My ad’s coming out all wrong!

Sometime an ad just does not work…. Whose  fault is it? Marketing, Product, Viewer, Client? Let’s see…

1)      Wrong demographic target/market….

Have you ever seen an agency client trying to seduce the wrong customer? Yes, it does happen. Just picture a chocolate bar company that has been very successful selling to kids. Selling the same product at a higher price to women might be an even better proposition… But it may never have crossed that client’s mind and he might be deadset against it. Or maybe you have had a client that loves listening to opera. In his head, Italian food lovers must be opera lovers as well. Just try to prove him wrong…

2)      Shaky Creative…

A very common problem. A shaky creative is almost never very clever nor original. It just threads along very stereotypical lines. So much in fact that it never catches the prospect’s attention.  That’s not to say that a good creative is the ad that wins at trade events or international festivals… The service or product must be the star of the show, its unique benefits to the customers clearly and convincibly demonstrated. Campaigns must also strike a balance between the need for sales and the need for branding: too much emphasis on the first and you may lose some credibility, too little and you may find yourself without a dollar to your name in the short run.

3)      Microbudgeting the ad…

What’s the use of having the century’s best spot if you don’t saturate the airwave? It’s a sad fact of media planning that you need a bare minimum weekly exposure to make your campaign work (200-300 GRP on a given week each month on TV, 40 spots on radio, 3 right-sized ads in dailies, etc.).  You don’t have to go at every media at once, but do it the right way in at least in one media. And don’t skimp on the ad budget if you’re launching a new product. A new product needs a little extra push in the marketplace.

4)      Irrational Expectations…

Let’s be clear here. You just can’t guarantee an ad campaign ROI before launch. You may have a general idea, an educated guess, a ballpark figure based on past projects. But you just can’t give a precise sales projection. If an agency says something along those lines, ask them to write it down on a piece of paper and back it with a guarantee. And watch them squirm their way out of it.

Ok… those four are covered. Want to see 5 more major marketing mistakes that can kill an ad campaign…. Stay tuned for our next article “Five Major Marketing Mistakes that Advertising Can’t Fix”