After taking a vacation and clearing my mind, I walked in my office yesterday and looked at a handful of ads that were being produced. I saw many that I liked and a few I wanted to change. The ones that were to be changed had one component in common – they were diluted.
My definition of a diluted ad is one that tries to sell too many things at one time. To use a quote that Mike Strong taught me, “It’s hard enough to sell one proposition in a :30 ad; and it’s totally impossible to sell 3.”
Some of this is due to the time of year. Manufacturers are racing to hit their year- end numbers so new events and theme/logo requirements are required in ads. This can create a little havoc when a sale or theme is already in place. Then, at the last minute, a manufacturer comes out with “the sale event of the month” and requires it to be included in every dealer’s ad. That compounded with wanting to push multiple offers makes creating an effective ad a real challenge.
Going back to what has consistently worked best for dealers across the country is to take their very best product, at the best price or payment, and use an entire ad to leverage this point. When 3 to 4 different offers or messages get placed in a :30 spot, it becomes challenging to create something that will result in traffic.
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John Paul Strong
John Paul Strong combines his two decades of automotive marketing experience with a team of more than 150 professionals as owner and CEO of Strong Automotive.
