Carroll Trosclair's Blog
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
What do women carry in their purposes? And what do those items tell advertisers? Marketing Consultant Kelley Styring explored those mysteries in interviews with 100 women and inspections of their 100 purses.
Her research indicated that women carry an average 67 items in their purses, everything from cell phones and lipstick to mints, letters, eyeglasses, books and even weapons.
Styring says there’s gold in those purses.
"For frequently purchased items, say on a monthly basis, the sales potential skyrockets to 2.5 billion units."
Styring examines the purse contents in her book, In Your Purse: Archaeology of the American Handbag.
She said the purse is the "nerve center of a woman's life, bearer of her most important things." It is intended to organize her life and to help meet her needs, which Ad Week Magazine identified as wellness, preparedness and self indulgence.
But in most cases, she said, the purse is actually "a disorganized bag full of junk."
But she added, that the contents and the disorganization represent a huge opportunity for marketers and advertisers to determine women's needs.for wellness, preparedness and self indulgence.
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
Parents have reason to be concerned about some of the online advertising now targeted at their kids.
As S. M. Thomas points out in her article about Online Gaming Ads, "some advertisers are now skillfully disguising their adverts as system memos or even security alerts."
Some of those ads, she says, take kids to dating sites, casino sites and other adult gaming sites.
Thomas says many kids are sufficiently sophisticated to recognize such tricks and "derive great satisfaction from beating the advertisers." But she suggests several steps that parents can take to keep teens from falling prey to such sites.
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
The approach of the annual advertising competition season recalls some contests our former agency won and lost at the same time.
Years ago, when an association client was considering the third or fourth renewal of our contract, a member of the evaluation team said, rather forcefully, that our ads were good at winning awards, but were not helping the association reach its goals.
The comment jolted us and, of course, we debated it. We were proud of the awards we had won and said they reflected well on the client. But we lost the account.
Don't get caught in the contest trap
I never entered another ad contest, for a couple of reasons. First, we never wanted to hear that criticism again. Second, I wanted to make sure we never got caught in the contest trap and never lost our focus on the main objective, developing client business.
The contest trap is real. Sometimes without realizing it, ad professionals can start making subtle decisions that will impress business peers (i.e. contest judges) more than they will impact the client’s target audience. Creativity is often more fun than old fashioned marketing.
Client prospects probably do not appreciate all the ad nuances that your advertising colleagues or competitors might. But they pay the client’s bills and the client pays the ad bills.
Contests Now Placing More Emphais on Ad Results
Considering the benefits that can flow from some major awards, we probably over reacted to that client’s criticism. And, the problem may be less serious these days because the contest people seem to be placing more attention on ad results.
However, it’s a good idea to keep contests in proper perspective when spending the client’s ad production dollars.
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
Television advertising has become a virtual zoo featuring a wide variety of what might be called corporate spokesanimals. Or spokescreatures.
Looking around, you’ll see:
- The GEICO gecko that promises to save you 15 percent;
- The Energizer bunny that just keeps on going;
- The Hartford moose that has been quietly strolling through lobbies, offices and basketball courts for years. He says nothing, but his proud bearing speaks volumes.
- The AFLAC duck that never can get anyone’s attention;
- The Planters’ Peanut, looking as sophisticated as ever with his top hat, monocle and cane.
They have been joined by Applebee’s Talking Apple and AT&T’s talking cookies.
Advertisers seem to use as many spokescreatures as they do spokeschildren, who are also plentiful in advertising, especially local advertising.
There’s probably something very clever that can be said about a corporation that uses an animal or child to talk to its prospects, but we’re not sure what that is.
Nor are we sure what to say about a society that listens, and responds, to spokescreatures.
Perhaps we now find them more credible than spokesmen, spokeswomen or spokespersons.
Posted by Carroll Trosclair
The outlook for 2008 advertising is not very bright if you’re in the newspaper or radio business. On the other hand, if you’re Yahoo or Google, prepare yourself for another banner year, something like a 35 percent increase in ad revenue.
Those are the November 2007 projections made by Lee Westerfield, the senior media analyst for BMO Capital Markets, where they watch such trends.
MediaWeek reported that Westerfield has revised his 2007 growth projections from 3.4 percent to 2.6 percent.
His 2008 forecasts:
- Overall advertising will increase 3.7 percent, a revision from earlier projections calling for a 4.3 per increase;
- Both radio and newspaper advertising will slow down 15-to-20 percent;
- Television advertising will "hold its own."
The percentage declines do not seem like industry-killers, but they take on more significance when converted into millions or billions of dollars.
Westerfield attributed the relatively low projections to problems in the auto, home improvement and financial services categories.
