I don't know if was an Ogilvy-ism or just something I've picked up along the way. But I've always subscribed to the notion that "small companies run small ads." Conversely "big companies run big ads."
I am reminded of this, once again, by Apple who today have the digital equivalent of a spread running on the nytimes.com. The ad heralds the sale of Apple's billioneth app and features apple app icons flying over the masthead and throughout the lion's share of the page.
Meanwhile most other "major" advertisers are running their usual thumbnails which of course no one outside of a conference room at client-ville ever even sees.
Of course you can extrapolate from my small/big thesis above when you get to actual websites. In an effort to be all things to all people, most websites have no featured item. There is no hierarchy. No place to look first. No compelling promise to the viewer.
Oh well.
I only know a little of Apple advertising history, but weren't they a small company when they had a very large ad in comparison during the superbowl? Maybe they've always acted like a large company and it prophetically came true. Self fulfilling I guess.
ReplyDeleteI have always been a "get big" thinker, and like the quote " never let the shoe tell the foot how big it can get." I hope this relates...
Advice to small companies, don't box yourself in with small advertising, you will have no place to go.
Why is it an ad in a newspaper is mildly fascinating, or at least a harmless blip on the page, while an online ad is grossly annoying?
ReplyDeleteAd for size, well... I hear the floosies don't really care.
way back when some friends and i started claesson&company in sweden we bought a full page ad in the leading newspaper. it was very expensive - could have paid the rent for a year. any media consultant could have told us we were clueless and crazy. the spill was enormous. they would have told us to run a page in an ad publication for a 20th of the cost instead. but, hey, we got a slice of the volvo account as a direct result of it. volvo was and may still be one of sweden's biggest accounts.
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