Don Crowther’s
GreatPR Newsletter
Published by 101PublicRelations.com

Issue #114

In this issue:

Creating Advertising That Offends Your Customers:
I Don't Get It
Tips For Using People Photos That Get Results
What's That Again?
How To Have A Long Marriage...
New Program Simplifies Online Advertising

Creating Advertising That Offends Your Customers: I Don't Get It

I was shocked this week to see an ad by Ford for their Mustang. It shows a father and son in a dark parking lot. The son's driving, he peels out, runs a bit, then stops. The father turns to him and says "That's what I'm talking about. This is not a toy! Want to go again?" Both laughs and they peel out again.

Now I'm sure this ad strikes deep to the heart of a few fathers who want their sons to relive the father's teenage streetrodding experiences. And, when they dragged those fathers into focus groups the ad was probably met with applause.

But what's clear is that they didn't test the ad with others - the moms, the families who have lost a child to being hit by a teenage driver, MADD members, and those who look for our teenagers to be law-abiding. To them, this ad is not only offensive, but it constitutes "fighten words".

The ad has already been pulled in at least one market where recent highly-publicized teen accidents have raised awareness of the dangers of telling kids that it's ok to drive cars recklessly "as long as they don't get caught."

Want to judge the spot for yourself? Watch it.

This ad is just another in a recent trend towards offending one market segment while seeking to attract another. Carls Junior's Paris Hilton ad was one we recently commented on.

Sephora has recently done the same thing with coffee cups with a lipstick mark on the rim, making them appear to have been used.

Frankly, I don't get it.

This alls back to the ongoing disconnect we have in the marketing world, that the people who make the ads are not held to the same standard nor rewarded the same way those who pay for the ads.

Marketers get paid for delivering profits. Advertisers get paid for running ads. And what's worse, every time the marketers try to put some teeth or rewards based on profits into the advertising payment system, the ad world fights it tooth and nail.

Why? Because deep inside, most traditional agencies know that if their advertising was truly held responsible for delivering profits, they would actually have to produce totally different commercials than the ones they do right now.

Commercials that would contain stuff they consider boring, like competitive demos, direct response mechnisms, and heaven forbid, actual consumer benefits. Stuff that sales rather than wins awards.

No, it's far more fun to create worthless ads that "brand", "get recall", or "create buzz".

The problem is that most breakthrough, recall and buzz-generating ads don't brand at all, in fact people can't even remember what brand ran the spot. So they may be talking about the ad around the watercooler the next day; but since nobody can remember what brand ran the ad, it's an ad that sells the category, not the brand.

Another situation happens when people seek to gain extra attention for their ad by purposely creating a publicity-seeking element in the ad. Unfortunately, since most advertising isn't news, they have to insert some element that's way outside of norm, creating controversy, resulting in news.

Let's take the Ford ad for example. Yes, they'll get news, but the news will be that x group objects to the ad because it teaches kids that it's ok to handle this car in a dangerous way. The ad may get free exposure on the nightly news, but what's the key message the consumer will receive? "This car is dangerous for teens to drive."

Now, I can think of lots of messages I'd rather have in my potential consumers' minds than "this car is dangerous."

So, the next time an agency comes to you with a campaign that they claim is going to generate lots of publicity as a bonus, consider carefully the labels that campaign will attach to your prized asset, your brand.

In most cases, it's not worth it!

Want to know more about how to create incredible advertising that delivers profitable results? Check out Reason-Why Advertising and How Shall We Know Good Copy?

Tips For Using People Photos That Get Results

Want to use a picture of a person in your marketing? Here's how to make your choice.

Psychological and marketing studies tend to reveal similar results, which state that when you choose a picture for an advertising or publicity campaign look for: (Please don't consider this sexist or get offended, it's what the data says)

A picture of a woman (men prefer pictures of women, women don't care, pictures of women win)
Mid to late 20's (something about the age your mother was when you first saw her - things get real Freudian here...)
Attractive, though not necessarily sexy. Sexy turns women off, attractive appeals to both men and women.
Dressed nicely, but not sexy. Same rationale.
Smiling lightly, though not toothy grin. The best pictures are the ones where the model looks approving, like they're happy with you, not hitting on you, more motherly "I'm so glad to see that you're home!" looks that make you feel loved
Ideally her body should be turned to a bit of an angle to the camera
Most important - her eyes should be looking directly into the camera. The eyes are important. There's something, particularly in men (eye-tracking research) that shows that our eyes are drawn to eyes that are looking at us. So a model looking into the camera (especially if her body is turned slightly so it appears that she is having to work a bit to look at the camera, tying back to the previous point) draws your eye to hers. Side point here - really focus on the eyes in your pictures. It's possible to look at the camera without looking into the camera lens. You want them focused right on you. My friend describes it as "looking deep into your soul."

In short, study your possible pictures carefully. You should feel your heart do a slight leap when you see the right one. If it does, you've got a winner.

The biggest problem comes if your idea of attractive is different than the norm. Then you're in trouble, and you need to ask someone else.

