Younger Buyers Steering Away From Domestics

AS HARD AS DOMESTIC CAR and truck manufacturers have been trying to win younger buyers on the coasts with messages about vehicle quality, reliability and youth, they aren't swaying younger buyers just yet.

According to J.D. Power and Associates' "2007 Avoider Study," released Thursday, pro-domestic and pro-import vehicle buyers are divergent in age and region. The study found that the younger a buyer is, the more he or she is likely to avoid domestic cars and trucks. Conversely, buyers who purchase domestic vehicles are more likely than younger buyers to avoid a vehicle because it's an import.

Younger buyers also give more importance to gas mileage as a reason for purchasing, versus older buyers. Generally, domestic-vehicle buyers say styling and cost are the biggest reasons they avoid import vehicles.

The study, in its fifth year, is based on responses from over 35,000 vehicle owners who registered their cars and trucks in May this year. The study takes a contrarian look at consumer choices, focusing on the ones that got away: cars and trucks that consumers didn't consider and why.

The study found that the highest number of domestic-vehicle buyers (41%) who do not even consider import brands during the shopping process live in the North Central region of the United States, per J.D. Power.

Their opposites--younger import buyers--are concentrated in the coastal areas, per the consultancy, with the Northeast and the West Coast populated by the largest numbers of import vehicle buyers who eschew domestic vehicles entirely. The most common reasons: concerns about reliability, fuel economy, quality and depreciation.

Says Jon Osborn, director of media/marketing research at J.D. Power and Associates: "Import buyers seemed to have a list of substantiated reasons for not buying domestic, such as reputation and quality, depreciation and gas mileage."

Gas mileage, or in some cases perceived gas mileage, is the most frequently mentioned reason for purchasing a vehicle, while it remains the seventh most frequently cited reason for avoiding a particular vehicle model. In all regions, compact cars and SUVs were the most popular vehicles, followed by mid-sized vehicles.

Osborn says Hummer H3 is the most-avoided model in its segment due to fuel economy. But he says EPA fuel economy estimates for the vehicle are around the same as for Jeep Commander and Chrysler Aspen, which don't have the same stigma, and enjoy lower avoidance rates.
Also, the study found that buyers are basing their decisions not to buy a vehicle on consumer-generated content online, particularly consumer reviews, followed by expert reviews and manufacturer site information.

Among all new-vehicle buyers, the top reasons for buying or avoiding a vehicle were reliability and fuel economy, at 34% each. Then comes exterior styling, performance, and quality of workmanship. The most frequently mentioned parameter in the Northeast and West was reliability, while fuel economy was the most mentioned in the North Central region of the U.S.

US Ad Spending 2007 Outlook

Ad Spending now is projected to grow only 3.1% in 2007, according to revised estimates released Tuesday by industry forecaster Bob Coen. That's a significant downward revision from the 4.8% the Universal McCann director of forecasting originally projected in December, and means the ad industry will once again fail to keep pace with overall U.S. economic growth. The downgrade is the latest in a series of downward revisions issued by other leading industry forecasters and suggests that some fundamental shifts are taking place in the industry's economics, as advertisers continue to shift money out of traditional media and into new and emerging media platforms, especially online. The fastest growing of the major media tracked by Coen - and the only one projected to rise at double-digit rates - is the Internet, which he predicts will rise 15% to $10.715 billion in 2007. That's about three times the 5.9% rate of growth of the overall national media marketplace, and it doesn't even factor in some of the fastest growing areas of online advertising, including search, social networks and online video.

Those and other emerging platforms - such as mobile marketing, video games, advanced television, and digital out-of-home networks - will actually grow at double the official online rate, rising 31.7% in 2007, according to a companion forecast presented Tuesday by Brian Wieser, senior vice president-director of industry analysis at Universal's sister agency Magna Global.

The side-by-side forecast presentations were a symbolic counterpoint, with Coen representing the old world of the advertising economy and Wieser the new one, which some believe may be responsible for sucking some of the wind out of traditional advertising spending.

Asked what the real growth rate would be for the overall advertising economy if the emerging platforms were factored into the total equation, Coen said it could add as much as a half a percentage point to the industry's growth. "Instead of that figure being 3.1% it might be 3.5% or 3.6%," he said.

But the changes taking place in advertising spending aren't simply a shift from old media to new, said Magna's Wieser, but an even more fundamental redeployment.

"What's actually happening, I would argue, is advertisers are shifting their money out of media that we define as ad-supported media into marketing," said Wieser, adding, "And it's very difficult to measure that."

Some of that spending is going into so-called "below-the-line" marketing services like direct response and promotion that aren't classified as advertising budgets, while others are going into new media platforms that have yet to be classified.

Coen, who has been a fierce champion of the classic definition of advertising, acknowledged Tuesday that it might be time to redefine its meaning to encompass new media and new methods of marketing communications.

In fact, Wieser noted that many of the fastest growing of the emerging platforms still haven't figured out how to "monetize" their reach in terms of advertising revenues. For example, he estimated that for all their growth, online social networks would take in only about $685 million in advertising revenues this year. While that's up a whopping 148% from the $276 million advertisers spent on social networks in 2006, it's still only a fraction of their relative growth in terms of share of total Internet page views. Wieser estimated that the page views of social networks would rise nearly 99% this year vs. only 2.6% for total Internet page views.

He also predicted that social media ad spending would top $1 billion next year, rising 48.9% over 2007.

Similarly, online video is growing rapidly, but still is a relatively small share of total ad spending. With an estimated $365.5 million in ad sales during 2007, online video will grow 55.5% over 2006, but will still account for less than 1% of the total TV advertising marketplace. Wieser projected that online video advertising would 53.2% to $560 million in 2008.

While still small in the context of the total advertising marketplace, these emerging media nonetheless will continue to outpace the overall advertising economy by a wide margin. According to his first estimates for 2008, Coen expects U.S. ad spending to rise only 5.0% to $305 billion in 2008.

