Buzz, Balls & Hype : The Ad Man Answers #42

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: How do you make a more ‘engaging’ ad?

A: In our last column, we discussed how linking the message to the media delivery vehicle can be a powerful combo.

One of my favorite examples of this synergy was for a grass-roots campaign around the TV show “Monk.” Instead of buying a bunch of freeway billboards, the cable network paid street teams to stand at the corners of busy intersections and hand out free sanitary wipes wrapped with the show’s logo.

Since “Monk” features an OCD detective who’s obsessed with cleanliness, disinfectant towelettes became the perfect media delivery vehicle to remind viewers their favorite show was coming back for another season.

Handing out free wetnaps may have been a low-cost, clever method of advertising that particular TV program, but this type of street-level advertising is generally not the most efficient way to deliver your message. It’s indiscriminate. You wind up handing out product to anyone who’s walking by… with no regard to age, gender, income level, profession, interests, etc.

Technology now allows advertisers to cut down on that kind of waste, as well as customize more engaging ads. For online advertisers, there are companies that specialize in “Behavioral” and “Contextual” Targeting. These companies work with advertising networks to track online surfing or website key words, then serve up appropriate video and display ads.

Say you’re trying to sell high-end fishing boats. You could compete with all the other boating advertisers and try to buy space on Sport Fishing Magazine’s online site... or you could work with a “Behavioral” company like Tacoda and have them find people who have visited fishing websites, then target them within the network. So your potential customer may be checking recipes on foodchannel.com and BAM, they get served your banner ad – not because that particular website has anything to do with boats, but because the advertising network knows that person recently visited saltwater fishing sites, shopped for a Mercedes, and fits the profile of someone making over $200,000 year.

This type of targeting is starting to cross over into TV as well. One company called Visible World, specializes in creating a library of creative options so TV spots can be cut “on the fly.”

So if you’re Ford Motors, a Visible World client, you have the ability to purchase one national TV commercial and seamlessly alter the message depending on the viewer’s geography. Let’s say that one commercial happens to run in TLC’s “What Not To Wear.” Viewers of that program who live in urban areas might see an ad that features the Ford Focus, with images of city streets and restaurant parking lots. For people who live in the country, Visible World instantly re-cuts the ad, inserting images of barns, dirt roads, and an F-150 truck. So Ford gets the best of both worlds. They get the efficiency of only having to buy one spot on “What Not To Wear,” but they get to customize their creative and make it appropriate to the viewer’s lifestyle.

Of course, there’s a flipside to all this careful alignment of creative message and media placement. And it’s increased production cost. Visible World’s technology is not cheap, and it takes a lot of pre-planning and extra camera footage before starting a campaign.

On a smaller level, if you’re an author trying to increase your response rates, you can still find ways to tweak your ad to fit your audience. Next time… we’ll take these concepts and apply them to a fictional book campaign.

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE and is currently on submission. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.