ADVERTISEMENTS:
A NEWSPAPER’S
OTHER
INFORMATION
SOURCE
There is nothing wrong with advertisements
— but in order to be an effective consumer,
you must be able to read ads critically! The
first step to that is knowing what ads are,
what techniques they use, and how they
affect you.
Advertisements are an essential part of any
daily newspaper. They provide another source
of information in the newspaper —
information on the products and services
available to the customer. If you read
critically, this information is very helpful to
the consumer.
In a way, advertisements, make the daily
newspaper a market place — bringing buyers
and seller together without the buyer having
to drive all around town looking for the
product he wants.
A
I
D
A
It allows buyers to research before they buy
from the comfort of their home. And it allows
sellers to market their product or service to
potential customers.
Also, if it wasn’t for advertisements, most
newspapers would be too expensive for the
average reader to purchase. The majority of
the costs of putting out a new edition each
day is paid for by the revenue gained from
selling ad space.
There is an art to good advertising. A good ad
gives the buyer enough information to
persuade him/her to act upon it — to search
out and buy the product.
A good ad must use copy, art and design and
follow the following principle — the AIDA
principal, as outlined below.
ATTRACT the r eader ’s attention.
Develop INTEREST in the product or ser
Cr eate a DESIRE for the product or ser
Ur ge ACTION fr om the consumer.
vice.
vice.
ADVERTISEMENT DESIGN
Advertisement design doesn’t just happen.
It takes skilled personnel to put the words
and copy together to be clear, informative
and persuasive.
Copy
Good advertising design, however, starts
with good copy — the words used to
describe the product or service and to
persuade the potential customer to act.
Good copy is clear and uncluttered. It says
what it has to say in simple terms, but the
words are used to paint a picture in the
customer’s mind.
used. It makes the eye more appealing at
first glance, and it makes it easier for the
reader to move through it.
This should be clearly seen and near the
end of the ad (bottom right), because then
it will be the last thing people see and
therefore remember.
Branding
Headline
A good advertiser who continues to
advertise should create a consistent look to
his ads. Before you look at the ad closely,
the reader should be able to identify who
the store is.
This is done through the use of consistent
style, layout, font and art.
And, of course, the most important element
of branding is the company’s logo.
A prominent headline should jump out of the
page and capture the reader’s interest.It
should also give some hint about what the
advertisement is selling.
Dominant Element
The ad should have a dominant element,
usually a piece of art, that again grab’s the
reader’s attention and provides some clue
on what the advertisement is for.
Layout
Call to Action
A good advertisement should be eyecatching, but uncluttered. The ad’s
elements should be arranged in a logical
order, so that the reader naturally flows
through the ad. It should go from headline
to illustration (artwork) to explanatory copy
to a call for action, to price, to the store’s
name and logo.
As we’ve discussed earlier, every ad should
have a call to action. What is the reader
supposed to do once he has read this ad?
Should he call the store? Should he go
down to the store as soon as possible
because it is a limited sale?
White space
A good ad should not be overfilled with
elements. In fact, in the case of an ad, less
is more. A lot of white space — the part of
the ad with no copy or art — should be
ADVERTISING TECHNIQUES
Advertisements use a variety of techniques
to accomplish AIDA. All of them are very
effective, depending on the target audience,
the product/service and the ad campaign.
Some of the most common ones are below.
Most ads use one of the techniques; some
use more than one.
Card-stacking
This technique provides a selection of good
facts about the product. Or course,
negatives are left out — so while the copy is
factional, it is incomplete.
Bandwagoning
Common Folks
Glittering Generalities
This type of ad focuses on the product as
being the choice of the common people.
You need a good writer to create these
ads. Statements are given that leave a good
impression, but doesn’t give very many
pertinent details.
Just as with the testimonial ad, it is
effective with people who want to belong.
However, it is adults form of testimonial
advertising.
This is often used to sell economical or
“sensible” products.
Snobbery
This technique is aimed at people for whom
status and wealth are important (even
though they may not be famous or rich).
You are persuaded to purchase by the ad
focusing on the popularity of a product.
The ads appeal to their sense of good taste,
class and elegance — or their desire to
have these attributes.
ie... 500,000 Albertans can’t be wrong
Transference
Testimonial
These ads play on our emotions, on our
feelings. They often use lovely illustrations of
cuddly animals, parents with their new
born, patriotic symbols, fields of flowers.
This is perhaps the most effective with
younger people. The ad provides an
endorsement by a well-known celebrity.
Often the celebrity doesn’t even verbally
endorse the product in the advertisement,
but by his/her presence in the ad, it
creates a need in some people to have that
product.
For instance, an ad may say that a soft
drink tastes great. It backs up this
impression with an illustration of a group of
friends enjoying life and drinking that brand
of soda pop. But what empirical evidence
does it provide to prove it tastes great?
They are trying to create a positive
association between these special things or
moments and their product.
This appeals more to women than men.
ASSIGNMENT:
Go through today’s edition of the Calgary
Herald and find an example of each of
these techniques.
Then compare all the ads.
• Which ads fulfill AIDA?
• Which ad was most compelling to you?
Why?
• Which ad’s layout was more appealing?
• Which ad was the easiest to follow?
• Which ad provided the most useful
information in order for you as a
consumer to make a decision about
whether to purchase that
product/service or not?