News

Ten thousand!

Apparently that’s how many marketing messages we’re assaulted by each day.

Ten thousand.

Ads on bus stop shelters, on the radio, in our Facebook feed, signs on businesses, food packaging… even on the screen you’re reading this off of.

I don’t know if ten thousand is exactly correct. I’ve never stopped to count.

Why would I? I can’t be bothered. I have more pressing issues I need to attend to.

And therein lies the issue for us advertising creative types – We need the ad we’re creating now to stand out in a sea of other messages so that it catches the attention of someone who, like us, is too busy to care.

So how do we get someone’s attention?

We do them a favour. We solve one of their problems.

The product or service that you’re advertising – it’s not going to be for everyone who is exposed to your message. Not right now, anyway.

But, for some (maybe even many) it can solve one of their problems right now.

So, the first thing you want to highlight is that problem… “Having a sick child is a nightmare”… “When you look in the mirror, are you happy?”… “If you googled your business would it be the first thing that came up?”

You don’t have to be this boring about it, but you do need to put the problem front and centre.

Then, and this is the easy part, you say one thing about your product or service to solve that one problem.

Just one.

If you try to tell someone who doesn’t care too much information, what do you think they’re going to do?

They don’t have to listen to your radio station. Everyone’s remote has a mute button. They can scroll to a different part of the webpage.

If you have more than one thing to say, great! Create another ad.

Your client is much better off to be known well for saying one thing, than being totally ignored for trying to say too much.

Or saying something dumb… But, that’s a topic for another day.