Our tests show that you should lean heavily towards blondes and redheads. Brown's are generally too mousy and I rarely use black unless the hair is long and shiny. (Really detailed, and somewhat prejudiced here, but this is important stuff - it's money in your pocket to get it right.) But be very careful that you don't get a platinum, or greenish, or bluish blonde. You're looking for the combination valedictorian and girl next door blonde look (but don't do those fashionable nerdy glasses, it destroys the eye thing and it denies believability.) Redheads must be natural red, not bottled. Even a freckle or two is good. No blown-back hair (much more common than you think, fans are a staple in most photo studios) because that look doesn't look natural.

What are the psychological drivers behind this? My personal theory is that it has something to do with young childhood experience of wanting mom's approval and later life experiences of getting checked out from across the room (hence the eye thing).

For examples look at the covers of the women's magazines (the masters of people photography) and you'll see these tricks over and over and over again, with the exception of the sexy rule. That's because sex is what women's magazines are selling - "buy this magazine so you can be as sexy as our cover model". So it works in women's magazines, and on clothing ads (look carefully at the ads in your Sunday paper, most of the high-end department stores really get this one and most of the low-end stores don't) but it doesn't work on other products.

I can't tell you how much what you just read is worth...

Want to know more about how to structure publicity photos? Check out How To Get Publicity Photos In Newspapers & Magazines, And On TV. It's chalk-full of tips to help you create killer publicity photos.

What's That Again?
How To Have A Long Marriage...

Here's an announcement about a 40th wedding anniversary:

"Mr. And Mrs. Ron Tennell of Flat Rock are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. She is taking a trip to Europe while he will be gambling on a riverboat in southern Indiana."

Isn't it nice to see a close couple? :<)

New Program Simplifies Online Advertising

Those of you who have been subscribers for awhile know that I'm a huge fan of pay per click marketing. It's one of the greatest marketing tools currently available to generate huge numbers of targeted potential buyers to your webpage or online sales letter.

One of the keys to success in pay per click marketing is running your ads on thousands, and in many cases, tens of thousands of keywords.

This strategy not only results in less expensive click traffic, but higher quality customers at the same time, because those who search for more specific keyword combinations tend to be farther along in the buying process than those who search for the generic term that describes the category.

Though this is a powerful, results-generating strategy, it comes at a huge price - the time required to sort
though huge lists of keywords, culling out those that don't apply, and putting them into logical ad groups for keyword advertising.

Frankly, to do this process right costs between 5-10 hours of mind-numbingly frustrating work. Seriously, you can't hand-process keyword lists for more than about 20 minutes before your eyes start crossing and every line starts to look about the same.

As a manager of a number of high-powered, huge, expensive campaigns, I've done my time, spending far too many late nights slogging through yet another list.

If you've ever done it, you know exactly what I'm talking about...

So, you can imagine my excitement about two months ago as I talked for the first time with a guy I met on a pay per click teleconference named Richard East.

In that phone call Richard told me about a new program his team was creating that was designed specifically to handle the challenge of sorting through huge groups of keywords for pay per click and/or page-building programs.

I twisted his arm into sending me a copy, and was blown away. I was just starting the process of sorting
through a 35,000 keyword project. Instead of doing it by hand, I ran it through Richard's program, and completed the entire keyword project, including culling out inappropriate terms, sorting the remaining terms into logical ad groups, and creating negative keyword lists in a grand total of...

(No, not the 10 hours of drudgery I had planned,)

20 minutes.

Yes, less than half an hour.

I instantly became a raving fan.

Then I went to the next step and started the task of writing ad copy for each ad group. I usually budget another 3-4 hours to do that process correctly, researching competitive ads, finding hot terms, and developing 2-3 test ads per ad group.

Again, Richard's program did much of the work for me, allowing me to complete that portion of the job in a fraction of the time.

I was in love! With a computer program. Scary thought! :<)

I'm so excited about this program that I have since worked directly with Richard and his team, making programming suggestions to turn it from a powerful tool into an ultra- powerful keyword processing monster, and even producing one of the audios he's using as a bonus.

Let's put it this way. I own literally every keyword research and processing tool on the market. And like you, most of them sit unused on my hard drive.

This program, Keyword Companion, gets used, constantly.

I can't think of a program that's done more to save me hours, frustration, and the few hairs I have on my head.

And I promise you, you will be too, whether you're a person who manages a single campaign or hundreds.

Can you tell that I'm a huge fan of this program?

Now, I have a confession to make. It's been a terrifically busy week here in my office, and I've blown it.This product was launched last Monday and there are several bonuses that expire by the end of this week, including a price increase. So, my gushing has peaked your interest in any way, I strongly suggest you check it out immediately, while you've still got a chance to get all the good stuff. Sorry about the rush... my fault.

Check it out at: http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=246474

Watch the videos. They'll show you what I mean. Pick up your own copy, and it won't be long before you too are in love...

With a computer program!

For more information on Pay Per Click Marketing, how it works, and how to use it successfully, check out The Pay Per Click Money Machine http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=83344

Take care, and good luck in your marketing and publicity activities this week!

Don Crowther
President
101PublicRelations.com

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