We have such a fickle relationship with time, don’t we? Constantly we would give nothing more than for it to fly by. Yet, it’s the one thing we can’t buy more of. And all the time we’ve seen clients wish things would happen faster, quicker, sooner, NOW!
We forget how often we’ve been the consumer. And when we are the consumer, what is the one phrase the majority of us utter with the prospect of acting, buying, making a decision?
“I want to take some time to think about it.”
Why is that?
Because we need time to process, to absorb all the information given to us. Because your ad needs to fight its way through the forest and clutter that is our day to day lives. To somehow stand out. To somehow tattoo your message on your prospective customers memory banks.
And that’s not easy.
Case In Point
Let's say you’re buying radio. You purchase a strong schedule of one: 60 second commercial an hour between the hours of 6am-7pm; you just bought 13 of 790 minutes. Or better yet, let's say you bought a commercial an hour for an entire day that’s 24 of 1440.
Why do I say that? Because your ad seems so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, right? Of course. But imagine that playing over, and over, and over. Day after day, after day.
Your message needs penetrate the psyche of your potential customer. But when it does, you’ll haunt their dreams!
And it should.
Why?
Because the moment they give you a chance, you better not screw it up. Because if you do, they’re storing in their memory banks how much you suck. Then, they’ll turn around and tell their family, their friends, their co-workers, and hop on 93 variations of social media to let them all know how much you suck!
But, and this is a Sir Mix-A-Lot big of a but…If you give them that customer experience we all are dying for…
You’ve got a customer for life!
And you can be as sure as Alpaca poo they’re going to let their friends, family, co-workers and a solid 2 different forms of social media know how amazing their experience was.
Advertising Takes Time
Advertising isn’t a sale; it’s an investment. An investment of time. An investment of yours, an investment of ours, and most importantly, an investment of your soon to be customer.
One thing we always must remind our clients of, and even remind ourselves of is something so simple it’s absurd, yet so complex it’s impossible to comprehend:
We’re dealing with people.
Analytics are nice, and they give us and you a grasp as to specific human behaviors…sure…
But more so than ever, we’ve seen mercurial, unpredictable nature of those same behaviors.
Keep that in mind when you’re wondering why it’s slow today but for some reason busy tomorrow. Keep that in mind when one year from now you’ve had a spike in sales in a month that has been an industry-wide “slow one.”
Keep that in mind when you think this commercial, this ad, this jingle, this sale is the greatest thing in the history of great and things.
For example, I’m sure these folks thought the following was an amazing idea but maybe with a little more time, they would have thought otherwise:
Yeah, ouch.
What you’re trying to do with your advertising is to let those that have never heard of you know you exist. And for those that do, you’re simply saying, “Hi, me again, still here.”
And in reality what you’re really doing is asking them for a moment of their time, and you promise not to waste it.
Don’t let them down.
-k
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