i’m not saying that your advertising can compete if it looks and sounds like junk, nor i am suggesting that you take little or no care in producing it. advertising always needs to be professional. what i am saying is advertising that runs in a series or is coupled in one area is far more effective than a single killer ad. this might surprise some in media buying circles. if i was offered a few smaller ads for the price of one conglomerated ad, then i would accept. specifically, i would choose a thin header ad on the same page as one or two column ads before i committed to a larger half page ad.
so what is the thinking? attention wanders and is sporadic. not two attentions are exactly the same. it doesn’t focus on one place at a time, and it isn’t always looking. by valuing frequency before the frivolous, you increase your chances to catch the eye of the consumer. here are two examples. you’re on the home page of a website. you see a banner at the top and another in the sidebar. branding matches. more compelling than if these were different ads. you’re on a road trip for the holidays. instead of one mondo billboard that you may or may not see, a company invests in a serious of small signs that are placed some distance apart as you approach the advertiser’s exit. the message mounts in smaller bits to digest and the chances are greater that one or more of the signs will be seen.
