The average American comes into contact with over 5,000 advertising messages every day. If you subtract out 7 hours for sleep, that leaves 17 hours of available advertising contact time. That means the average American comes into contact with 294 advertising messages every hour.
An advertising message isn’t just a radio or television commercial, a newspaper ad, or a billboard you pass on the highway. Every time you open your refrigerator or your pantry, get online, drive past a business sign, open your medicine cabinet in your bathroom, or take a shower you come in contact with a form of advertising by simply looking at the products right in front of your face. If you see a logo, you are seeing a form of advertising.
Now, when you factor in radio, television, newspaper, magazine, and billboards you can see how that 5,000 number is believable.
So, how do get your message across? You need to make your advertising memorable and you do that by becoming relevant to your customers and potential customers.
“15 minutes could save you 15%” is how Geico made their name and because they are one of the biggest advertisers in the country, chances are good you have heard that line more than once. The characters they use in their advertising are cute, but their tag line tackles two issues that are relevant to nearly every person……it doesn’t take a lot of time to save money.
Have you seen or heard an ad for OnStar, General Motors in-vehicle security, communications, and diagnostic system? They use real life situations, such as locking yourself out of your car or being involved in a car accident, to showcase their product.
Geico and OnStar don’t waste time talking about themselves, instead they focus on how you will benefit by doing business with them.
The great thing is you don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to take this approach. All you do is determine the need that your product/service fills and make that the focal point of your advertising. Geico could save you 15% in 15 minutes…..OnStar could save your life by contacting emergency personnel if you are in a car accident and unable to make the call yourself.
What need does your product/service fill?
Answer that question and you are on your way to becoming memorable. Remember, you are battling over 5,000 competitors every day for a spot in the brain of your customers. The odds are agains’t you unless you put in the effort to become memorable.
Doug Smith is a Senior Account Executive for WREW Rewind 94.9 in Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky. You can contact Doug at (513) 535-9123 ordosmith@hubbardinteractive.com