Revised 2007 Outlook For U.S. Ad Spending

National Media

• Four TV Networks: $17.175 billion (+3.0%)
• Spot TV: $11.150 billion (-1.0%)
• Cable TV Networks: $20.190 billion (+4.50%)
• Syndication TV: $3.165 billion (-2.0%)
• Total TV: $51.490 billion (+2.3%)
  
• Radio: $4.550 billion (+2.5%)
• Magazines: $13.595 billion (+4.0%)
• Newspapers: $7.015 billion (-1.0%)
• Total Major Consumer Media: $77.650 billion (+2.2%)
• Direct Mail: $61.575 billion (+5.0%)
• Yellow Pages: $2.205 billion (+2.0%)
• Internet: $10.640 billion (+17.0%)
• Other National Media: $38.010 billion (+4.0%)
• Total National: $190.080 billion (+4.2%)

Local Media

• Newspapers: $38.880 billion (-1.5%)
• Television: $15.335 billion (+3.0%)
• Radio: $15.505 billion (+2.0%)
• Yellow Pages: $12.430 billion (+2.0%)
• Other Local Media: $18.080 billion (+3.7%)
• Total Local: $100.200 billion (+1.1%)

Total (All Media): $290.300 billion (+3.1%)

Source: Universal McCann

Court TV Morphs Into TruTV

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The verdict is in, and Court TV's new name as of Jan. 1, 2008, will be ... TruTV. As Court TV General Manager Marc Juris announced at the Turner entertainment upfront presentation in March, the network's rebranding has been in the pipeline for several months.

Fourth-quarter rollout. Turner Entertainment President Steve Koonin said an official rebranding campaign for the network will begin to roll out in fourth quarter, likely around Oct. 1, with a heavy push kicking in around the holidays.
Renaming the established network was a tricky process that ultimately led Mr. Koonin and his team to examine the five letters in the word "court." After spelling the last three letters backwards ("T-R-U"), he was led to the possibility of "Tru TV," which was tested against its more traditional Webster's spelling with viewers and came out on top.
"It's a wink and nod to the past," Mr. Koonin said. "You always have to let the viewer pick."

Content shift. Since being acquired by Time Warner in May 2006, Court TV has undergone a major shift in both programming and infrastructure, losing CEO-Chairman Henry Schleiff to the same position at Hallmark Channel, ad-sales chief Charlie Collier leaving to become GM at Rainbow Media's AMC and research exec Debbie Reichig now reporting to Beth Comstock at NBC Universal.
On the content side, the network has also taken a gradual step away from its breaking news coverage and cops-and-courts fare to more reality-based shows such as "Forensic Files" and John Waters' "Til Death Do Us Part." Forthcoming shows include "Ski Patrol," a reality series about high-stakes life on the slopes; "Black Gold," an oil-rig series from the producers of Discovery's "Deadliest Catch"; and a new daily talk show from ex-"View" host Star Jones premiering Aug. 20.

'Real engagers'. In the age of YouTube and "you" being Time magazine's Person of the Year, Mr. Koonin considers his audience to be "real engagers," and will seek out programming that "speaks to the people." He said user-generated content could also start appearing on network and online.
Early reaction in the buying community sparked curiosity, if not instant approval, of the new moniker. One buyer said, "I'm checking my calendar now to make sure it's not really April 1."

Higher visibility. "I guess it's better than False TV," said Brad Adgate, senior VP-director of research at Horizon. "They have the wherewithal at getting the word out. Quality shows have been running on Court TV for years, [and the Turner acquisition] has helped boost their ratings to higher visibility in the TV landscape."
Shari Anne Brill, Carat's VP-programming, added, "They seem to have a very clear vision of what the new brand will be and who their audience to the network will also be. I look forward to seeing the vision come to life when the channel launches."
Cable networks rebranding themselves under new names or ownership is hardly new. When Viacom acquired TNN (The Nashville Network) in 2000, it rechristened the channel as The National Network for three years before switching to Spike TV in 2003, complete with a new target of males 18 to 34. More recently, Comcast changed the name of its Outdoor Living Network to Versus, with a focus on hockey and nontraditional sports coverage to serve as an alternative to ESPN.

Papers' Reader Tally to Change

I found this article on-line (irony at it's finest) from the Sacramento Bee reporting how newspapers are creating new ways to exagerate their circulation and get credit for the early adapters that abandoned fish wrap for the Internet years ago. In light of the Dallas Morning News fiasco from a year ago, I find this hilarious! Enjoy, ~ Curt

Sacramentan Kasey Cotulla is a loyal reader of The Bee. But when the newspaper tallies up its paying customers, Cotulla is among the missing.

The Curtis Park resident dropped his subscription about two years ago and only reads the paper online, for free. "I feel like I get the highlights," said Cotulla, 42, a small-business owner.

For decades, newspaper audience -- the basis for setting advertising rates -- has been measured by paid circulation. Now, caught up in a multimedia world that is siphoning off circulation and advertising dollars, newspaper publishers are trying to make people like Cotulla count.

The industry-supported Audit Bureau of Circulations, a nonprofit organization that verifies newspaper circulation, is about to roll out a system for counting papers' total audience. The system will go beyond paid circulation and include measurements of "pass-along" print readership -- reflecting the copies that are shared among friends or members or a household -- and the paper's local Web site traffic.

Newspaper executives admit the new system won't solve everything but say it will blunt the notion that newspapers are doomed -- and help them reverse their slide in ad revenue. They note that it has the endorsement of the ad community, which is a partner in ABC.

"It's important for people to realize that more people want what we produce today than wanted it yesterday," said Gary Pruitt, chairman and chief executive of The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, parent of The Bee. "Our total audience is growing. That's not an easy thing to do in today's modern media mix. ... We regard that as an important sign that our future is secure."
The new system arrives at a crucial time for newspaper chains, including McClatchy, which one year ago today completed its $4 billion takeover of Knight Ridder Inc.

When McClatchy announced the purchase, in March 2006, the industry was in a troubling but still relatively mild slump, largely caused by structural changes in the business: the migration of some readers and advertising to the Internet and other media.

After the deal wrapped up, things started getting worse and have yet to improve. The ongoing structural problems have been exacerbated by cyclical factors, notably the end of the housing boom. That's cut heavily into real estate ads, particularly at McClatchy's California and Florida papers.

