Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Dear Mihir,

Any advertising that brings in more in net revenue than it costs
to put the stuff out into the world can be considered to have generated a positive return on its investment.

The problem is that most brand-based advertising isn't measured to the penny (as it ought to be), and a good portion of it goes out hither and yon rather than specifically. So its message is wasted and watered down.

The upshot of this is that its impact is often minimal, which means it has to be put out again. And again. And again.

Each time, the limp little message adds to its limper brothers and sisters and all many clients see as a result are less than double digit changes in sales and more than double digit fees and charges for their advertising costs.

Is it then any wonder that most people really don't like advertising? I think not.

This kind of advertising often isn't targeted, which means its message (if it has one) evaporates because no one's paying attention to it.

But all the while this lame little clutch of ads are costing the client more, while they (the ads in question, and under the banner of "marketing" ... God helps us all), do so while achieving less and less for the client.

Direct response based marketing can, if it's coded properly (which it ought to be anyway), be tracked and its return can be calculated down to the penny per media/message because in most cases it is connected to an offer, a deadline, and a call to action that work together with the body of the message to generate desire, trust, similarity, and a feeling of kinship or empathy.

So its message has an impact, and an impact that can be measured.

For many goods or market sectors there are standards in terms of pricing, but these vary from one ad agency to another. Much of which is basically, money for old rope.

The BIGGEST problem of all is that very little brand-based advertising is paid for on a results (for which read "sales") based basis. Agencies charge all kinds of fees and then have the gaul to add commissions for God alone knows what on top.

Jaded? Perhaps.

But if more advertising was paid for (charged for) on a results-based system there would be fewer people working in the advertising and marketing business (many of whom are chunks of talentless, paycheck-cashing dead wood anyway).

But they'd be better at their jobs, they be paid more (because they've earned it), and their clients would be far richer because their marketing message would be specifically targeted and therefore working harder to earn its keep and create a higher profit.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA