Question

Topic: Other

Need A Unique Idea For An Online Banner Ad

Posted by Anonymous on 8/12/2009 at 9:01 AM ET 250 Points
I work for a residential service company. We provide plumbing, heating, cooling, electrical, drain cleaning and appliance repair. I recently purchased ad space on a number of local newspaper websites. The space is 3x7 and I can have 5 tabs attached to the ad.

My competitors all make the same kind of offers in their ads "hundreds of dollars off!" "it's our slow season so we're doing work for cost just to keep our guys busy!". Our company does not operate this way. We are not the cheapest company in town nor do we want to be. We sell our customers on our exceptional service and high end products.

Here's my problem - I'm not a creative guy and I'm having a hard time coming up with an ad that will grab a consumer. A company similar to ours in Kansas ran a campaign that I thought was clever. The owner bought a billboard and posted the copy "your wife is hot". Didn't mention the name of the company, no phone number - just the line "your wife is hot." Obviously, this caused a lot of buzz in the community. After a month the new billboard went up "because your air conditioning is out." His phone has been ringing like crazy all summer.

I would like the ad to focus on furnaces and boilers since we are getting close to the heating season.

I want a catchy idea like that. Something that will stand out from my competitors but will attract the type of customer I'm looking for: someone who thinks service is more important than price.
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  • Posted on 8/12/2009 at 9:34 AM Moderator
    Your positioning is not unique. There are a lot of companies that promote quality and service and need to overcome any price objections. It's not easy, though, because a lot of people (i.e., prospective customers) would like to think of the services you provide as being commodities, where the only real differentiation is price.

    I think this is a situation where you really need to find an experienced and professional copywriter or creative team (including an art director). You're spending real money on the ad space, and you want it to payoff for you. And the key to effective advertising is the creative component.

    I've had some direct, hands-on experience with local advertising for in-home services, and we eventually tested our way to ad copy/creative that was significantly more effective/efficient than what we started with. It's something you have to test; there is no good way to know a priori what will work and what won't.

    Get yourself a savvy creative team and let them tackle this for you. It will be the best investment you'll make ... even if you have to cut some of the media spending to turn up the funds for it.

    In my experience, we diverted about 2 weeks worth of media spending to fund the creative development, but we then got double the result the next month, so we were able to cut 25% out of the budget for the next 6 months and still get greater results!

    Hope this helps.
  • Posted on 8/12/2009 at 11:35 AM Author
    Thanks for the suggestion. I think you're right. I was leaning that way but we're a bit over on our marketing budget right now. I think I'll need to move some money around if I hire someone to help me with this.
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 8/13/2009 at 9:21 AM Accepted
    Dear Bryand,

    Making a memorable and remarkable statement (meaning, a statement that is worth remarking on to other people) in advertising looks easy. It isn't. The ads your saw from the company in Kansas prove this point in what is a classic teaser campaign.

    It’s refreshing to hear that you don’t want to be like your competitors, that you’re not the cheapest, and that you want to keep it that way.

    Good for you. This is a smart strategy because it distances you from every other schmoe with a truck, a set of wrenches, and the nerve to write PLUMBING AND HEATING CONTRACTOR on their name badge.

    I suggest you rent a local billboard and that you work with the billboard company to make the following idea happen (if it's an idea you think would work).

    This is a four week deal on a billboard that's 14'H x 48'W (which is one of many standard sizes.

    Week 1. Billboard, plain red background horizontal layout.
    No logo. No company name. But with two large pieces of slim but recognizable tree trunk, three fifths of the length of the board and in proportion to its size (length and height), with each piece centred on the board and set one fifth down and one fifth up from the top and bottom of the board along its horizontal plain. This way, there will be space between each piece of tree trunk for your headline.

    Week 2. Exactly the same set up as the previous week, but with the following headline set in white serif type, centred top to bottom, left to right. COPY: Emergency heating kit.

    Week 3. Same as before, but the text changes. Remove the line "Emergency heating kit", and next to each piece of tree trunk you place a letter: "A" and "B".

    In the place of your previous headline you run the new headline, COPY: "In case of heating system failure, rub stick 'A against stick 'B'."

    Week 4. Same tree trunks, same red background, new headline. COPY: "Heating STILL not working? Call (your company name and telephone number)".

    You might need the help of a local tree service or an engineering company to help secure the pieces of tree and you might want to work with your billboard company to find a great spot (perhaps a busy intersection) and to check with local planning restrictions and possibly with the local police for safety reasons.

    But there's no reason this idea couldn't create extra visibility for your company. You might also want to adjust the copy slightly so that it reflects your town, city, or state and its weather conditions
    (I can see this working with the teaser headline "Snow's coming!").

    And it's an idea that could easily be animated for your banner ad by someone with Flash experience (something I know nothing about). As an animated banner ad it could fade from one image to another in 15 to 30 seconds total.

    Will it work? Well, it will certainly be different. And in a crowded marketplace, different will ALWAYS stand out. But the proof of the pudding is in the running of the ad.

    What do you think?

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA

  • Posted on 8/13/2009 at 9:30 AM Author
    Truly original and the type of thing that could set us apart from our competitors around here.

    We've never had much luck with billboards but like you said, I think this could work very well in our banner ad.

    Thank you so much for helping us get our creative juices flowing.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 8/13/2009 at 9:42 AM Accepted
    A couple of ideas:

    This is what we see (image of complex array of pipes, wiring, spiders, etc.).
    This is what you feel (image of happy warm (or cool) customers).

    or

    "We're not the cheapest. We only work with the best."
  • Posted on 8/13/2009 at 11:16 AM Author
    Thanks for everyone's input. I think I have enough to go on from here. This is the first time I've used this site. I'll definitley be back.
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