Profits are down, as expenses from the takeover have offset the near-tripling of the company. On a pro forma basis -- meaning as if McClatchy were as big a year ago as it is now -- year-to-date ad sales are off 7.1 percent through May. McClatchy's stock price closed Tuesday at $24.25, down almost 38 percent since the takeover was completed.

Last week the company said it expects the slide to continue through the second half of 2007.
Although newspapers still earn fatter profit margins than most U.S. corporations, this industrywide downturn has intensified the debate over the sector's future. Tribune Co. was forced by rebellious shareholders to sell itself. Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, is being pursued by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Layoffs and buyouts have become routine. McClatchy has avoided across-the-board layoffs but has conducted selective employee buyouts and made other cost-cutting moves.

In addition, McClatchy sold its largest paper, the well-respected but struggling Star Tribune of Minneapolis, at a hefty loss to a private equity firm that has begun downsizing the staff. Pruitt said the Minneapolis staff cuts sadden him but confirm the wisdom of selling the paper.
"We're trying to make the best decisions in the long-term interest of the company," he said. "Occasionally, these decisions will not be popular, but it doesn't mean they're wrong."

Pruitt said McClatchy is stronger than it was a year ago. During the eight months between the acquisition of Knight Ridder and the sale of the Star Tribune, McClatchy's cash flow -- a measure of profitability -- declined just 0.3 percent on a pro forma basis. If McClatchy hadn't done the Knight Ridder and Minneapolis deals, cash flow would have dropped 16.3 percent.

Despite growth online, non-Internet products still account for more than 90 percent of McClatchy's revenue. Meanwhile, the company's weekday circulation fell 3.2 percent in the six months ending March 31, according to the latest ABC figures. Sunday circulation was off 2.6 percent. Both figures were roughly in line with industry averages.

McClatchy officials say that about half the decline in circulation was due to a decision to scale back some promotions, including "third-party" circulation programs. Third-party programs are bulk sales to customers like hotels, which then distribute the papers free.

No wonder, experts say, that newspapers are pushing the new ABC initiative. The organization has given its preliminary approval and is expected to make it official in July. Newspapers could begin reporting total audience figures late this fall, when the numbers for the six months ending Sept. 30 are published.

"It's an important and very valid measure of a newspaper's reach," said Peter Zollman, an advertising consultant whose clients include McClatchy. But he added: "There is no cure-all for the newspaper industry."

Newspaper executives believe the new numbers will provide ample evidence of a healthy industry. McClatchy officials cite The Bee as an example.

Frank Whittaker, McClatchy vice president for operations and an ABC board member, said The Bee's weekday circulation fell 3.4 percent to 283,561 between 2000 and 2006. But total audience -- from paid circulation, pass-along readership and online traffic -- grew 15.3 percent to 1,054,900.

"We can only help ourselves by providing this data," Whittaker said. Although the ABC plan is voluntary, "we think it is the right move for the newspaper industry, and therefore the right move for McClatchy," he said.

The ad industry, through its part ownership of ABC, has signed on to the concept of estimating total audience. "We've used it in other media for years," said Dave Walker, an ABC board member.

But some big advertisers, like Macy's Inc., aren't sure what to make of it.

The retailer doesn't do a lot of advertising on newspapers' Web sites. Nor does it place a lot of value on the "pass-along" readership of the print paper, said Mike Monroe, vice president for media at Macy's regional office in San Francisco.

While Macy's believes total audience figures "could be useful numbers," it remains focused on paid print circulation, Monroe said. That's because its research shows that many of its shoppers buy the paper partly to see the Macy's ads, he said.

"I want the guy that wants the newspaper," Monroe said.

Some advertisers may be leery of the methods used to calculate total audience. There are various systems used to measure Web page views, and "when I look at that information, I take it with a grain of salt," Monroe said.

Similarly, newspapers have been offering estimates of pass-along readership for years, but the research has met with mixed reactions from advertisers.

'Closer' Has Cable's Best Premiere Ever

There have been a number of high-profile series debuts on broadcast this summer, such as CBS’s “Pirate Master,” Fox’s “On the Lot” and ABC’s “Ex-Wives Club.” But it’s been the returning programs, like NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” that draw the big audiences.

It's proving the same on cable. On Monday, the third-season premiere of TNT’s “The Closer” shattered basic cable records, clocking the best showing for any original series in cable history. The 9 p.m. program averaged 8.8 million total viewers, improving on last year’s then-record 8.29 million by 6 percent. It also set a record among households with 6.3 million, up 6 percent over last year’s 6.04 million.

“Closer” now stands as this year’s most-watched show on basic cable among total viewers, households and adults 25-54, where it averaged 3.79 million, up 6 percent over last year.
The show stars Kyra Sedgwick as a detective who specializes in wheedling confessions out of criminals but whose personal demons often undermine her confidence.

"Closer" has been a hit since debuting two years ago and was last year’s top-rated cable show among total viewers and 25-54s.

Untapped Market: The Poor

I found this on the AMA's site. Very interesting. ~ Curt

While the world's 4 billion poor people are a market that has been largely overlooked for many years, that might not be the case for much longer now that some of the world's largest corporations are beginning to tap into the market, according to a recent article in The New York Times.

Companies such as Unilever sell individual packets of soap in rural villages and urban open-air markets in South Africa and Brazil. And in the telecommunications sector, the biggest growth area is among the poor. C.K. Prahalad, author of the book, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” recently said at a presentation he was giving, “We have to get away from thinking of the poor as a problem … people have not had a full understanding of the size of the opportunity.” Prahalad, a business consultant and professor at the University of Michigan, says that the purchasing power of poor people might seem small in dollars, but carries more clout in emerging market economies, where goods cost less.

The world’s 4 billion poor are estimated to have $5 trillion of annual purchasing power parity, according to the article. Experts say, though, to tap into the market, innovation is important. Firms have to develop new, affordable products and invent new ways of selling them.

