If you can do it then so can I!

It’s easy right? I mean if I can do it then why shouldn’t you be able too? Seriously…what’s so hard about placing an advert? Or even making it for that matter! And who in their right mind would pay for something that they could easily do themselves? Simple stuff really…isn’t it?

I’m constantly amazed by the hoards of experts in business on the subject of marketing and advertising. They seem to exist everywhere!

And when you ask them, they’ll tell you it’s all easy. Especially the advertising part.

You see all you do is call up the paper, book in an advert, fire them through your logo and a few pictures with some text and BINGO…you got an advert!

To be honest, it blows me away the amount of times I see this process happen.

There is a massive chasm between knowing how to place, design and write an advert compared to understanding how to place, design and write an advert.

You see the biggest mistake people make is that they forget that the key to any advertising is communication. Being able to deliver a clear and precise message is all advertising is really about. The many ways by which you achieve this, is born from a mixture of strategic and creative thinking which results in what you see on the pages of the paper, in the inside of a magazine, what you hear on the radio and what you see on the TV.

Sure there is a massive amount of junk out there – usually produced by people that don’t understand the fundamentals of communication – but the quality stuff is always very focused and always very clear.

The single most frustrating part of the marketing / advertising / creative world, is that most of the time we make what we do, look so easy. The effortless manner by which we appear to go about campaigning and producing commercials or advertising creates a perception that what happens behind the scenes is effortless and almost unimportant.

The crafting of communication is lost on many but for the few, that recognise its power and are prepared to harness it. There is enormous potential to obtain far greater results from your chosen media than ever before.

Just because you know how to get from point a to point b, doesn’t always mean you understand how to get there.

So next time you go to ‘quickly place an advert’, take a moment to stop and reflect on the actual communication. What will people first see? How will they re-act to that? What will I motivate them to do? What do I want to achieve as a result of this placement? And how will I measure its success?

If those questions scare you, then realise that you’re only looking at the tip of the iceberg…the complexities of truly effective marketing and advertising only become more complex from there.

It’s not considered a science for no reason…