What have we here in this issue's makeover subject?
Well, instead of a sea of white space marred by a dainty little bit of copy, this time it's a skyful of beautiful clouds. In the foreground, a gentleman is smiling down — at what? Nothing, apparently. He's just thinking. And what he is thinking about must be very amusing, since he is obviously chuckling.
Who is he and what is he laughing about? We'll never know. Does he represent the advertiser? The reader? Or just the art director's desire to warm up the abstract subject matter of the ad with a touch of the human element, always a sure-fire attention-getter?
In either case, he surely can't be laughing at the words at the top of the page, because they aren't funny.
These words seem to be saying “think…search.” They are surrounded by smaller words in white type against a halftone background — an advertising sin punishable by eternal remorse in the seventh ring of Purgatory.
But at least these words are still large enough to be readable. We look more closely and see that the complete headline reads, “THINK about it. When was the last time someone asked to see your advertising? It happens all the time with SEARCH.”
Hmm. The ad appears to be selling a product or service called SEARCH. Not exactly true, it turns out. And also not something to chuckle about.
Furthermore, if the reader is a marketing director of a major advertiser whose advertising includes the company's Web site address, what the headline refers to happens all the time. Just not often enough.
Next I got out my magnifying glass to read the text at the bottom, set in ever-popular 6-point, News Gothic Condensed type in white against a color photograph background (groan!). Here's what it says:
Overture search advertising lets you leverage the precision of search to reach prospects who are already interested in what you sell. So if you're looking for the most effective way to connect with motivated customers, think Overture. Call 888-229-6504 or visit Overture.com.
Well, at least that's something. But it's not enough. It casually glides over one of the biggest success stories in the first 10 years of the Internet revolution. It conveys no sense of the earth-shaking changes taking place in the advertising world, or of the emergence of a “new” consideration that too many brand advertisers have conveniently ignored for too many years — the ability to measure return on investment, which Internet advertising makes possible.
Of course direct marketing merchants can tell you to the penny. But brand advertisers have had to rely on readership, recall and awareness research. Imperfect tools for measuring sales effectiveness.
Chapter One in the Internet advertising revolution (I am talking here not about direct marketing on the Web but about general advertising) was the discovery by major advertisers that they could and should have their own Web sites.
Along with this came the amazing revelation that after your fixed start-up costs, 10 times as many pages didn't cost 10 times as much money, the way it does in print advertising. And because it was interactive, it could do a far more powerful job than, let's say, a very costly 24-page advertising insert in a magazine or newspaper.
This has been especially true in business-to-business advertising, where they need to offer prospective customers a whole lot of explaining, proving, persuading and reassuring. But what if you create a great Web site and it draws not nearly as many visits from highly targeted prospects as it needs and deserves?
Well, first advertisers tried to flag prospects by buying intrusive banners and pop-ups to insert at likely Web sites — about as popular with the target audience as telemarketing phone calls at dinner time.
Then came the big breakthrough. If you're selling butterfly collecting supplies, why not buy a link to your site to appear in the margin alongside the results of search engine searches for “butterfly collecting”? You pay only for each prospect who clicks through to your site. And if your competitors have the same idea, you all bid how much you are willing to pay per click for the top position.
Now you see why Yahoo! recently paid approximately $1.5 billion to acquire Overture Services, the leader in this exploding new field, battling it out for supremacy with Google and others.
This is no laughing matter. Suppose you're the top gun at Overture, and you're walking into a hotel ballroom to deliver a PowerPoint presentation on Overture to a roomful of advertising marketing directors who collectively are spending $5 billion a year or more on advertising. Would you show a smiling gentleman, speak the words in the Overture ad I have selected for making over, and then sit down?
Or would you make a serious effort to position your company in the forefront of the Internet advertising revolution, as I have done in my makeover?
THOMAS L. COLLINS is a veteran direct marketing admaker, agency creative director and co-author of four books on marketing. He is currently an independent marketing consultant and copywriter based in Manhattan.
If you see a direct response ad that you think is crying out for a makeover, clip it out and send it (unfolded, if possible) to me at 166 E. 34th St., #17-B, New York, NY 10016. To e-mail comments and opinions: thomas.l.collins@verizon.net.