This Week's Automotive News

Most automakers saw their U.S. sales grow in May... and it was a very good month for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc., which set a monthly sales record and finished behind General Motors as the second-ranked automaker for the month. Toyota Motor Sales' big month pushed it past Ford Motor Co., which was one of only three automakers to post a sales decline in May. U.S. auto sales totaled 1,564,170 units in May, up 5.0 percent from a year ago.

Ford Motor's U.S. sales dropped 6.9 percent in May from a year earlier, as pickup and SUV sales continued to fall. Also, the automaker got hit by falling sales of the Ford Five Hundred sedan, which is being rebranded as the Taurus for the 2008 model year. Ford said May retail or showroom sales were 3 percent lower than in May 2006. While the company's truck sales were flat, demand for its best-selling and high-margin F-series pickups fell 11.7 percent. Earlier this week, the company had forecast a slight increase in retail sales for May.

This Week's Automotive News

Automakers consider backing alternative to fuel economy bill.

Some automakers are close to calling for fuel economy standards as high as 36 mpg for cars and 30 mpg for light trucks, sources said today. The proposal would be offered as an alternative to a fuel economy measure scheduled to be considered by the full Senate the week of June 11. The Senate bill calls for a fleetwide average of 35 mpg by 2020 -- about 40 percent higher than today -- and further increases of 4 percent a year until 2030. Lobbyists for the industry have labeled the bill extreme and untenable. But with congressional sentiment high for action to reduce petroleum consumption and cut greenhouse gas emissions, automakers probably cannot simply kill the legislation.

Americans Spend Half of Their Spare Time Online

According to Netpop I Play, a new report from Media-Screen, broadband users spend an hour and 40 minutes (48% of their spare time) online in a typical weekday, and more than half of that is spent accessing activities related to entertainment and communication.

Josh Crandall, managing director of Media-Screen, says "Many broadband consumers go online for entertainment, and to talk about entertainment with other fans. Marketers need to leverage that interest..."

Search engines and social networking sites are gaining in popularity, says the report, influencing an equal number of people as magazines and newspapers. 48% of younger users say they learn about new entertainment through community, review and video sharing sites and blogs. Only 25% say they learn about new entertainment through television.

Crandall goes on to say "Currently, the proportion of advertising resources devoted to the Internet (about seven percent according to Zenith Optimedia) is nominal relative to the value it generates among fans and consumers, who on a typical weekday, spend more than 40% of their time consuming media\online..."

Two online media activities - sending email and visiting Web sites for personal reasons - are more popular than watching television, says the report:

Regular Media Related Activities (% of Respondents) Online Media

• Send Emails 90%
• Visit Web sites for personal reasons 81%
• Play online casual games 52%
• Instant messaging 35%
• Listen to MP3s 28%
• Sent text messages 26%
• Listen to Internet/online radio 25%

Regular Media Related Activities (%of Respondents) Offline Media

• Watch Television 63%
• Read magazines/newspapers 52%
• Watch videos/DVDs 52%
• Listen to AM/FM radio 48%
• Play video games 34%
• Watch pre-recorded TV 23%
• Watch video/movies on portable device 14%

Source: Media-Screen and Netpop Play 2006

And, the report finds that roadbanders spend 27 percent of their overall time online, or about one hour and forty minutes, on leisure and entertainment

Allocation of Time Spent Online (% of respondents)

• Liesure of Entertainment 27%
• Communication 27%
• News or Information 19%
• Personal Productivity 15%
• Shopping 12%

Other topics covered in the Report include:

• Online versus offline sources used to learn about bands, TV shows, movies, games and web sites
• Community-based activities such as rate/review a product, publish a personal page, upload a video or audio file
• Influence of user-generated sources and content
• Fan-related activities
• Entertainment content accessed online by psychographic group
• Demographics of population and usage among gender, age and income

What are you doing to keep your marketing message in front of a constantly evolving generation? My generation grew up with Cable TV and computers, and we don't consume traditional media such as broadcast or newspaper. Can you imagine just how difficult it will be in coming years to reach today's generation??? ~Curt

State of Emerging Technologies in Advertising

Several leaders of the cable sales industry expressed their opinions on the state of the industry at this week’s CAB conference held at the NCTA convention.

In response to the fate of the 30" ad, Comcast’s Charlie Thurston says, “The traditional linear 30” spot will become a facilitator for consumers with interactive capabilities......you can order catalogs, coupons, get company info by clicking on it.” He also provided an example, the 30" car ad is the hook, which will then lead to a deeper, rich consumer experience.

MTV’s Hank Close said, “I am happy to say video did not kill the radio star, it just gave it another platform.” He adds that MTV is working on commercial enhancers, pod-busters (one advertiser in a pod), and picturein-picture technology, which he states they have already used to great result. “While research is very supportive, as far as retention. . . it is going to take some revolution for the 30” spot to live, but I think it’s not only what our advertisers are looking for. . .it is what our audience is looking for.”

Reasons varied for which new medium is likely to have the greatest impact on business. Sean Bratcher of ESPN noted that HD is the most important to business. He says, “99% of our content is viewed live; DVR does not have a great impact.” VOD was most important to Thurston. “It allows us to take that 30” ad and stretch it.... DVR is also important.” He adds, “From a consumer experience, HD is huge.”

Moderator Stuart Varney then posed the question, “What is your vision of TV or video ten years from now?” Hank Close responded “(it’s) taking what we have today and marrying it with internet functionality, which is what we are starting to do now.” With time, mobile is going to
change and grow, it will become a greater percentage of what we view.” Joan Gillman of Time Warner Cable Media Sales summed up by saying that it will be “an integrated consumer experience – more seamless and relevant.”

News from Newspaper Association of America

If newspaper execs at the Newspaper Association of America conference last month were hoping to hear some good news, they had to be disappointed by some of the speakers. Rick Wagoner of General Motors told them that because its vehicles are “no longer on sale all the time,” the automaker didn’t need as much newspaper advertising as before to sell “the deal of the month.”

And Macy’s Chief Marketing Officer told them, “In order for your newspapers to be winning our advertising dollars, you need to be winning in the marketplace, and that’s not currently the case.” Anne MacDonald also said paid circulation is what matters, not pass-along copies or websites.

