The More Things Change…
I was struck by the premise of a recent Advertising Age article (or, at least, my interpretation of it). The headline really says it all:
"Our Ads Will Work – We Promise!"
It seems that there are some publishing institutions that are beginning to worry that they might be threatened by the disintermediation of THE LAST 10 YEARS, and that perhaps THEIR REVENUE MODEL IS BROKEN!!!
Gee…ya think???
Now, I'm not one of those "new media snobs" who thinks that everything "old" is no good (I'm over 30 myself, so I may be a little biased). But I'm also not one of those "traditionalists" who think that things should never change and that new formats won't work as well.
…I'm kind of in the middle. For example, I wouldn't (and don't) advertise my business in the Yellow Pages Phone Directory…but, if I were selling services to senior citizens, I probably would have an ad in there (and a darn good one, too!) – written in a large font with a pleasing type face.
What bothers me about this gist of the article is the underlying message:
"If, after you spend your money and it doesn't work, we'll keep doing the thing that doesn't work for you – for free – until it does work."
Really?!?!? 
For how long?
That doesn't make much sense to me. I mean, if it doesn't work when I spent money on it, why would I want to waste my time dealing with it, knowing it's not going to work?!?!?!?
An ad's effectiveness is driven by two primary variables (both of which are Marketing issues, not Advertising issues), which are:
- How well you understand and have identified / understood your target market
- How well you have crafted the ad, so as to address your target's markets wants and desires
Do these well enough and you can have an effective ad.
"'We've been preaching that magazines engage readers like no other media," said Stephanie George, exec VP at Time Inc.'"…"In an era when a lot of advertisers ask for rollbacks across the board, the guarantee is what lets us keep rates steady or ask for an increase," Mr. Kotok said. "'We'd love to give you last year's rates,' we say, 'but then we can't give you the guarantee. If you take a nominal increase, we can give you the guarantee.'"
…if "you take" a nominal increase…? What?!?
Are you going to buy me dinner first???
If they are that confident that the "ads will work", why are they waiting until now to offer it? How exactly are they going to enforce the guarantee? What if the ad buyer wants to run an ad that the ad space provider doesn't think will work? Who gets to decide?
This kind of double-talk is kind of like writing in your subordinate's annual performance review, "What can I say about George that hasn't been said? He is truly in a class by himself! He handles work assignments with unlooked-for creativity." (oh, how I miss Catbert's Performance Review Generator – why, Scott Adams, why did you do away with that???)
I think they are missing the point, which is this: mass media / image advertising is NOT direct response advertising. There is a difference; don't confuse them.
To me, this is a poor example of "Risk Reversal"; a better guarantee from the magazine would have been:
"Buy our ad space and if it doesn't convert like you think it should, we will have our copywriters & creative folks work with you for FREE, to craft and test an ad that WILL convert "browsers into buyers", for your target market."
…but maybe I'm expecting too much…
Brainstorm For Business Success
An engineering lab client regularly brainstorms with customers and even prospective clients, as part of new product development.?? In fact, one such session resulted in a design simplification – saving them over 70% on their manufacturing costs for a particular part.? Going out of your way to establish rapport with your customers, and regularly communicating 
with them, can pay huge dividends.? Doing so has never been easier than it is today, with tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.?? Establishing a professional presence for your company on each of these will enable you to attract interested people to your company.
Don’t want to have a brainstorming session in-person?? Not a problem, if you use tools like GoToWebinar and Freemind.? GoToWebinar enables you to set up a web-based meeting for up to 1,000 participants, allowing everyone to interact as if they were in the same room.? Adding Freemind to the mix allows the Moderator (or an assistant) to capture the free flow of ideas as they come in, and display them on each participant’s computer screen.? In this way, you can literally have people from all over the world participate in the event.? If you don’t want to pay for the service, you can use a service like DimDim and host smaller brainstorming sessions.
This idea can apply to any business – the question is will you apply it?
Lights, Camera – Business!
This October will mark the third year anniversary of Google’s acquisition of the video sharing site YouTube.? If you don’t already, start paying attention to how many times a video-based result comes up in your Google search engine queries.? Don’t be surprised if there are several in the top 5 – 10 spots on Page 1.? There are two reasons why you should care.
1.? Engage Your 
Customers The Way They Want To Be Engaged. Twenty years ago, I remembered talking to a colleague of mine about a chimney sweep supply company that sent their customers a video tape (remember those?!?) twice year, educating them on how to sell chimney sweep supplies more efficiently.? The tapes differentiated him from the other suppliers, his main cost was postage (he already had a camera) and the “reality style” video is time-tested approach that works over and over again.? A real estate client of one of our consultants closed a $500,000 sale last week by using Twitter (140 characters) and a reality-style video (it was less than 48 hours from Tweet to Close).
2.? Increase Your Organic Search Engine Ranking. We cover Search Engine Optimization (SEO) elsewhere, but without getting technical, it stands to reason that if Google is going to spend almost $2 Billion to buy a bunch of video-sharing servers, then they are going to make sure they get their money’s worth.? Or, as my technical SEO colleagues would say, Google thinks video content is important and is more “news worthy and informative” and so it will tend to rank higher.
Technical aspects aside, video pulls people into the topic they are watching.? A personalized video to your suppliers, or a reality-style video to your customers, makes the viewer feel like they know you; almost as if they were friends with you.? And people buy from people they know, like and trust.? That’s a big driver behind Social Media adoption.
Action Step:
If you are not using video in your business:
Why aren’t you?? Every business can and should be doing so.? Believe me, if a chimney supply company 20 years ago could, you certainly can today.? No excuses.
If you already are using video in your business:
What’s working with it now?? What isn’t working?? How could you improve it?? Could you send personalized video messages about certain products or services?? Special offers for certain customers?? How else could you use video to increase sales?