hand to create impact for your publicity pieces. Also, thick information packs are out of the question, unless specifically requested by the recipient.

4.    Try not to use copywriting that may be a tad too creative or flowery. Your audience has no time trying to figure out your message, and it is best that you send them something direct and concise.

5.    Although it may be common sense to include a contact number or an email address in your publicity pieces, you may be surprised that many corporate event organisers actually overlook this. Keep this in mind so that you can be contacted for further information.

6.    No one wants to read outdated information. That is why your press releases should be kept as relevant and up to date as possible.

7.    Always stick with the truth when you are answering questions from the media, or holding a press conference. Many corporate event managers tend to exaggerate and end up presenting an event that falls short of expectations.

9 secrets Mark Twain taught me about advertising

УMany a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.Ф

Advertising is life made to look larger than life, through images and words that promise a wish fulfilled, a dream come true, a problem solved. Even Viagra follows Mark TwainТs keen observation about advertising. The worst kind of advertising exaggerates to get your attention, the best, gets your attention without exaggeration. It simply states a fact or reveals an emotional need, then lets you make the leap from Уsmall to large.Ф Examples of the worst: before-and-after photos for weight loss products and cosmetic surgeryЧboth descend to almost comic disbelief. The best: AppleТs “silhouette” campaign for iPod and the breakthrough ads featuring EminemЧboth catapult iPod to Уinstant coolФ status.

УWhen in doubt, tell the truth.Ф

TodayТs advertising is full of gimmicks. They relentlessly hang on to a product like a ball and chain, keeping it from moving swiftly ahead of the competition, preventing any real communication of benefits or impetus to buy. The thinking is, if the gimmick is outrageous or silly enough, itТs got to at least get their attention. Local car dealer ads are probably the worst offenders–using zoo animals, sledgehammers, clowns, bikini-clad models, anything unrelated to the productТs real benefit. If the people who thought up these outrageous gimmicks spent half their energy just sticking to the productТs real benefits and buying motivators, theyТd have a great ad. What they donТt realize is, they already have a lot to work with without resorting to gimmicks. ThereТs the product with all its benefits, the brand, which undoubtedly theyТve spent money to promote, the competition and its weaknesses, and two powerful buying motivatorsЧfear of loss and promise of gain. In other words, all you really have to do is tell the truth about your product and be honest about your customersТ wants and needs. Of course, sometimes thatТs not so easy. You have to do some digging to find out what you customers really want, what your competition has to offer them, and why your product is better.

УFacts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.Ф

In advertising, you have to be very careful how you use facts. As any politician will tell you, facts are scary things. They have no stretch, no pliability, no room for misinterpretation. TheyТre indisputable. And used correctly, very powerful. But statistics, now thereТs something advertisers and politicians love. УNine out of ten doctors recommend Preparation J.Ф Who can dispute that? Or УFive out of six dentists recommend Sunshine Gum.Ф Makes me want to run out and buy a pack of Sunshine right now. Hold it. Rewind.

УWhenever you find youТre on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.Ф

LetТs take a look at how these statsЧthis apparent majorityЧmight have come to be. First off, how many doctors did they ask before they found nine out of ten to agree that Preparation J did the job? 1,000? 10,000? And how many dentists hated the idea of their patients chewing gum but relented, saying, УMost chewing gum has sugar and other ingredients, that rot out your teeth, but if the guyТs gotta chew the darn stuff, it may as well be Sunshine, which has less sugar in it.Ф The point is, stats can be manipulated to say almost anything. And yes, the devilТs in the details. The fact is, thereТs usually a 5% chance you can get any kind of result simply by accident. And because many statistical studies are biased and not Уdouble blindФ (both subject and doctor donТt know who was given the test product and who got the placebo). Worst of all, statistics usually need the endless buttressing of legal disclaimers. If you donТt believe me, try to read the full-page of legally mandated warnings for that weight- loss pill youТve been taking. Bottom line: stick to facts. Then back them up with sound selling arguments that address the needs of your customer.

УThe difference between the right word and almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.Ф

To write really effective ad copy means choosing exactly the right word at the right time. You want to lead your customer to every benefit your product has to offer, and you want to shed the best light on every benefit. It also means you donТt want to give them any reason or opportunity to wander away from your argument. If they wander, youТre history. TheyТre off to the next page, another TV channel or a new website. So make every word say exactly what you mean it to say, no more, no less. Example: if a product is new, donТt be afraid to say УnewФ (a product is only new once in its life, so exploit the fact).

УGreat people make us feel we can become great.Ф

And so do great ads. While they canТt convince us weТll become millionaires, be as famous as Madonna, or as likeable as Tom Cruise, they make us feel we might be as attractive, famous, wealthy, or admired as weТd like to think we can be. Because thereТs a УLittle Engine That CouldФ in all of us that says, under the right conditions, we could beat the odds and catch the brass ring, win the lottery, or sell that book weТve been working on. Great advertising taps into that belief without going overboard. An effective ad promoting the lottery once used pictures of people sitting on an exotic beach with little beach umbrellas in their cocktails (a perfectly realistic image for the average person) with the line: SomebodyТs has to win, may as well be you.Ф

УThe universal brotherhood of man is our most precious possession.Ф

WeТre all part of the same family of creatures called homo sapiens. We each want to be admired, respected and loved. We want to feel secure in our lives and our jobs. So create ads that touch the soul. Use an emotional appeal in your visual, headline and copy. Even humor, used correctly, can be a powerful tool that connects you to your potential customer. It doesnТt matter if youТre selling shoes or software, people will always respond to what you have to sell them on an emotional level. Once theyТve made the decision to buy, the justification process kicks in to confirm the decision. To put it another way, once theyТre convinced youТre a mensche with real feelings for their hopes and wants as well as their problems, theyТll go from prospect to customer.

УA human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.Ф

AinТt it the truth. More money, more clothes, fancier car, bigger house. ItТs what advertising feeds on. УYou need this. And you need more of it every day.Ф ItТs the universal mantra that drives consumption to the limits of our charge cards. So, how to tap into this insatiable appetite for more stuff? Convince buyers that more is better. Colgate offers 20% more toothpaste in the giant economy size. You get 60 more sheets with the big Charmin roll of toilet paper. GE light bulbs are 15% brighter. Raisin Brain now has 25% more raisins. When Detroit found it couldnТt sell more cars per household to an already saturated U.S. market, they started selling more car per carЧSUVs and trucks got bigger and more powerful. TheyТre still selling giant 3-ton SUVs that get 15 miles per gallon.

УClothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.Ф

Who gets the girl? Who attracts the sharpest guy? Who lands the big promotion? Neiman Marcus knows. So does Abercrombie & Fitch. And Saks Fifth Avenue. Why else would you fork over 900 for a power suit? Or 600 for a pair of shoes? Observers from Aristotle to the twentieth century have consistently maintained that character is immanent in appearance, asserting that clothes reveal a rich palette of interior qualities as well as a brand mark of social identity. HereТs where the right advertising pays for itself big time. Where you must have the perfect model (not necessarily the most attractive) and really creative photographers and directors who know how to tell a story, create a mood, convince you that youТre not buying the УemperorТs clothes.Ф Example of good fashion advertising: the Levis black-and-white spot featuring a teenager driving through the side streets and alleys of the Czech Republic. Stopping to pick up friends, he gets out of the car wearing just a shirt as the voiceover cheekily exclaims, “Reason 007: In Prague, you can trade them for a car.”