Give me land, lots of land…

It is human nature to want to get as much for your buck as you can. Sure I have the attitude that why would I pay x amount for something when for the same price I can get more? The answer is value.

Just because you can get more doesn’t mean it is worth more and this is so often the argument that I come up against with clients when it to comes to the design and layout of their advertisements.

As the saying goes ‘If I had a dollar for every time’ a client has said to me, ‘what’s that empty space there in my advert’, I’d have more dollars (don’t know how many). Clients see their advertisement as a piece of real estate that they have purchased at a premium price and therefore feel the need to fully utilise it, which of course is right.

What is the right way is the question. It may appear that a simple design is of less value than a complicated design, (the term complicated sums it up nicely). What the design is more likely to be is a successful message that cuts through clutter and confusion and communicates efficiently and effectively.

As communicators we know that the best use of advertising real estate is one message (written or pictorial) that gets straight to the point. This means not filling up the space with lots of confusing messages because space is what draws attention and creates the same as it does in physical real estate

If you were to purchase actual real estate you would choose the property that has an entertaining area leading onto a courtyard that overlooks a water view, over a property with an entertaining area that stops at the boundary fence with your neighbours kids screaming and looking straight at you.

It is the space that makes the real estate valuable, and it is this same principle that makes the message in your advertising real estate valuable!