On Adverts and Such

I tip my hat to all of the entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe. You haven't resorted to stealing like some of your friends have, and you're out there giving a solid bash at adding your two cents (hopefully more) to the economy.
It's an average Thursday morning, your new business is still facing challenges and a couple weeks ago, you read my article on adding experience to your little money-making gig. You may have tried offering tea with honey instead of a fake cup of coffee, or putting a more attractive girl in the reception desk. Small changes to a consumer experience that will literally turn a boring "hello" into a fiery
"Please let me serve you." Don't stop tweaking that experience.
Talking of experience let us look at one that many companies use to attract new business - advertising. There has been a new advertising fad in Zimbabwe over the last 24 months. Actually there have been a few new fads; from flyers at robots, to at least three separate publications detailing what is happening in Harare.
It is amazing to see how many people will take a flyer pushed through a gap in their window only to fling it unread on the seat next to them. The advertising trend that irritates me the most though is the proliferation of small billboards along the streets.
Basically these are A0 sized adverts attached to lamp-posts, bus stops and, in fact, anything that will hold one. I have got over the aesthetic destruction of our city by billboards so that is not my concern, billboards are here to stay so get over it. Rather, my issue is that I cannot read half the information on them.
I assume that the reason for placement alongside a road is to target the driving public, but travelling at the recommended 60km/hr (or 70 along Borrowdale Road) I simply cannot read the small print on the signs. I have 20/20 vision so this is not some optical defect. It is a simple inability by both the advertiser and the company producing the billboard to appreciate human physiology. The result - wasted money as a thousand and one other commuters rush on blindly by.
I can recommend a couple of solutions. Firstly, advertising companies may want to conduct road tests on their product. Just because it looks nice in the presentation room does not mean that it can be appreciated at high speed in rush hour traffic.
Secondly, you should probably have a zero tolerance for an advertising company that produces a sub-standard product.
Stop cramming poor pixelated images, and low sized, fancy fonts into a limited space. The "Keep It Simple" principle could do with some application here.
Designers! Please inform your clients that masses of information cannot work, and point out that at the high speed, rapid intake required by the brain that the viewer can only process seven bits of information at a time.
One local supermarket chain has got this right with its polite reminders that their nearest shop is only a few metres away - a picture, a name and a direction. The message is clean and clear.
One of the problems with this form of advertising is the inability to measure its impact on potential clients. When you submit a brief to a designer to produce an advert you are looking for something to generate sales, yet most advertising companies simply produce a design and do not take responsibility for turning leads into clients. Be involved in the design process.
Take the billboard placement for an example. I have seen billboards on some random, lonely roads. Do you know the metrics for that particular location?
How many people drive past a day, at what times and what type of people are in the car? Does traffic change over the year, for example during school holidays or during winter?
These are key questions that can maximise return on investment into advertising. People at traffic lights should have more time to read an advert across the road but do they actually engage in this behaviour or are they focused on the next light change?
Should we be targeting passengers, for example placing an ice cream advert outside a school during the summer term where your visuals bombard hundreds of little children? Furthermore, shouldn't they see it as they leave the school when they are in a position to seek instant gratification of their taste buds on the way home?
Web advertising has been a classic example of how to track if advertising works. Not only can you see how many views translated into "clicks", but how many of those clients actually bought something from your website. The results can be a little scary.
Web-based advertising is now some of the cheapest in the world.
Sites like Facebook and Google have gone a little further in providing "relevant" adverts based on keywords found in your mail. Another idea is the concept of GPS advertising being touted for London buses, where the advert on the side of the bus changes to match the location of the bus within the city in order to target the appropriate audience that resides in that specific area.
GPS AD buses may not land in Zimbabwe very soon, but Google ads are at your fingertips. Borrow a credit card and try it out.
It is not that advertising does not work; it does. A five-minute endorsement of your book on the recently ended Oprah Winfrey Show could dramaticaly increase sales.
The issue is that for your business, with your budget, does the form of advertising you choose hit your target market clearly with your brand and message.
So before you run out to splurge your entire adverting budget on a 10-page supplement in a local gardening magazine stop and think a little.
Clear and comprehensive adverts include a headline, basic story, proposition, exact offer, guarantee and a call to action. Sounds like a lot but aspects can be worked creatively, for example the offer
and proposition can be told using a picture, the call to action can be a phone number or direction sign.
Anyone who has ever driven to Kariba can appreciate the simplicity of the (if occasionally slightly exaggerated) adverts along the road for worms - a simple "stop here for the best deal".
Your advert is the first step in the client experience that you are creating. It is part of the experience not just a pointer to it.