Advertising – Sean Blake Blog

Process over tools

It’s easy to get sucked in by the latest tool, thinking it will solve a broken process.

In the 60’s, few would’ve imagined another way to advertise than through newspapers. It was the holy grail. If you weren’t there, you were nowhere.

Marketers and leaders still fall for it today. We make declarations like ‘everyone must advertise on Facebook, it’s the only way to reach your audience.’

The shiny new tool attempts to replace something more flawed in our business.

The reality is that if your team is comprised of good people, a solid process, and a remarkable product, your customers will do your advertising for you.

Smart people look beyond the latest tool and quickly see if can improve their process. Because that’s what technology is really for.

Storytelling in a world of noise.

Perhaps one of the greatest trends in digital behaviour is a lack of concentration.

Tweets are short. We use multiple devices at once. Often, we never use apps more than once.

Information is everywhere, uncensored and almost free for all. How then, do we expect to keep telling our stories the same way? How can we expect to sell the same way as we did before – when people used to pay attention to ads and billboards?

All we know is that we can’t follow the status quo and sell the facts. We have to have a unique story or emotional connection to break through the noise.

2 things we can try:

Tell our story only to people who are predisposed to the product.
Tell it in a way that focuses on comedy, pain, fear or motivation – not on the boring facts.

How Apple stole Christmas

What makes a great ad?

No mention of a product
Apple didn’t directly try to sell us anything. No prices, sales or loud people screaming at us to rush into store.

A story that connects
It’s about emotion, a simple story of family, creativity, love and a unique shared experience. It captures something we all hope for each Christmas. No complications, villians or heros – just a kid who uses his phone to make something special.

This ad is great because it makes us feel something without being sold something, but we still remember it’s from Apple.

People say the best authors write in a way that makes us think we could’ve written it. For marketers, this ad gives us similar hope. Anyone could’ve made this ad.

What story are you going to tell next year?

Why there’s no such thing as neutral.

The problem with neutral messages (ignored by your audience) is that they aren’t actually neutral.

Every time we interrupt someone’s day with our message we are asking for permission. Permission to get inside their head and prove that we have something to offer them.

Too many times we fail to offer anything of value. And each time we fail, we don’t just get another free go. We lose some, if not all, of the influence we once had.

It could be that our target is too big (not targeted) or, more likely, the idea sucks.

When I watch a mediocre TV ad, I not only ignore it’s message, I actively detest the brand forever. “What a waste of time,” I think to myself.

Your audience does the same. Whenever we interrupt a colleague with useless news or complain about trivial frustrations we lose the permission to do it next time and the opportunity is lost.

Communication is not a right, it’s a privilege we can’t afford to waste.

Where’s the leak?

We all spend time and money on different ways to get customers or to keep them.

But how do we know what works? Many assume that spending more money on advertising is the answer to all business problems.

But many times we fail to measure how effective each message is and, usually, we find out that we aren’t breaking even on each ad we buy.

Turning the tap on harder when the pipe is leaking is only going to make the leak worse. The truth is we might be better off handing out the money on the street.

So make sure you know, really know, where you’re leaks are and understand that more doesn’t always equal better.