Advertising For The PR Of It: How To Get Publicity From Your Advertising

Our recent article on the racy Paris Hilton ads for Carl's Jr. and Hardees brought a flood of responses from you, our readers. (Didn't read that article? You may want to do so before reading this - Paris Hilton Carl's Jr. Ad)

Most were strongly in support of our stance, but several asked some variation of the question "What about all of the free showings of the ad on the network and local news - aren't they worth a tremendous amount?"

On the surface, those showings literally added millions of exposures without costing anything, probably resulting in the advertising equivalent of quadrupling (at least) the effect of their ad expenditures.

Normally, that's a good thing, except when the conclusion drawn by those who watch the news report is negative.

From what I saw in my community, as well as from the emails that I received, there was a large percentage of customers who viewed that ad, either as an ad or through the publicity surrounding it, who decided to vote with their wallets and never darken the door of a Carl's Jr. or a Hardees again.

I don't know about you, but where I come from, offending customers is a bad thing!

Ah, but what about those who felt the other way and came in to eat because of that ad? Won't they balance out the group that decided to leave?

Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't. Let's look at the numbers for this particular ad.

In our last article we showed how the immediate results of running the ad lost CKE (the parent company) more in profits then they made in extra business. But the key in situations like this is to look at the period of time *after* they take an ad off the air. That's when you can tell whether the additional customers they added to the franchise outweighed those whom they offended.

So, I jump over to CKE's financial results and find...

That Hardee's sales actually dropped 1% in the month after the ad ran, Carl's Jr's remained flat.

So, you spend $10 million in advertising and non-working costs, get the equivalent views of running a $40 million ad campaign, and what do you get as a result? Flat results in one chain and a drop in business in the other. Meanwhile, McDonalds turned in a 4.9% sales increase. Yes, there are many things that drive sales, but if you're running great advertising, you should see sales increases as a result!

On top of that, consider that prior to the Paris ad, CKE's stock was trading at about $16 per share, now it's trading at $12. So, this ad contributed to a 25% loss in the worth of the company - flushing almost a quarter of a Billion dollars in company worth straight down the drain...

Did the ad work? No! And what's worse, those people whom they offended will be a drain on revenues for at least months, if not years to come!

This sounds like a good argument for firing their ad agency, CEO, and marketers. I don't know about you, but I think the loss of about a quarter of a billion dollars in net worth sounds like a pretty good argument for rolling a few heads... It's time for the ad agencies, managers and marketers of the world to be held accountable for their lack of performance and the stupid choices they make.

Sorry for the aside... let's step back and look at the bigger principles here.

The Bigger Picture

Is it a good idea to create ads that generate publicity? Is it a good idea to seek publicity for your ads? Yes!

Is there a better way to do it? Absolutely!

Let me give you an example. Not long ago a billboard appeared on a main street in my community. It was very simple - black type on white. It said "Your wife knows."

Within days I saw 2 mentions of it in the news section of the paper, plus a couple of letters to the editor. The paper called the person who placed the ad, who refused to tell what the ad was about and who had purchased it. He did, however, promise that the billboard would be updated soon to give more information. People were talking about it at work, and many changed their commuting patterns to be able to see the next chapter in the story.

A couple of weeks later the billboard was changed to read "Your wife knows. Your children know too."

Bang, it all started up again. The prevailing opinion was that someone was being warned that they had been caught in their nefarious dealings... More newspaper articles, and now it hit the TV news from Milwaukee, and created even more water cooler talk. I'm sure a few men had second thoughts about whatever they were doing wrong.

Then a couple of weeks later the issue resolved. The sign then read. "Your wife knows. Your children know too - the best place to buy a car," followed by the name of a local dealer.

A disappointment, yes, but it played out in conversations throughout our community.

Compare this campaign to the Paris one - both got publicity value that far exceeded their actual ad spend. However, the Paris ad offended many, while the car dealer one offended few if anyone.

Is advertising controversy a bad idea? Quite the opposite - just be sure that the controversy you create doesn't offend your core constituency. In this case I will define core constituency as those who represent the bulk of your sales, NOT as those in your target market.

That's where Carl's Jr. and Hardees went wrong. Their ads are targeting males 18-25, who like to eat large portions. To that audience, the Paris ad is probably pretty desirable :<). What the company's leadership is ignoring, however, is that their new 18-25 hungry male target market represents only a small portion of the people who actually eat in their establishments - that group's still families. So, in the process of trying to target a new group with their ads and product selections, they are killing off the very group that is currently paying their bills.

Don't get me wrong - marketing is the process of making choices, and sometimes you need to shift your marketplace out of one group into another. But in doing so, you had better be prepared for the inevitable loss of business that will result as you drive away your old business franchise.

And, you'd better make sure that the new franchise you're after will be more profitable than the one you're leaving behind, or you'll be really sorry in the end.

Far too many managers (and especially agencies) ignore these realities, assuming that their base will always be there, no matter who else they target in their future marketing efforts. They're wrong!

I have another client who regularly runs billboards and full page print ads supporting their political agendas. Their messages are always controversial, and they regularly get publicity for their ads. There are many who passionately disagree with the political stances represented in those ads. But in this case, controversy actually helps to build my client's base because those messages reflect the beliefs of their current followers AND they draw others into their organization who also support those causes.

Controversy can be a very powerful, and valuable thing!

There are several lessons to be learned from this:

1. Make sure that your ads don't offend your base, unless you really want to do so

2. All publicity is not a good thing - bad publicity generally hurts your brand by driving people away

3. You can be controversial without being offensive

4. Never make a change in target markets without clearly thinking through the ramifications of that change, especially the risk of losing your current customer base.

Do you have an advertising campaign that's not working for you? Give us a call - we've been creating profit-generating ads for over 20 years. Maybe we can do the same for you!

Want to know more about how to create powerful advertising that will put more profit into your pocket? I recommend two books. First is the classic John E. Kennedy book "Reason Why Advertising" which teaches how to create advertising that truly differentiates you from the competition.

Second, we recommend this one that teaches how to use one of today's most powerful online advertising tools - Pay Per Click Advertising.

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Tags: Paris Hilton Ad Advertising for Publicity