Basics of Print Media — Marketing Strategies For Beginners — Session 9

Print First, TV Second!

Posters, Billboards, OOH, Banners, Backdrops, Standees, Scrolling/changing posters, Danglers, subway cards, vehicle wraps, stickers, ID cards, Visiting cards, Direct mail, Brochures etc.

If you can do print, you can do anything!

Posters: Time to Read — 3 Seconds/ 8 words maximum

So, the average time to pass a billboard is 3 seconds and max readable words are 8. Reminder, use the least number of words without compromising on your idea.

Press (Magazine & Newspaper Ads):

There are lot of options in these portraits, double pagers, full page etc.

People tend to spend more time on Press rather than on a poster. This is because magazine audience is towards who buys it rather than on someone who would just glance on it.

Prosters:

This is a hybrid of Poster and Press Ads. These are more focused on visual led ads rather than words.

Query: Do People actually read the copy anymore?

Consecutive (Sequential) ads:

These are more towards 2 or more ideas in a sequence. These generally consist of product reveal at the end (Ad).

Headline Only, Visual Only or Headline and Visual

Headlines

Punctuation Marks: Long copy form can accommodate any exclamation, full stop, question mark etc. But, it should not apply to taglines and headlines.

EG: Nike’s famous line — Just do it. Subtly explains the message without screaming it out.

Now, add various punctuations to the end of this and try,

Just do it!

Just do it?

Just do it, but?

The approach goes way beyond taglines.

Reminder: Without a reason If your tagline needs a punctuation then it’s a bad line.

The Headline Twist: It is like going in one direction but then it is completely different in the end. So, we call it an unexpected twist. The reason we are misled is because the first half sounds familiar.

Eg: Life is divided in two parts horrible and miserable or Men, Can’t live with them, can’t shoot them either or I never read the economist — Management trainee, Age 42

The second sentence in a headline twist might read better in parenthesis.

So, to give a final Example — 66 for a great year for England then, Eric was born.

Respect to Eric Cantona

Headlines or taglines as questions: The first rule of conversational English is to frame a question which would give an answer of yes or no. But, in terms of advertising one thing to remember is will I lose my readers/viewers interest? So, the tagline is a chance where we can grab a potential customers attention and bring a change in their life.

So, we can ask a question like Do you like to jump out of helicopters? The ideal answer would be no, but, for marines or seals or army material people this would be perfect kind of ad.

You can even take an ad for Optometrist — Is this how you saw the world, wouldn’t you see an Optometrist?

Or an Ad for Economist Ad as well — Would you like to sit next you at a Dinner?

Or you can even take a direct question. Two Dancers Die. What better reason to watch our play? — Romeo and Juliet | At the same time you can ask for religious situations you can ask Whose birthday is it anyway Shivaji Maharaj’s or Shivji’s?

To Summarize — there are 7 possible exceptions for using a question with yes/no answer:

1. It’s a question the consumer being seriously asking himself
2. It’s virtually impossible to incorrectly answer this question
3. It’s a question that really makes the consumer think before answering
4. Rhetorical Question — One that makes a point
5. It’s hypothetical — What if?
6. It has double meanings
7. The Ad provides answer in the follow up line or body copy

Got Ideas?

The question that can be answered with a quick yes or no answer. EG: Hungry Kya?

Word Puns Vs Visual Puns

The focus is more towards play on words. For Example, changing a single word from Dental floss to Mental Floss OR Puns are like candy, you would find them sweet but then they would rot your teeth.

Double Meaning

The car in front is a Toyota | Driven. | My wife doesn’t stop moaning — mooove | Gets you Drunk and Collapses — New ad for mineral water in collapsible water bottle

The Sub-headline

This is the additional line below the headline.

Headline and Visual

1. Indirect Visual — Image somehow related to the headline
2. Avoid Headline repeating visual (see-say)
3. Headline introducing visual — The visual follows the headline
4. Contrast and contradiction

Rules to remember:

Powerful/unusual Visual + Straight/understated Headline = Good Ad

Straight/understated Visual + Powerful/unusual Headline = Good Ad

Powerful/Unusual Headline + powerful/unusual visual = Good or Bad Ad

Straight/understated visual + Straight/understated headline = Bad Ad

Visuals

Hierarchy (Most — Less — Least)

The maximum number of elements in a single ad should be six, these are headline, sub-headline, visual, body copy, tagline and logo. So, once you have the concept, know the minimum number of elements required.

So consider every element as a layer and then keep on adding those layers to this ad. The main reason hierarchy for each element is to check if they are competing with each other or they are being complimentary.

Don’t Forget, Advertising is all about efficient communication.

Reductionism (Fat-free advertising)

This the practice of reducing as many elements out of the ad as possible, but till the point where the advertise still works.

Eg: No. Still the best form of birth control. — from this ad to just No. then in sub-headline content or another ad can be unbreakable

Assignment: Take 3 visually led print ads and try cropping and framing them. Hand draw the results.

White Space:

White space can be good thing and a bad thing. For example, the Ad No. is good use of white space.

Bad thing would be if you take an ad of a car then too much of white space around it for a wide angle shot.

The Visual Twist:

This is not a visual pun; it is a twist in the image. For example, the tide ad. | It smells like garlic and guys mouth on it — mouthwash ad.

Visual Threes — All good things come in three

Double Visuals — Before — After | With / without product — dove ad

Assignment: Draw a hand-drawn layout
Assignment: Make a series of ads for a dating service

Social Situations:

Ads that are too ambitious, too complicated, or too confusing. The ads which sound like stories!

Do not work on them, they will land you in trouble.

Assignment: Ads for dating service

Dictionary Definition Ads:

These ads are somewhat clichéd within the Ad domain itself. Just grab a dictionary and you have an Ad.

Advertising Design Vs Graphic Design

There are some practical differences in the Ad design and graphic design. A primary objective of graphic design is to organize and present information in a compelling way that can be easily understood by the user.

For this, a graphic designer is trained to build a hierarchy of information being delivered, establishing visual vocabulary so the end result is comprehendible(understandable) and visually appealing. The final concept can be called a design solution.

Types of designers:

• Industrial designer
• Environmental designer
• Interior designer
• Multimedia designer or graphic designer
• Advertising designer
• UI Designer
• UX Designer

In the case of an Advertising designer, the primary objective is to create a strategy or concept which will help sell a product or service. Ad professionals are not concerned if the product doesn’t function or look good. Their entire job is figuring out something that a company can talk about, something people will buy into (then, this has to be incorporated in design).

Too much to absorb, we will have some more in the next session!