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 12

The twelfth and final Advertising Blunder according to Roy Williams. Three months of these weekly tips comes to an end.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

12. Confusing response with results: The goal of advertising is to create a clear awareness of your company and its unique selling proposition. Unfortunately, most advertisers evaluate their ads by the comments they hear from the people around them. The slickest, cleverest, funniest, most creative and most distinctive ads are the ones most likely to generate these comments. See the problem? When we confuse response with results, we create attention-getting ads that say absolutely nothing.

I can predict the success of a new marketing partnership by the willingness of the client and I to both agree on how results are being measured.

When a client is more interested in buying a zone where he, or his golf buddy, lives rather than a zone where his customers live... there is no success. When a client calls because he isn't seeing his ad enough, despite an increase in sales... there is no success.

Success is achieved when a well thought out marketing campaign is implemented with concerns to quality creative reaching current consumers and building brand equity with future consumers. ~ Curt

TNT's The Closer Series Premiere June 18th

Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) is a police detective who transfers from Atlanta to Los Angeles to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive, high-profile murder cases. Despite a tendency to step on people’s toes, Johnson manages to convert even her strongest adversaries with her unique ability to get to the truth. The top ad-supported cable series of all time returns for season three!

Season Premieres: June 18 from 8-9PM
Regularly Scheduled: Mondays from 8-9PM

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 11

Only one more week left...part eleven of our twelve part series. Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

11. Great production without great copy: Too many ads today are creative without being persuasive. Slick, clever, funny, creative and different are poor substitutes for informative, believable, memorable and persuasive.

This ranks up there with the ads that leave you scratching your head wondering what the commercial you just watched was actually advertising. I'm all for being creative and clever, in fact I revel in it! However...this all hinges on fundamental, quality creative being your foundation. ~ Curt

This Week's Automotive News

Honda will put a hydrogen fuel-cell car in production next year, which will be priced under the Civic hybrid and deliver the equivalent of 68 MPG of gas. USA Today notes the cost of hydrogen that offers the same energy as gas is $3-$6.

With a lot of talk about $4 gas, a new survey finds scooters may become hot as an item for some commuters. The survey found 30% of respondents had some interest in converting to a scooter for some of their driving. Scooters get about 70 miles per gallon.

General Motors is starting a new round of 0% financing, this time for its full-size pickups, the Chevy Silverado and the GMC Sierra. GM is heavily-stocked with the models; it has a 101 day supply of Silverados already built, and a 129 days supply of Sierras, meaning dealers are paying heavy floorplanning costs on those trucks.

TV Viewing At An All Time High

The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau updated some of its previous research and found some very good news regarding television viewing. Perhaps best is that TV viewing continues to grow and is now at an all-time high of 31 hours per week per person. According to Multichannel News, CAB President Sean Cunningham says the “remarkable proliferation of video gadgets seems to be inspiring more interest in watching TV in general.” Broadcasting & Cable adds that traditional linear TV remains the biggest driver of interest in video across all possible devices.

Cunningham also said that viewers are much more tolerant and accepting of advertising on traditional television--where it has been all their lives--than they are on new viewing alternatives. Viewers on average find commercials up to 42 seconds acceptable on traditional TV, but find anything longer than 18 seconds objectionable for ads on the PCs, and will only accept ads or 12 seconds or shorter on mobile devices. “The lines are drawn on ad receptivity very, very sharply,” Cunningham said. He also pointed out that while there has been such an explosion of opportunities for video consumption, “What no one bargained for...is that in all this bombardment, cable TV thrived. This is the message.”

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 10

I have no idea what I'll use in my Marketing Minute here in a few weeks. These Advertising Blunders have made my life easier over the past three months. Part ten of our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

10. Event-driven marketing: A special event should be judged only by its ability to help you more clearly define your market position and substantiate your claims. If 1 percent of the people who hear your ad for a special event choose to come, you will be in desperate need of a traffic cop and a bus to shuttle people from distant parking lots. Yet your real investment will be in the 99 percent who did not come! What did your ad say to them?

I have a client who owns a beautiful salon. She advertises just prior to Christmas, Valentines and Mother's Day. Makes sense, right? She used to advertise consistently, and these holidays were incredibly busy for her. A few years ago she scaled back advertising to just around these peak holidays. The first year there was still some success. However, once her 'brand' had lost it's position with her target audience, subsequent advertising centered around holidays lost their effect. Using Roy's words, she lost the other 99 percent! ~ Curt

The 10 Marketing Commandments

I wish with all my heart I could take credit for these 10 Commandments. I found this on another Marketing Blog ran by Jay Lipe, CEO of Emerge Marketing. They are genuine, thoughtful, a little funny...and most importantly ring true whether you are a Fortune 500 company or a mom and pop dry-cleaners. Enjoy! - Curt

These Ten Commandments didn’t come from the Mountain. And they’re not carved on clay tablets, but on a high-tensile polyfiber instead. Yet any marketer worth his or her salt must follow these commandments in order to find the Promised Land.

