How To Make Your Advertising News Worthy Video Transcription:
Thomas Green here from Ethical Marketing Service. Today I wanted to talk to you about making your advertising news worthy.
But it’s important to make a distinction before we get started. I am not saying that your ads need to be read out by a reporter or printed in a newspaper. Simply that it’s news because you have a reason why you are sharing that message. You are doing something different and It’s interesting.
Here’s an example, someone who says “We are a local company who sell Alarm systems, come down and shop today”. That ad is going to be the same 1 year from now. There is nothing new about it and you wouldn’t respond unless you are right in that moment considering buying an alarm system.
On the other hand, if you were to say “New report suggests that due to recent unemployment increases. Burglaries are on the increase in your area. For the next 30 days we are giving away a guide on how to prepare for a potential break in”. An ad like that is not going to be in any local news media, but it’s still interesting to hear. I would want to know a lot more if it were the case that I was living in an area with an increase in break ins. That would make me seriously consider responding just for the information.
I recognise that you may not be in that business. But the lesson to take away from it is. You are updating them with something they may not have known before. People are fed up of just being pitched. Tell them something that will interest them about the product you sell or service you provide.
A practical way to create news in advertising is to rotate the following:
- How much you charge. It might be considered new if you have an option you didn’t have before. Or a reduced price due to something which has happened. Allowing you to drop prices for a certain period of time. An easy way to capitalise on this is by looking at all the holidays that come around for example: birthdays, valentines day, St Patricks day, Easter, Black Friday, Christmas, New Years, The start of Summer, Winter, Autumn, Spring. Those alone are 11 different instances of themes you can do around special promotions.
- What they will get in exchange for it. A simple way of saying this might be bonuses. You can always add something else to the purchase and every time a new bonus is added. It’s new to the person who you tell. This also links back into point one, so an easy valentines example: If you buy on February 14th we will give you a personalised gift for you to give your valentine.
- What changes can you make to your product or service and why might they be interesting? One area that really has this down is mobile phones. They are constantly making changes to their devices and bringing out new models. Rightly or wrongly there is a principle there to learn from – it’s new.
- What will happen when they buy. For example If we use alarm systems for a moment. When they come into the store they could be shown a film educating them on alarm systems on a big screen be given popcorn and a special cinema ticket from an actor.
That would be something new and different and might give them something to actually show up for. You could also put that somewhere in the marketing message also, book your cinema ticket now. View the Hollywood blockbuster from we sell alarm systems. You just want to get as far away as possible from doing the same thing as everyone else in your industry.
Start looking at your advertising and asking the question, will this get attention? A quote from David Ogilvy is “All great advertising is news”. Hopefully you have a bit more information now to make your advertising news worthy.