Space Ad Pros... Question For You

Hi Bruce,

Over the years I have run hundreds of black and white press ads. And followed the age old advice - "don't make them look like an ad."

When people phone up they usually said "I saw your article in the paper"

It's been cost effective and very profitable.

But I haven't "tested" a normal Ad. Full colour with pics.

For all I know the response may be even higher - but I've never wanted to take the risk.


Steve

Got to agree with everyone else.

What makes advertorials successful is the fact they look like every other article in the paper.

Bruce,

Most of the time, Black and White text with maybe a pic.

However...

Depends on product.
Depends on publication.
Right now, today... one local company is running over 700 ads this month in national publications. Most of those are color ads.

They offer a seasonal specialty item at around 300 dollars. Color has proven to work.

Same company is running several other ads for lower cost products...in black and white text advertorial style.

Entrepreneur Magazine, for example, is a good place to find both styles at work and some advertisers have been in there for decades...in both color and black and white.

AARP Magazine, which gets up to a quarter of a million dollars, and is a very targeted audience...black and white advertorial ads have worked like gang busters...but, for the same price, color, used sparingly and within the AARP style...also converts well.

Parade Magazine is a good place for both styles...you'll see full page ads in color for specialty products and black and white for other products. Example, EdenPure heaters are using color.

Their heaters are a couple of hundred dollars.

James Direct, a book publisher, has had great success with black and white ads with a line drawing picture or no picture at all.

But without knowing what the target is, what media is going to be used or what the product is...

unless it needs a visual...my opinion is

go with black and white text that most matches the publication. NOTE, some national guys don't allow you to use "their" font...but you can get close enough to make it look less like an ad and more like a story.

gjabiz

As for newspapers, again, sorry but tests have shown this stuff matters...

it depends on the day the ad runs...is it remnant space?

Are you buying in bulk...from the same publisher with different papers or is it a one off deal?

What section of the paper will you be in?

All part of the consideration before you run your ad.

The most amazing thing about marketing is that your results can be so counter-intuitive.

What you think will work best and what others think will work best can often times be the one thing that bombs.

I once tested a space ad in several major magazines and newspapers. Since it was fitness related, I figured color with a nice visual of a "before and after" pic would pull well.

Wrong.

My "boring" black and white "article/editorial style ad crushed it.

Yet, I see full color ads for weight loss all the time, especially in the mini-papers like Parade.

And the Franklin Mint, hell, they've made a, well, mint with using color ads.

But when all else fails... if you're advertising in a newspaper... I'd go with black and white advertorial.

People grab newspapers to read info and articles and they scan them based on headlines... so they're conditioned to look for more "editorial style" material.

Hit them with a good advertorial style, with an nice big headline and i think you'll get better results.

B because you mentioned in a post below it was for a seminar. Below are two full page and one 1/2 page newspaper ads for seminars:

Sort of Subtle, but the seminar is step 2. Didn't you read your email?