A short while ago ex-agency boss Paul Kitcatt wrote an article on how to make sure your ads get noticed.
“Make ads people like,” he concluded. “As easy and as difficult as that.”
A valid point, I’m sure you’ll agree. But one that leads to some pretty terrible work – like the below print ad I stumbled across recently:
An ad that goes unnoticed
The above hasn’t been written to sell anything, so it must have been written to be liked. But, as far as I can tell, it’s failing rather dismally – because the team responsible have clearly guessed what people might like. And, as is par for the course, they’ve landed on “something a bit clever. Yes, something clever. That’s what people like.”
It’s not.
What people like, as the Ogilvy Centre for Research discovered back in 1985, is “not something original or clever but something relevant.” So let’s judge the above ad by that criteria.
Look at it again. Is it relevant?
Unless you’ve ever woken up with a burning desire to find out why working in partnership works well for everyone, the answer is no, the ad is not relevant.
So what makes an ad relevant?
Quite simply, an ad is relevant when it promises to solve people’s problems.
For thermal socks, the line “cold feet” worked well – because it highlighted the prospect’s problem.
For the same product, the line “warm feet” did even better – because it promised to solve the problem.
Were the ads liked?
Of course they were – by people with cold feet; the very people a thermal sock company is looking to talk to.
An ad that’s relevant
Now ask yourself this:
Are your communications relevant?
Are they convincing your prospects to buy what you offer?
If either question makes you feel uneasy, ask me how I think your communications could be improved. I’ll answer quickly, free of charge.
I hope to sell you something at the same time, obviously. But it’ll be copy that helps you get noticed and sell more stuff simultaneously.
It’ll be something that solves one of your problems.
In other words, I’ll offer you something relevant.