What are the secrets to assessing a creative presentation when your agency shows you the work? It is no secret. It is just a discipline to learn. I just got back from the presentation of a new ad. The client did very well. He knew how to evaluate the presented material and his questions and… Read More »
There has been some recent controversy about whether the Canadian government got their money’s worth when they spent an estimated $56,000 to have Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stamp the final Canadian penny produced for circulation. It was staged as a publicity stunt in May at the Royal Canadian mint in Winnipeg with accompanying press conference.… Read More »
Our brains really don’t understand math all that well. And I am not talking about the average person’s ability to solve quadratic equations. As mentioned in earlier blogs, our brains can be easily fooled. And advertising is there to make our clients look good, sometimes with shifty logic. As advertisers, for example, we can take… Read More »
The scary thing for most managers is that rule #1 of advertising is: GET NOTICED. Or the rest of the rules don’t matter. Many managers like to be conservative and prudent in the things they do. Which makes plenty of sense in almost everything, except advertising. In advertising, you have to stick your neck out. … Read More »
Be careful with translations. Relying on Google or any other digital translation can bring you problems, Not just small mistakes; but mistakes where the meaning is jumbled up and confusing. Effectively using a language that you to communicate with customers requires understanding the cultural context that it comes in. The title of this blog is… Read More »
We have seen a lot of commercials that just don’t sell. One reason can be the context of the message. By context, I meant the executional elements that round out the message and provide a framework for it. The strategy might be “Tide cleans clothes better.” But there needs to be an execution around that… Read More »
In the mid-1970s, my parents arranged for a condo in Florida when I was living in New York. We had a family summer vacation, joined by my brother-in-law and sister and their small two girls, aged 5 and 6. One day we were going to go to dinner with some people and had an hour… Read More »
When buying a new car in the US, you are given two prices on the vehicle as you browse: Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) and Market Adjusted Price (MAP). Why? MSRP is required disclosure on all vehicles and is commonly called the “sticker price.” It used to be an anchor price that told buyers what… Read More »
When you watch a football game, you see officials watching the runners being tackled or run out of bounds. These officials then run out, grab the ball and place it on the field when they estimate it was advanced to. It is a field of 100 (US) or 110 (Canadian) yards, and the placement is… Read More »
I once gave a class presentation about the psychology used in advertising that leads people to deceive themselves. I outlined some of the techniques to our class of about twenty or so. At the end of the class, a number of students said they did not believe me. They said they could never be fooled… Read More »