The main purpose of any advertisement, on any medium, it to communicate. And all are successful at that…there is no doubt. But communication in itself is not a victory, because your ad has only 2 possible ways of communicating…either with ‘listen to me, i have something you need/want’…or with ‘do NOT listen to me, i have nothing you need…”.
Clearly the former is the desired end game, and it’s not that hard to achieve. Remembering what is important to the people listening, is key. I know it sounds obvious, but the main point here is that not everyone is listening. Someone new to advertising is sold a bill of goods from a radio or tv station, with an astronomical number of actual listeners…and it’s not a lie…that is how many people are tuned into the station…let’s say 500 thousand. But they fail to mention how many will be tuned in to your spot…which is microscopic in comparison to the overall listening audience…it could be as low as 500.
This is not a bad thing, it’s quite the opposite. Because all you really need to do is pinpoint your message to your potential customers…and not everyone is a potential customer. This smaller number, whatever it may be, puts things into perspective. Especially if you are a small business…talking directly to people interested in your services is what you want to do…it’s what targeted advertising like Facebook and Google use and people covet…but it’s possible to do the same thing with broadcast radio and television as well…because a well-crafted spot, literately tunes interested parties in, and uninterested parties out.
I have heard from people my entire career that most radio and television advertising is bad, off the mark, and a waste of time. But if this were completely true, it would have Darwin’d itself out of existence by now…and it’s alive and kicking. What people are really saying is, ‘that ad was off the mark and a waste of time, BECAUSE I WAS NOT IN THE MARKET FOR THAT PRODUCT”. People forget that not all advertising is meant for you – it’s meant to target people specifically, in the analogue world…it doesn’t need personal info on you like Facebook and Google do…all it needs are the right words, the right delivery and the right production…if you remember that, then you will remember what’s important…and cut through like the original targeted ad…great advertising.