Mike’s Points

A worthwhile ad, slogan, headline, etc., has three key ingredients:

• It has to be memorable.
• It has to easily convey its message — no lag time in understanding it.
• Its message has to have some type of selling aspect to it — influences your purchase decision.

A lot of the Bud Light TV commercials are great — but they’re little more than entertainment. If that’s what Bud Light is trying to achieve — make you think well of its beer — fine. If that’s not Bud Light’s intend, it’s lost on me. If it is, funny beer commercials don’t make me want to buy beer.

If an ad, tagline, etc., easily conveys its message but it does not have a lasting impression, you have to keep seeing it to keep it top-of-mind when you are ready to purchase (assuming the message registers positively with you). But, like many things, repetition causes us to gloss over things. Go numb to the purpose.

Many years ago, a former employer worked with the Toledo Zoo in its marketing communications. Together, LMG and the zoo developed a great line:

Everybody’s zooing it

And, there were other variations (”the newest thing to zoo” and so on).

It was catchy and memorable, and demonstrated the zoo as an action: If you’re going to the zoo, you’re zooing it. It generated a positive, desirable feel to going to the zoo.

It was the basis for many short-term campaigns. For a time, it even became part of Toledo’s pop culture (see #22). And, of course, there was the “everybody’s zooing it” song. (Archive.org is a great site!)

And, though the Toledo Zoo is no longer using the “zooing” it campaign, it still resonates with the Toledo and area community. This picture (right) was taken from my kids’ elementary school.

That’s a sign of a great slogan.

So, while achieving one or two of the three points above is nice, you’ll miss your mark if you can’t achieve all three points. It’s not easy, but it is necessary.

-Mike

I don’t have a lot of experience in signs. I know some of the basic guidelines, like for billboards (simple message, under five words) and a few others.

What I am pretty comfortable with is the English language — especially in writing (okay, typing).

If you are into signs or any type of similar public display, let me offer a little PSA with a couple “don’ts” for you.

The first one (right) is a simple improper use of apostrophe. Use apostrophe s — ’s — only to show that something possesses something else. Don’t use an apostrophe because you don’t like the way an s looks at the end of a word. Unfortunately, there are plenty other examples of apostrophe abuse.

The other one (below) also is pretty basic mistake. Even my 2nd grade son knows that when you write or read, you do so left to right, or up to down. Not, bottom to top. (If you happen to recognize this one, please know that it was done by a volunteer parent, not the school. And, it was not done by me or my wife. I’m sure the parent put in a lot of time making the door signs and is to be commended for the effort; just not as much on the end result.)

If these little tidbits can save your own “sign language,” I can sleep easier at night.

-Mike

My company had an outing at the Toledo Mud Hens game the other day. I parked in a parking garage near 5/3 Field, saw the game, had a good time, left and went home.

A day later, I happened to look at the ticket and noticed what looked like a PSA.

But it wasn’t.

Half the front (right) and all of the back of the ticket dealt with how you should prepare if the bird flu broke out locally. And, it was developed by the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department “funded by a grant from the Ohio Dept. of Health.”

First, did the Ohio Dept. of Health pay for that information to be printed on the ticket? (Ohio tax dollars at work?)

Secondly — and more importantly from a marketing perspective — is a parking ticket really the best way to reach people with that information? I mean, who really reads a parking stub? I happened to be because I was in my minivan the next day, waiting for a minute to pick up a friend. Otherwise, I don’t read parking stubs.

Is this really an effective way to mass communicate how to prepare for a bird flu epidemic — or is it ineffective and a waste of money?

Seems like a waste of money to me.

–Mike