From our September, 2011 Manager's Business Report (MBR):
The success or failure of a local direct businesses’ advertising campaign can often be directly attributed to his account executive’s creative input (or lack of it). While some AEs are content to say, “well, creative isn’t my job, we have people for that,” or, “I’m just not a creative person,” I say “Hogwash!” Seldom are clients capable of coming up with effective, compelling creative messages by themselves. So as the first-line contact for the client, you have first-line responsibilities which absolutely include discovering and sharing good creative input.
After my talk at a state broadcast association convention, a seasoned TV sales veteran told me of one point that I made that she said changed her entire perspective on spot creative. “We’d always been taught that the commercial is supposed to be all about the client,” she said. “Now I understand why so many campaigns wind up with mediocre results.”
This was my point. Instead of focusing on consumer issues, the bulk of local direct creative today is still centered on the client’s accomplishments, their accreditations, their family history, their anniversaries and their own enthusiasm about being in business. These cliché-riddled, chest-beating spots are often completely ignored by the people who need to hear from the client the most, consumers with big problems.
The solution to the creative problem is simply to re-direct the focus of the commercial onto the consumer, instead of on the client. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes, identify what their problems are and then show and tell them how your client could easily help resolve that issue.
Here is the situation. Especially in bleak economic times, consumers have anxieties that keep them awake at night. They lie in bed tossing and turning, fretting about their personal economic situations. They feel nervous about their jobs (or lack of jobs). They worry about being able to retire. They worry about health related issues. They are worried about or frustrated with their children.
They worry about their own relationships. They are uncomfortable in their own skins (does this body make me look fat?). They are worried that the cars won’t start. They worry about aging. They worry themselves sick about all kinds of things. Any help in resolving these issues would be seen as a tremendous and welcome relief. Television and radio creative that embraces this approach are no longer perceived as pesky commercials. Instead, to the people they target they are seen as public service announcements.
The best advertising strategies go directly to the source of the consumer’s anxiety and talk specifically about that “elephant in the room”, the issue itself that lingers night after night, day after day in the consumer’s mind. Then, each commercial steers the consumer toward your client’s way of solving that problem. Once convinced that your client’s plan for their success is better than their own plan, consumers are more likely to be converted into customers.
--Paul Weyland is a local broadcast sales consultant. Read his book Successful Local Broadcast Sales, available at bookstores and online. Contact Paul at 512 236 1222 or by going to www.paulweyland.com
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Gotta love a reply with a line that ends with "People are still getting laid". Too bad the sentence didn't end there. Maybe it's just the way my browser renders it.
Whenever someone tells me they "can't" afford to invest in an effective ad campaign I usually ask what kind of car they're driving. Most of the business owners around here (small, unrated midwest market) manage pretty nice cars, and I point out that an investment in their car won't bring in new sales but they made it because they want prestige, comfort, or some other hot button issue. Then I mention that there's a great deal of comfort, prestige, etc in outproducing the market in tough times. It doesn't always work but it's salvaged a lot of sales that were circling the drain.
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
