Billboard Mistakes

I love billboards when they are used right.

But when they look like a dog's breakfast two questions come to mind.

Who is proofing these boards and who trained the sales rep selling?

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you are going to use billboards.

1.  Keep the message brief.
2.  Your billboard should be part of your overall campaign and not your campaign.
3.  And your boards have to be designed to be read from street level.

I took this picture from my car parked.  It's the top board.

What do you see?

So I parked a little closer.  And this is what you would see driving by.

This is a picture from the parking lot behind the business where the board is.

Its challenging to read even from here never mind travelling the speed limit from the opposite side of the street.

The expression , "showed up and threw up" comes to mind.

This is to busy and the colors make it difficult to focus on the 5 messages on the board.

I would have used a white background, the Lantern picture and website.

Here is another example of the above expression.

This isn't in my car but me standing on the sidewalk trying to make out the board on the left.

Me standing on the sidewalk but zooming in with my phone.

The headline is "Innovators never stop learning."

Underneath it says, "And they are enrolling in Canada's most innovative adult learning programs."

Register, website and something I can't read because of the fixture and then the University of Manitoba logo.

Oh and someone decided to put a picture of lady which I would likely guess is a stock photo they bought and means nothing to the ad.

Why not stack the message.

Headline.
Web address.
Logo.

Lots of white space and the billboard company expertise selects the font so it can be read from street level.

Billboards are a terrific medium used properly.

Remember very few words, one call to action and don't be afraid of white space.

Online Gift Certificates

Just wondering why you wouldn't have the capability to buy gift certificates on your website.

For the customer its convenience.

Fill out the form.

Decide on the value.

Customer pays with credit card.

And you email the gift card to customer.

Clean transaction.

And the bonus for you?

Offer the buyer a gift card too if they opt in to your data base.

You control your cost of acquisition.

And if they use the gift card you just got yourself a new customer.

Somethings I want to ask God when I get there

Really God, why couldn’t you have done something to protect the baby toe!

Why don’t people know the difference between a merge and a yield?

Why didn’t you make politicians noses grow when they lied?

Why do you always make us play like pros on the 18^th hole after we have stunk the joint out on the previous 17 holes?

How did our parents get a whole lot smarter as we got older?

Why isn’t there a switch to shut our mouths at the right time?

How can ice cream make us fat?

What is the reason for eye brows?

And where did you hide the termites from Noah on the Ark?

New Year Resolutions, Part One

It’s a new year filled with resolutions.

Quit smoking.

Lose weight.

Exercise more.

My resolution this year is to find the answers to a long growing list of nagging questions.

Hear are some so let’s get started.

When it so crazy cold outside and you can barely breathe how do people still have the urge to smoke in the frigid weather?

Part 2 of that question.  What does it feel like to be smoking and hacking up a lung at the same time?

Is there a course to teach drivers how to use roundabouts?

Is there a course to teach drivers the difference between a merge and a yield?

Who wrote the manual for customer service that now teaches the term, “yeah no problem” instead of “your welcome”?

Why does the National Football League toss players for unsportsmanlike actions like fighting but allow its players to show boat?

Why does the National Hockey League have overtime and a shootout to find a winner yet still give the losing team one point?

Back to football and someone please explain to me why players insist on playing a game with bare arms when it is so fricken cold?  Is it an intimidating factor?

Why will we tolerate a politician who doesn’t live up to their work performance yet think nothing of canning an employee who doesn’t?

Why do businesses think they need to be all in with social media and yet their bricks and mortar stores and website are dismal?

Why in Winnipeg is there speed traps on Sunday mornings?  Do church people speed more than others?

Feel free to leave your resolutions in the comments.

Here Is What I Know

Hell didn’t freeze over November 9^th.

Big data failed.

Curses end so there is hope for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Mr. Church is a great movie and Eddie Murphy deserves an academy award.

Mel Gibson is back looking a little rough these days but his movie Hacksaw Ridge is a must see.

CNN is not what it used to be.

I miss Larry King.

And Piers Morgan.

Why is the king of all media, Howard Stern so quiet.

If you want to hear the voice of reason regarding digital, you have to read Bob Hoffman’s Ad Contrarian blog.

If you complain about losing business to online, review how easy it is to do business with you.

It’s a breath of fresh air when you call a business and get a live person.

Canada isn’t building an igloo wall at the US border but being the nice folk we are would gladly pay for it President elect.

To Barbara Streisand we know you won’t move to Winnipeg.  Last time you were here you were booed off the stage.  But I hear Prince George is a big fan of yours!

To Samuel Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Cher, Madonna, Amy Schumer and the rest of you Hollywood types wanting to move to Canada, I am offering classes to help you assimilate into our culture.

Courses start at $999

In American Dollars!

And don’t forget to honor those in Flander’s Field with a moment of silence.

Lest we forget.

A radio story

Wayne Ens is an author, trainer and media specialist.

He writes and distributes Ens on Sales Tips via email.  

His latest tip is well worth the read.

Here is his radio story.

Brian Russell, the COO of Media Distribution Solutions, shared some research about the power of video at the recent Local Online Advertising Conference in New York.

            Their research revealed that having video on a website makes it 53 times more likely to be found on Google, and that emails with videos get 50% more clicks compared to emails without video.

            I have no doubt about the effectiveness of videos online, and a recent trade article about the conference said "The takeaway is that video is clearly the new frontier in capturing attention in your marketing".

            Statistics like this can have local advertisers lining up to spend more money on videos, which often become dated very quickly, at the expense of radio advertising.

            By the way, the company that facilitated this research, Media Distribution Solutions, just happens to produce videos.

            Our TOMA surveys of more than 10,000 consumers reveals that consumers are 444 times more likely to view the website of a business they have heard of versus viewing the site of a business they have not heard of.

           And while video might make a website 53 times more likely to be found on Google, our research and advertiser seminars validate Seth Godin's claim that "It's better to be sought than found" online.

            Being sought by name is the only sure way a business can be found online, and having established a pre-need preference for a business with  a strong branding campaign will always trump any SEO or other online tactics.

            Radio is the proactive media, and online is the reactive media. Advertisers need both.

Establishing a pre-need preference for a business with proactive media will always trump putting all of your eggs in the reactive media basket.

            Step one is to establish a pre-need awareness and preference for a business with proactive radio. Step two is to use video and other online tactics when consumers search reactive media in reaction to their need.

            Let's tell the proactive radio story and not let advertisers put the cart before the horse. 

$24,000 lesson

I got voice mail.

I hit zero to get back to the receptionist to have my party paged.

Call was answered by the shipping department.

Thinking goblins in the phone lines, I tried again.

Same thing.

I mentioned that phone problem to the general manager 6 months ago.

Still happens.

Yet this manager is spending $2000 a month on social media posts.

Facebook and Twitter.

So even if I were to notice the posts, what is the first thing I will do?

Check out the website.

Clunky and busy.

Call?

"Shipping department".

But spending $2000 on social media.

Facebook and Twitter.

And two of your most important points of contact?

Broken.

And it cost you $24,000.00.

And no telling how much business you lost.