A Little Insight

Bad Commercials2Get Attention

Executive Summary:

If everyone around you is a “yes person” it’s hard to get valuable and straightforward input. Bruce C. Bryan is the president of 5Points Creative, an awardwinning advertising and marketing agency in Roanoke. Contact him at bruce@5PointsCreative.com Every market has one of these types. Here in the RoanokeLynchburg television market, where our marketing firm is based, we are lucky enough to have two. I’m talking about car dealers with terrible commercial campaigns. No, it isn’t limited to just automotive marketing, but these guys are the obvious culprits. The two dealers I’m referencing epitomize memorable commercials – but not in a good way. One of them does it because he wants his commercials to be bad as a way to get recognized. Ironically, the other one actually

A LITTLE INSIGHT

By Bruce C. Bryan

believes he is doing a good job. Apparently, he has no idea. I would imagine both of these guys get feedback from neighbors, frightened employees, TV sales reps, and maybe even family and friends telling them, “I saw you on TV”, or “great job on TV.” Oh, they’re getting noticed and these types of ads may actually be creating attributable sales, but at what cost? In these situations, I can’t help but wonder, how much more business would the dealer be doing with decent and “good” interrupting informative messages?

Ways4You to Improve Your Commercials

Honestly, a strong business that wants to cut through the clutter doesn’t necessarily need to hire an advertising agency to guide them toward making a greater impact. There are other capable resources for creative ideas and unique ways to achieve improved top of mind awareness. Whichever method you decide to use in order to move your business forward, I’d recommend you start with getting honest feedback from folks who know what they’re talking about.

If everyone around you is a “yes person” it’s hard to get valuable and straightforward input. Business owners (just like car dealers) need people around them who will give input that will actually help improve things. That’s harder to do when you only interact with inside employees or people who will tell you what you want to hear. This is

true in the automotive world AND everywhere in business. Finally, you need to discover a unique way to communicate your message. If you don’t, you run the risk of being just like everyone else or getting lost in the sludge of a three-minute commercial break. The fact is, no one really wants to look and sound like everyone else or be lost in the middle of a bunch of spots. However, either one of those situations is better than being remembered by viewers and your potential customers as a real-life nincompoop.

Start with getting honest feedback from folks who know what ”“ they're talking about.