We’ve all heard it before, “The reader only gives you two seconds to grab them before turning the page.” Well, if that’s all you worry about, you end up with one-word headlines on a fluorescent background. For my part, I figure it’s not how much time the average reader spends looking at an average ad, it’s about giving them something far from average to ponder for as long as it takes to produce the desired results.
The Client: Boylan Brown
The Agency: Kurt Pakan Design
The Assignment: Communicate how progressive, innovative and open to change the firm really is.
The Answer: A campaign with original illustration and just as original copy that takes traditional legal advertising and turns it on its head. Or at least sideways.
The Client: Xerox
The Agency: Roberts Communications
The Assignment: Introduce a new travel scanner in PC World magazine.
The Answer: Don’t sell a piece of hardware. Sell the promise of less work. Plain and simple.
The Client: E&I
The Agency: Roberts Communications
The Assignment: After years of promoting cooperative purchasing to buyers at colleges...sell the concept to the C-suite ... the buyers’ bosses.
The Answer: Realize that college presidents don’t care about chairs and office supplies; these things are necessary evils. But you can still talk to them about their real interests—in fact you better.
The Client: RHIO
The Agency: Roberts Communications
The Assignment: Let the community know there’s a very cool technology coming to doctor’s offices.
The Answer: Illustrate the real benefits; don’t just talk about them. And turn privacy concerns into the actual advantage.
The Client: Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
The Agency: Roberts Communications
The Assignment: Launch a brand new national discount program from the association to plans and members.
The Answer: On top of crafting ready-to-use language, banners ads, sales presentations and collateral, create templated ads that allow plans to brand them with their own logos and the most relevant partner discount in their region.
The Client: Corning
The Agency: Adams Colway and Associates
The Assignment: Combat eroding market share of glass photo sensitive lenses to plastic lenses.
The Answer: With 90%+ share of the glass lens market, when you promote the clear superiority of glass, you're really selling Corning. And who would argue with this guy ... or the new tag line?
The Client: ITT/Procast
The Agency: Roberts Communications
The Assignment: Tell engineers who have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on pumps only to have them abandoned by the manufacturer that Procast can make any replacement part they need.
The Answer: Create a 1/3 page, black and white ad that outscored every full page four-color ad in the publication in terms of impact and memorability.
The Client: Farash
The Agency: Roberts Communications
The Assignment: Fill apartment vacancies near local colleges
The Answer: Talk about what college students really care about ... refrigerators, cable and privacy.