• Thou Shalt Not See Marketing as a Department. When you get right down to it, everyone in your company is a marketer. From the receptionist whose voice is the first thing your buyers hear, to the delivery person whose rear-end may be the last thing they see, every one of your employees plays a pivotal role in the orchestration of your marketing efforts. Good companies imbue every employee with healthy reverence for the customer so that the company, from every point of contact it has with its market, knows how to market.
• Thou Shalt Follow the Ninety Day Rule. Your customers, prospects and champions (those who refer business your way) should hear from you every 90 days. People are just too busy to remember you otherwise. If you don’t follow the 90-day rule, you risk getting shouted down by any competitor of yours who does.
• Honor the Concept of Tinkering with All your Heart. If you’re a 70’s child like me, you remember the hugely successful rock group Fleetwood Mac. But I’ll bet you didn’t know that their seemingly overnight success came only after years of tinkering. That’s right, before the release of their monster album Rumours, they endured no less than 14 personnel changes across 10 years. In marketing, as in rock and roll, success seldom happens with your original line-up.
• Thou Shalt Not Quit. Moses and the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years without giving up. You owe it to yourself (and maybe Moses too) to try any new marketing initiative at least three times before throwing in the towel. Your prospect could have been out of the country the first time you ran it, and tending to his sick mother the second. Repetition is a marketer’s best friend.
• Thou Shalt Feed Thy Prospecting Funnel. Suspects become prospects, who then become customers. And these customers then generate referrals who create more prospects and the cycle begins anew. For thousands of years, this marketing process (also known as the prospecting funnel) has governed marketing activities for all companies, and I feel safe saying that it will continue this way for another thousand years.
• Remember Thine Marketing Time by Keeping it Holy. Successful marketing campaigns don’t take the summer off, nor are they created “when I have the time.” You must make the time. I’ve found it’s helpful to consistently carve out the same day and time each week to work on marketing tasks. For me, it’s Friday afternoons; for you it may be different. But whatever day and time you choose, honor it with all your heart.
• Thou Shalt Jettison One Program Every Year. I can’t count the number of stressed out marketers I’ve seen over the last 15 years. As task after task is added to their plates , nothing is ever removed. Stop this madness at once, and identify one marketing task each year to eliminate. Too often, someone keeps doing a task (e.g. issuing a report), yet it’s not adding value. Eliminate one marketing task a year; your health depends upon it.
• Thou Shalt Not Cut Marketing Spending During Slow Times. From 1980 to 1985, McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies and their marketing spending. After 1985, McGraw-Hill concluded that those firms which had maintained or increased their advertising during the recession in ’81-’82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. But those companies who cut their advertising saw paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%. When is the right time to market your business? All the time.
• Thou Shalt Honor Exiting Employees. I once had a travel industry client run a report that showed where their new referrals came from. The second highest category was ex-employees. It turns out vacation shoppers were asking these ex-employees where they could book a Vegas package just like the neighbor’s they’d heard about, and the ex-employees were referring them back to their old employer. When you treat your departing employees with a dose of good will, they may just turn into your unpaid sales force and refer business your way.
• Thou Shalt Thank Often. Sadly, we live in an age of boorishness. But a savvy marketer can do his part to bring civility into an otherwise uncivilized world. Among the countless ways to thank customers are thank you notes, gift certificates and appreciation lunches to name just a few. These thank you’s don’t have to be showy. Just make sure the thank you is classy and considerate, and the kindness will eventually be repaid.

Local newspaper circulation down 14.3 percent!

A few of my clients still incorporate a small percentage of their ad dollars in newspaper, so I do my best to keep my finger on the pulse of local print. The Dallas Business Journal had a great article on-line yesterday reporting on the state of circulation (or lack of) for The Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! - Curt

Report: Newspaper circulation down 2 percent
Dallas Business Journal - 2:05 PM CDT Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Several big-city newspapers endured big-time drops in circulation as the hard-hit industry continues to lose readers.

Daily newspaper circulation -- from metro newspapers such The New York Times and Los Angeles Times to the small dailies -- declined 2.1 percent, and Sunday readership fell 3.1 percent during the past six months, compared to the year ago October through March period, according to an Audit Bureau of Circulation report released Monday.

Fifteen of the nation's 20 largest newspapers reported drops in readership, led by The Dallas Morning News' 14.3 percent tumble to 411,919 readers. However, it's the first time the Dallas newspaper has participated in the report since 2004, when it was censured for misstating circulation figures.

Newsday of Long Island and The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., reported 6 percent-plus declines in readership, the largest drops following the Morning News. Daily circulation at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram dropped 3.6 percent.

The Miami Herald's daily circulation fell 5.5 percent, while Sunday readership plummeted 10.1 percent, according to an analysis of the ABC report by Editor & Publisher magazine.
Shares of McClatchy (NYSE: MNI), which owns the Star-Telegram, were down 13 cents to $28.77 in trading Tuesday.

Belo Corp. (NYSE: BLC) shares were down 4 cents Tuesday morning to $19.23. Belo owns The Dallas Morning News.

Two of the nation's largest daily newspapers -- USA Today and The Wall Street Journal -- were two of the five top 20 newspapers that reported an increased in readers. Gannett Co. Inc.-owned USA Today's daily readership inched up 0.2 percent to 2.3 million, while The Wall Street Journal gained 0.6 percent circulation to 2.1 million readers.

The New York Post reported a 7.6 percent increase to almost 725,000 daily readers, easily the largest gain in readers. The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Plain Dealer of Cleveland also bucked the national trend, with half-percentage point gains, according to the closely watched industry report.

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 9

We're almost there! Part nine of our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

9. Overconfidence in qualitative targeting: Many advertisers and media professionals grossly overestimate the importance of audience quality. In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It's amazing how many people become "the right people" when you're saying the right thing.

Quality creative dictates success. Reach, frequency and targeting are all secondary to the message. I once had a client with a huge budget, every media reps dream... with one exception...his ego was even bigger than his budget!

He insisted on starring in every TV spot we produced. He had a face for radio and a voice for print. Needless to say, his advertising was a 'complete failure' according to him. Quality creative dictates success. - Curt

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 8

Continuing our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

8. Late-week schedules: Advertisers justify their obsession with Thursday and Friday advertising by saying "We need to reach the customer just before she goes shopping." Why do these advertisers choose to compete for the customer's attention each Thursday and Friday when they could have a nice, quiet chat all alone with her on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday?

This is a personal pet peeve of mine. I handle a lot of car dealers and they're the worst at this. Not only are they only advertising half of the week...they're advertising along with every other car dealer in town! Don't people buy Chevys on Tuesdays? If you can't afford to outshine (i.e. spend the most) the competition, go where the competition isn't! - Curt

What Do Lower Housing Prices Mean?

FIRST DROP SINCE GREAT DEPRESSION
Now it’s getting serious! When an eternally-optimistic group like the National Association of Realtors predicts that there will be a drop in national average housing prices, there are some very real problems in that sector.

As late as February, the Realtors were still holding on to a positive projection that the national median house price would go up a bit, about 1.9%. But earlier this month, its projection was changed to a drop of 0.7%. If that turns out to be correct, it will be the first time since the 1930’s that the national median home price went down in a year.

