LetMeAskYouThis

I decided today that I wanted to find a neat advertisement to write about….something revolutionary…something that sparked my interest….something that awakened me to a whole new marketing concept.  Of course my immediate reaction was to google “advertisements”.  What pops up but an article entitled “28 Extremely Creative Advertisements I have Ever Seen”. I ignore the grammatical mistake and excitedly click on the article assuming that something amazing awaited me.  I was wrong…the poster was clearly confused when he/she titled this article.  The end result of clicking on this webpage was that I was forced to look at some of the DUMBEST advertisements I have EVER seen.  Following are a few examples…(I have taken the liberty of adding my own captions):

Dunkin Donuts: we taste like subway hand-hold rings

Is this a sea-horse or something??

We cut off peoples' feet and sell them to you as shoes

These advertisements are completely ridiculous and a waste of effort…they don’t seem to serve any purpose.  I certainly don’t want to buy any of these products after seeing them…in fact I will never sleep without shoes again!  If you want to be amazed by some more of the “28 Extremely Creative Advertisements I have Ever Seen” click here.

The above ad was ripped from the pages of Travel and Leisure magazine for its complete ridiculousness. It has sat on my desk for some time — hence the coffee mark — until I found the energy to bring it to you today. You have now paid more attention to this ad than anybody who may have originally glanced at it in print. In case you’re curious, it is an advertisement for a hotel called the Fountainbleau located in Miami beach. But why is there a half naked woman? Is she representative of the many hookers available in the hotel lobby? Is this what a typical hotel guest at the Fountainbleau looks like? Would I, even if I possessed a large amount of disposable income, go to this hotel based on the fact that a naked woman is standing on a balcony?

While the last question may have been asked in a sarcastic tone, let’s look at some math that although is guaranteed to be inaccurate, is displayed for my purpose none the less.

Amount of a full page ad as quoted in T&L media guide ——–$106,000

T&L circulation as quoted in media guide———————————–4.8

million Amount spent by hotel per reader———————————$45

Now, in contrast, let us take a look at a cheap, effective and intelligent marketing strategy from Burger King, The Original Epicenter of Style.

 Up until recently, Burger king was offering a Facebook application that resulted in a free whopper coupon to those who deleted 10 “friends” from their facebook account. PRACTICAL, When you delete one of these friends, burger king would send a notice saying they were sacrificed in the name of someone hungry for a whopper. INCENTIVE, Provided you’re not starving yourself in order to appear in the latest Fountainbleau ad, you’ll do what it takes to get your hands on a whopper (even Freegans like this deal) Now here is some quick math:

Cost of whopper, let’s say————————————————-$3.50

Number sacrificed according to the king—————————–233,906

Less 10 friends for a whopper——————————————–2,333

Total cost of program————————————————— $8,165.50

Cost per participant——————————————————$ 3.5!!!!!!

I just don’t understand why people still advertise in magazines.

Recently I was reading a post on Seth Godin’s Blog (click here) where he writes that a company’s stance on marketing budget should be, “We have an unlimited budget for ads that work”.  That is to say, if an advertisement generates business for a company, there must be a budget for that advertisement.

Recently, due to the economic environment, companies have been cutting their advertising budgets.  For the ultimate example of cut advertising budgets, we can look at the changes in this years super bowl advertisers.  More generally, another article I read recently mentioned that one third of retailers cut their advertising budget in the past year.

Does this mean many companies were engaging in excessive or useless advertising??  Theoretically, parting with advertising means parting with yet more business if that advertising was at all effective.  This leads to the idea that companies were marketing for the sake of marketing rather than marketing effectively.