A bad print ad and a not-so-bad one

Jason Druxman at Avenue Jewelers is my buddy and a great marketer. He won’t mind me using him as my guinea pig (or guinea stud). At the IJO show in Tampa a few years back, I gave a talk and showed the group a bad print ad and a good one.

The first ad tries to get everything in there including the kitchen sink. The conventional way of thinking here is that people will need ALL these details (like they’re gonna remember it all or better yet, write it down on their refrigerator dry erase board). They throw in the credit card info, the store hours, the fax number (who uses faxes anymore?), and my favorite thing of all…. QUALITY, COMMITTED, DEVOTED! These are nice words that sound good to the writer but nobody else gives two hoots about them. This ad is so copy heavy and filled with blah, blah, blah, it will NEVER catch the reader’s eye.

Now the second ad, a big bold headline. A headline that says something interesting. It makes the reader stop and think, “What?” And then they read the rest of the interesting and limited copy. Again, something interesting. More interesting than the rest of the ads touting ONE DAY ONLY!!!! Some may feel this copy is a little gutsy, but if you knew Jason, you’d know that this is HIM. It’s HIS personality. Now we’re BRANDING something, and it’s not the brands he carries in the store. It’s JASON. Yay! Also, Jason lost the suit, the title and now looks more like you would see him in the store. It doesn’t hurt to have great photography either. This ad is clean, easy to read and most of all evokes the comfortable feeling that completely matches what you feel when you walk into Avenue Jewelers. Thanks Jason for being my guinea stud.

Now, go forth and put some real thought into your print ads. Decide what ONE point you want to get across and scream it from the mountaintops. Or at least the paper.

Jimmy

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