A lot of retailers live and die by the housing market, obviously furniture, appliances, electronics,
garden stores, and other homerelated items are the most prominent. But it’s not just retail that
is impacted; service businesses like landscapers, contractors, etc., are also caught in the slowdown. And financial institutions, many of which released financial results last week, are starting to feel the pinch on the bottom line as the number of mortgage delinquencies goes up.

It’s likely to get worse before it starts to get better. We’ve started to see some reports that it’s not just “sub-prime” loans that are getting into trouble; some financial institutions are starting to see delinquencies from borrowers who had better than a “sub-prime” ranking. The lenders are being forced to tighten their terms, which makes it harder for new buyers to get into homes. And, rising foreclosures mean more homes coming back onto the market, so the increased supply along with decreased demand portends yet lower prices to come.

This article follows the one referencing the decline in restaurant spending...one industry that can control the life of several others. With the drop in housing prices, you can expect some sort of ripple effect on your business. You can see the rest of this article by clicking the link below. Curt

http://ftp.media.radcity.net/ZSND/issues/april2007/C5714.pdf

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 7

On the backstretch of our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

7. Obedience to unwritten rules: For some insane reason, advertisers want their ads to look and sound like ads. Why?

Wow! Roy nailed it...what else to say? - Curt

Building Your Brand

Every one of my clients wants a great image or brand. A few have good ones. Even fewer had one before I met them. How’s yours?

Everyone knows of a brand, but you don’t really care about them, unless your loyalty to the brand is fierce. Examples include loyalty to a sports team, to a product you are a personal fan of (like Starbucks), or just as a fan of their message. I have a friend whose daughters are in love with Empire Carpet. They go around singing that stupid jingle all the time!

Sometimes, great brands weaken. Sometimes they die. Pop quiz…do you know what the 57 in ‘Heinz 57’ stands for? Before ketchup and steak sauce, Heinz was known for pickles. They had 57 different types of pickles. They chose to go after the ketchup market and took their focus off of their cash cow, the pickles. It nearly bankrupted the company. At least the ketchup thing worked out.

As a business owner or manager, what you care most about is your brand. Your company’s brand, your product’s brand, and your personal brand. But, you can learn lessons from the big ones that fail.

The answer to building a brand hangs in the balance of all the things you do that are not brand building.

The answer lies within these critical reputation-building areas:
1. Quality of product.
2. Availability of product.
3. Ease of doing business with you.
4. Friendliness and helpfulness of sales and service people.
5. Enjoyment of product.
6. Continuous improvement in each of the five areas listed above.

Many people (especially advertising agencies) believe that the best way to establish your brand is advertise. They are partially right. Reputation is much more powerful than advertising. And word of mouth advertising is much, much more powerful than advertising.

Why don’t companies reinvest a piece of their advertising budget and create reputation-building actions they could take in order to solidify the brand and make any advertising pay real dividends?

The old concept is: Advertising brings brand awareness. The question is: What kind of awareness?

For example, if I see an ad on TV with a guy walking by a row of cars and he is yelling, I see the image, and it creates a thought or a statement. The question is: What do I say or think when I see it? Does it cause me to act? Does it cause me to ignore, mute or change the channel? Will it create a good feeling or a bad one? Will I recall a good story or a negative incident? Or will it be nothing?

When we see any brand or advertising image, we will think or say one of the following five things:
· Something great.
· Something good.
· Nothing.
· Something bad.
· Something real bad.

So the challenge, from the chicken and the egg series, is: which came first, the advertising, the brand, or the reputation?

ANSWER: It doesn’t matter. In the end, without reputation and word of mouth, your advertising message is only words.

Ask yourself where and why you bought your last car? Or where and why you go to the stylist you go to get your hair done (if you have any). Or doctor, or dentist, or mechanic, or, or, or…

What if companies spent as much money delivering great service as they do trying to tell everyone how great they are. Maybe they should cut their advertising budget in half and invest the other half in hiring and retaining employees that provide outstanding service to your customers.

I’m big on branding, and creating a great brand, but I am bigger on reputation. If the reputation is there, the brand will be bigger than the ad.

The best way to build a brand is build a reputation that attracts customers. Take the actions necessary, invest in the people necessary, and invest in the quality necessary to get the brand to build itself through the words and testimony of others.

CONTINUING SLOWDOWN WORRIES RESTAURANTS

CASUAL CHAINS DOWN; QSRs BETTER

One month may be blamed on the weather, but as March numbers for most restaurant chains were equally dismal with February's, restaurant operators started to wonder if deeper factors like weaker consumer confidence may be cutting into their sales.

According to Nation's Restaurant News, many casual dining chains will now miss their first quarter projections, both on the top line and on the bottom line. The news is a little better at most quick service restaurants, where some are still seeing same-store sales increases. In some of the other periods that saw gas prices on the way up, there did appear to be a trend of people saving money by "trading down" in their out-of-home eating expenditures, and that might be happening again.

Among the losers are some of the biggest brands in the restaurant business from a variety of formats, including Red Lobster, Outback Steakhouse, and P.F. Chang.

For the rest of this article, go to http://ftp.media.radcity.net/ZSND/issues/april2007/C8222.pdf.

A great way to keep pulse on the economy and how it may affect your business is to watch the restaurant sector. This article goes on to state that while sit-down restaurants lost sales, that less-expensive QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants, or fast food if your from Texas) actually saw an increase in same store sales. What this means to you as a business owner is that you should consider promoting less expensive options for consumers while they're nervous about rising gas prices. -Curt

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 6

Halfway through our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

6. Creating ads instead of campaigns: It is foolish to believe a single ad can ever tell the entire story. The most effective, persuasive and memorable ads are those most like a rhinoceros: They make a single point, powerfully. An advertiser with 17 different things to say should commit to a campaign of at least 17 different ads, repeating each ad enough to stick in the prospect's mind.

