There’s More to It than That
Because, as consumers, we are inundated with visual media every day (pictures, magazines, product packages, billboards, TV, movies, DVDs, web videos, and more) we often underestimate the creative and technical effort required to create good advertising. It is easy for us to think that someone just pulls out a camera and records images of things that are already happening. Or, what is more often the case, we really don’t think about the efforts at all. We simply experience the advertising.
When we need to use advertising for our own products and services, we need to consider the creative and technical process. Creating good advertising is not an easy or simple process. If you think about the advertising you see every day, and evaluate the quality or effectiveness of it, you will realize that most of it is neither good quality nor effective. Seeing it again from the perspective of an average consumer, you only notice what you can relate to or what stands out. You don’t even notice the rest, which is most of the advertising.
Being Effective
With billions of dollars spent on advertising and so much of it having so little effect, you can see the importance of getting noticed. If it were easy, everything would work. But the reality is that very little works really well. With the billions of messages assaulting us, we only remember a few. When we discuss what is good or what is effective, we keep coming back to those select few. Yet, we continue thinking that because a piece of advertising exists, it works. The truth is that only the ads that stand out have a chance of working, and of those, only the ones that are precisely structured within a persuasive, well-designed advertising/marketing campaign can be effective.
Advertising is Persuasion
As business people, we believe in our products and services. We want to believe that people want what we’re selling. We want to believe that all we have to do is tell people about our products and services, and they will buy. But just wanting something to be so, does not necessarily make it so. When it comes to purchasing decisions, people must be persuaded. And effective persuasion requires a thoughtful process.
Advertising, effective mass persuasion designed to get results, involves many facets:
- Get the attention of your specific audience. You have to stand out from everything else and do it so you are noticed by precisely the people who have the potential to buy from you.
- Engage your audience so they will pay attention long enough for you to deliver your message.
- Demonstrate your credibility to your audience. Will these people trust you enough to consider buying from you? Do they believe your product or service can do what you say it will?
- Give your audience a clear message with a call to action and a reason for them to take action. What do you want them to do? Call? Go to a web page? What do they get if they do what you ask?
- Provide a method for your audience to respond. If people try to contact you, is it easy for them to do it? What do they get if they do?
- Provide the infrastructure to address those responses and turn respondents into customers.
It’s about Your Target Market
In order to do all this, you need to know your audience, your target market. Who are they? What interests them enough to buy what you are selling? Why would they buy from you? What are their likes and dislikes? How do they interact with media (TV, radio, magazines, internet, and more)? How can you reach them through their chosen media?
Production Quality Equates to Credibility
With rare exceptions, quality production in all types of media is important. People don’t trust cheap ads because the cheapness of the ads transfers to people’s perceptions of the products or services in the ads. Walmart promotes the lowest prices, but their ads are not cheap or cheap looking. People still have to trust that the products are worth buying, even at the lowest price. Also keep in mind that there is much more to a good ad than a catchy slogan. Even with the best sounding slogan, if the ad does not support it with engaging substance, the slogan will mean nothing to your audience. It may be an exception if you ran the ad repeatedly in every market for many months, but few advertisers have the resources to do that unless they are huge, national companies.
Value Versus Cost
As an advertiser, you should be concerned with reaching the highest potential for your campaign. Slashing the budget on production or ad buys will not help you achieve your goals. As you can see when you evaluate the TV ads you experience every day, a lot goes into making the ads work well. They start with ideas, but must be developed into workable results. Every good ad involves effective execution of all-around creativity, on and off-camera talent, scripting, locations, sets, props, lighting, shooting, editing, technical capability, quality equipment, and much more. Along with that goes experience and expertise. Simply stated, effectively bringing together all these elements takes time and money.
Can you make a cheap ad? Yes, of course. Will it be worth your money? Not likely. What you should consider, rather than the cost of the ad, is the value that ad brings to you.
Choosing a Production/Advertising/Marketing Company
Given all that must be considered, you need to decide how to make these things happen and who can make these things happen well. Any good company that produces advertising and creates campaigns should be interested in helping you generate qualified leads that you can turn into sales. If they are only interested in selling ad time or selling production, they may not point out these important considerations. Beware of companies that focus on costs or discounts rather than the overall value to you. They may be trying to
At Patchin Pictures, we do our best to take everything into account and help you understand that the right process leads to better results. Our goal is to help you succeed. We make recommendations based on what we think is the best approach for your specific business. Our obligation is to give you the options. It is up to you to make the choices. Good advertising is an investment with value. Bad advertising is an expense and a loss. Sometimes, saving money on production can be very costly to your results. And sometimes getting a “good deal” on ad placement is nothing more than throwing money away because a cheap ad buy that nobody sees is worthless.
Remember, when you consider hiring a production and advertising company, keep in mind what is involved in producing a good ad, and think about value more than cost. Focus on getting results, and hire a company that will do the same. Patchin Pictures’ Shoot Your Business video marketing and advertising systems are designed to get results. We make the videos that make you money.
Give us a call, and schedule a free consultation. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Call 702-240-6777 or toll free at 877-364-3591.
About the Author:
Steve Patchin is Founder and General Manager of Patchin Pictures®. Patchin Pictures® is a Las Vegas based video production and duplication company that has been providing video services for families and businesses since 1996.
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