A billboard I guarantee you’ll NEVER, EVER see in Hooterville. Too good not to share. I think I’ll order one. (via)
Posts Tagged ‘Billboards’
The best Christmas ad I’ve seen
Sunday, November 21st, 20106 1/2 weeks
Thursday, August 26th, 2010We want the billboards back. They were such a good morale booster for our salespeople.
After 6 1/2 weeks of primarily television (with two different offers), peppered with some radio and gratuitous small town (weekly) newspaper ads, the client wants his billboards back in the media mix. At our meeting today, we discussed this.
I was taught that the first person who talks after the question is asked loses. So I asked “Why?” and kept my big mouth shut.
“Our sales people are on commission and they’re used to seeing us on billboards. It helps us boost morale, and it shows we’re “out there” with our advertising.”
OK. What else? (Morale booster? Really? Buy ‘em lunch-it’d be cheaper.)
“Well, they haven’t seen our TV commercials. Sales are flat and it’s such a big change for them to not see our billboards.”
How are sales now compared to a year ago?
“About the same.”
It’s been 6 1/2 weeks since we were asked to place your media. If we could make a significant shift in that amount of time, given your product, budget and competitive set, we’d have the Budweiser account and I wouldn’t be sitting here fucking with you. (I didn’t really say that.)
“Well, maybe we didn’t explain it very well to them up front, about our shift to more television and no more billboards.”
Welcome to the mentality of small towns clients who allow their staff input in areas that are not remotely in their field of expertise, who think that their target audience is “everyone”, and who expect instantaneous results.
This is a small, regional cellular service. They can’t offer the iPhone. Their coverage area is spotty. They offer too many plans and have a history of changing their message with no consistency every 60 days. When their new Marketing Director was hired recently, she asked us to present a plan and their old agency to do the same. (The budget was reduced, and rightfully so. They were spending a fortune.) The old agency refuses to participate (WHY?), we present, we win the work, and the Big Cheese who wasn’t at the initial presentation-and should have been-comes back 6 1/2 weeks later and wonders where the billboards are. Huh?
Who is your customer? Why you and not one of the big cell carriers? Let’s secret shop your retail outlets and see just how good your “experts-at-everything” sales people really are. Let’s get the research you’ve commissioned (Thank God) in here to give a peek at what the regional market really thinks of you, and THEN plan accordingly.
It’s like you gave me one shoe, asked me to run the race and wondered why I didn’t win.
This is a LOT more than billboards. It’s a tangled mess of dysfunction. It’s gonna be interesting.
And you wonder why mommy drinks.
Making a call in Hooterville.
Wall Drug Delivers
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009If you do any sort of creative work, you gotta get away from it. Our last big Harley vacation took us to South Dakota and Wyoming, where I emptied my cluttered mind. Yet, I still found myself noticing horrifically bad TV spots, a billboard promoting 24 Hour Toe Service (I am not making that up) and the oh-so-ubiquitous Wall Drug Billboards.
Every client, big and small, could take a lesson from Wall Drug. Wall Drug delivered on their cheesy ad promises (and they made a lot of them) via corny billboards. “5¢ Cup of Coffee” ”Homemade Pie” ”Free Coffee and Donut to Every Veteran” “Free Ice Water”. We had to stop. Plus, it was late and close to beer-thirty.
Wall Drug is a model of efficiency. They were serving up breakfast for hundreds of people in short order style. The staff was friendly, the place was clean, well displayed, and organized. Shopping to placate every person of every age, from expensive cowboy boots and purses to fudge, shot glasses, T-shirts, and garish souvenirs of every description. What an excellent advertising story. They have capitalized on their “brand”. They gave me a free bumper sticker, hoping I would put it on my car. Thousands of Wall Drug billboards and bumper stickers are all over the world. It’s Chic to be Cheesy!
Wall Drug opened during the Great Depression and have been growing ever since because they’re being who they say they are. Now if only my clients could deliver on the promises they ask me to make for them.
No, there is no such thing as a Jackalope. But you can buy one!
And George Parker, I took this pic just for you…figure you can use it in one of your Poisoned Dwarf Posts. My God, they’ll sell anything!