I still see ads today that do this. The consumer is left scratching their head afterwards, not sure what the advertiser is advertising. Do one thing and do it well! - Curt

7 Steps to Planning a Productive and Successful Promotional Campaign

I came across this article and thought it a wonderful reminder of marketing basics. Considering we're nearly halfway thru our 12-part series on Roy Williams Top Advertising Blunders, I elected to give you the cliffnotes of the article. Enjoy! -Curt

Seven Steps to Planning a Productive and Successful Promotional Campaign:

1. Assess Marketing Communication Opportunities.
2. What Communication Channels Will You Use?
3. Determine Your Objectives.
4. Determine Your Promotion Mix.
5. Develop Your Promotional Message.
6. Develop the Promotion Budget.
7. Determine Campaign Effectiveness.

Here is the link to the full article: http://marketing.about.com/od/positioning/a/promocampaign.htm

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 5

Originally published April 5, 2007...
Continuing our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

5. Improper use of passive media: Nonintrusive media, such as newspapers and yellow pages, tend to reach only buyers who are looking for the product. They are poor at reaching prospects before their need arises, so they're not much use for creating a predisposition toward your company. The patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as TV and radio, will win the hearts of relational customers long before they're in the market for your product.

Take a few minutes to go find a newspaper and look for the three big print advertisers; grocery stores, clothing stores and automotive dealers. All three of these advertising categories using print consider themselves commodities and the lowest price wins the buyer. My savvy automotive dealers (and all of my dealers that advertise with me are savvy) have dropped or dramatically cut down their print and are using cable to advertise the differences buyers experience when buying from their store. You cannot portray this experience in fish wrap! - Curt

What a World

Below is an article from this week's TV Guide reviewing Discovery Channel's new series, Planet Earth.

"What a World"
Armchair travel has never been so ravishing. Watch in awe as the 11 hours of Planet Earth (Sundays, 8/7c through 4/22, Discovery Channel) reveal their many wonders.

The series takes us from pole to pole (which means baby polar bears and, naturally, penguins), with astonishing aerials of mountain peaks and incredible high-definition images from the ocean depths, revealing rare glimpses of life in deserts and lush forests along the way. It's an ecological and technological marvel.

In narration as crisp, inviting and detailed as the magnificent photography, Sigourney Weaver often remarks on how long it took the film crews to capture these sights, some for the first time. Their patience paid off. I can't remember a more gorgeous spectacle of wildlife and habitats, with exotic slices of life and death, from bizarre mating rituals to the brutal dance of predators and prey.

Planet Earth is truly something to behold.

What a wonderful way to promote your business by branding it with the highest quality programming that is safe for the entire family. Call me to discuss just how affordable sponsoring Planet Earth is. -Curt

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 4

Originally published March 20, 2007...
Continuing our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

4. Unsubstantiated claims: Advertisers often claim to have what the customer wants, such as "highest quality at the lowest price," but fail to offer any evidence. An unsubstantiated claim is nothing more than a cliche the prospect is tired of hearing. You must prove what you say in every ad. Do your ads give the prospect new information? Do they provide a new perspective? If not, prepare to be disappointed with the results.

How can your message stand out when it sounds exactly like your competitors? - Curt

Mavs Win, You Win!!!

Originally published March 13, 2007...

The Mavs won 17 straight games Sunday, by anihalating the Lakers!

The Dallas Mavs vs. L.A. Lakers was the hottest Ad Insertable program over the weekend. This game ranked #1 in all key adults & male demos and aired on ESPN with a 5.9 Household Rating!!!

The Mavericks are RED HOT, and picked by most to return to the finals and win it all this year. Time Warner only has three spots per game available for local clients. Don't get left out on the hottest ticket in town! Call me today and find out just how affordable it is to associate your business with the Mavs on ESPN and TNT

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 3

Originally published March 13, 2007...

Continuing our 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising blunders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

3. Assuming the business owner knows best: The business owner is uniquely unqualified to see his company or product objectively. Too much product knowledge leads him to answer questions no one is asking. He's on the inside looking out, trying to describe himself to a person on the outside looking in. It's hard to read the label when you're inside the bottle.

Ouch...did that sting a little? Good businessmen understand most aspects of their business. Great businessmen understand how to delegate. - Curt

2007 NBA All Star Game Recap

Thank you to everyone who responded with interest in advertising in this year's NBA All Star Game.

To those that took advantage of our special package, your wise choice paid dividends! This year's game attracted an 11.6 Household Rating!!!

The NBA has never been more popular, and with the NBA Playoffs around the corner, viewership is only getting higher.

The Mavericks are RED HOT, and picked by most to return to the finals and win it all this year. Time Warner only has three spots per game available for local clients. Don't get left out on the hottest ticket in town! Call me today and find out just how affordable it is to associate your business with the Mavs on ESPN and TNT!

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 2

Originally published February 28, 2007...
Last issue, I began a 12-part series of the 12 most common advertising bluders according to Roy Williams, author of The Wizard of Ads.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

2. Trying to reach more people than the budget will allow: For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must have enough repetition to establish retention in the mind of the prospect. Too often, however, the result of a media mix is too much reach and not enough frequency. Will you reach 100 percent of the people and persuade them 10 percent of the way? Or will you reach 10 percent of the people and persuade them 100 percent of the way? The cost is the same.

If you have ever sat down with me and talked shop, I can promise you've heard me discuss this concept. - Curt

Top Advertising Blunders: Part 1

Originally published February 12, 2007.
I started my advertising career eight years ago selling for an AM Newstalk station, KBOI, in Boise, Idaho. I have spent the last six years of my life thankful for the day I left that radio station behind.

OK...I'm teasing (kind of). Despite the experience of selling radio I am still grateful for two things; the opportunity they afforded me by gambling on a kid still enrolled in college, and the training they gave me.

There were several videos I watched (Jason Jennings turning lettuce into salad was a highlight) and a few workshops and seminars. My favorite by far was Roy Williams' The Wizard of Ads. In a world where people seem to make things more than they should be, Roy has such a simple aproach to things. My favorite topic Roy covers in The Wizard of Ads is top advertising blunders. There are twelve listed. Over the next three months I will share these with you.

Spending all your money on ads but getting no results? Perhaps you're making one of these 12 huge mistakes.

1. The quest for instant gratification: The ad that creates enough urgency to cause people to respond immediately is the ad most likely to be forgotten immediately once the offer expires. It is of little use in establishing the advertiser's identity in the mind of the consumer.