Where Is the Line? (On Advertorials and Front Page Ads)
March 9, 2010
No one would claim that the garden variety advertorial is a journalistic endeavor. Situated alongside a publication’s content, however, it can often be mistaken as real – especially if designers have taken great pains to replicate font, layout and details.
Advertorials happen. They happen all the time. Whether you think they’re effective or misleading, you probably rarely give them a second thought.
That is, until they begin appearing on your front page.
Alice In Wonderland
Historically, newspapers and magazines have held the front page as an Advertising Free Zone. It only makes sense. No one buys a publication because of the ads on the front; they look to the cover as a de facto table of contents. That’s where the impulse to purchase is created.
But with the decline in advertising revenues, publications have begun allowing more and more leeway. Small banner ads appear near the bottom of the front page. Plastic covers promote wireless services. Post-it notes offer coupons. Ads are creeping into that valuable space, precisely because it’s valuable. Precisely because magazines and newspapers can’t sell the insides as much as they once could.
So, you can imagine, if you offer a newspaper $700,000 to print a full front-page wrap, there’s a good chance they’re going to take it.
That’s what Disney did with the Los Angeles Times. The ad – a four-page wrap that mimicked the Times’ front page – was designed to “create buzz, and to extend the film’s already brilliant marketing campaign,” said John Conroy, spokesman for the Times. It also pushed the day’s headlines to a second page.
It’s not the first time the Times has slipped advertising in under the radar. Last April, an ad for NBC’s Southland gave only minimal indication that it was, indeed, an advertisement – and that was long after the “article” would have been read.
Newspapers: a Vehicle for Journalism or Advertising?
Which begs the question: where is the line? When does journalism begin and advertising end?
According to the American Society of Magazine Editors, ads and editorial content require a clear separation, and front-page ads not allowed. But when faced with the decision between selling a lucrative front cover ad and the ASME’s minimal repercussions (a letter or reprimand and exclusion from the National Magazine Awards), there’s often no more than the approval of a publisher standing in the way.
More than anything, newspaper and magazine readers place their trust in the publications they’re consuming. When ads are placed in a way that blurs the line between editorial and advertising – when advertisers seek to gain attention through deception by designing an ad that looks like real content - that trust is taken advantage of.
In other words, the content of the ads should be considered – not the location.
The Times ad reaches the news outlets because it’s on the front page. But it’s clearly an ad. It steers clear of deception simply because it’s too big to be believable. No one read that and thought, “this is a Los Angeles Times article about the movie.”
However, an advertorial clearly wants to be seen as content. Its entire premise is dependent upon a reader seeing it as an article. Posing as something it’s not, the advertorial plays upon the trust of the reader.
In other words, outrage seems to be misguided because the definition is so hazy. The line is smudged. Possibly irreparably. And it’s up to us – as advertisers and publishers – to, once and for all, redraw the line. Clean it up. Set some standards.
The balance, really, stands between editorial honor and the need to keep the lights on. We can take sides, fighting against either the stuffiness of journalistic integrity or the demons of advertising greed. But both sides have their arguments. Because without determining where that line is – the line between honorable content and the advertising that helps pay for it – we may lose the trust of our readership.
Being a Realtor on the Web
February 23, 2010
Let’s face it. Choosing a Realtor can be scary.
A lot needs to happen in selling and buying a house, and that puts a lot of responsibility – and therefore, a lot of trust – into the Realtor/homeowner relationship. Trust that needs to be earned. Trust that can’t be forgotten.
Which means, often, homeowners are on the defensive when it comes to buying or selling. They don’t have time to set up meetings with prospective Realtors, listen to presentations and choose. And often, questions arise before the Realtor is even chosen. What will stop my house from being sold? What do I need to do to prepare? Should I even sell?
For that reason, Realtors are taking to new ways of getting their positioning statement public in more non-traditional ways. We are happy to help one local Realtor – Tony Ratchford – in this very thing.
The concept: offer a seminar on selling a home on the potential seller’s time. Instead of setting up an appointment, coordinating schedules and arriving in person, Tony and his team developed a short video that highlights the needs for selling a home – and the benefits of doing so with Tony.
It’s simple: request a password, view the video, and proceed from there – which, coincidentally can all be handled on the same site. What’s your house worth? What homes are on the market? What resources are available in the community? It’s all one click away.
Fully automating the Realtor/homeowner relationship while still reaching out for a personal touch. It’s the best of both worlds, and it’s the future of buying and selling homes.
Check out the site for yourself at www.WhyHomesDontSell.com.
On Deadlines
February 18, 2010
Deadlines are the bane of a creative’s existence.
They signify a finish, a point at which the creative process stops and the technicalities begin. Everything leads to that deadline, and as time approaches, stress builds.
It’s the nature of the business. And it’s what makes a good number of us thrive.
Sometimes, our deadlines are far away. We’re afforded a large chunk of time with which to make magic happen. But most of the time, however, we’re on tight deadlines. Publications and print dates and special events and product launches are all tied to a specific date, and to that specific date our marketing and advertising materials must coincide.
Deadlines are a bane. But they’re also a framework and a promise.
So when a super hot job lands on our doorstep, sometimes there are only a few hours available to plan, design and implement. Take, for example, the case of a recent Web project we handled for the South Dakota State University Foundation.
With site design approved on Tuesday, there was but a crazy overnight coding session holding it back from getting to them by Wednesday. And it was done. Four days later, after content was entered, the site was live.
What what?
Listen, none of us want to work on midnight oil deadlines. But sometimes, they happen. And when they do, there’s a certain feeling of accomplishment – and dedication – that drives us to turn it around in an emergency.
It’s a deadline. They’re the bane of our existence. But, they’re also what makes the industry so exiting, and, in a way, what makes it so rewarding.
What what, indeed.
That plane is really an infographic
February 4, 2010
This airplane is really an infographic. And, for that, I salute Kulula Air (a low-fare, small airline out of South Africa), despite the fact that I’ll probably never get to fly on a single one of these planes.
From the Fast Company article:
With the help of local branding agency Atmosphere, Kulula launched this new look, called Flying 101. It’s more proof of the ubiquitous cool of infographics, I guess–everyone loves a good labeled diagram. And what a way to stand out on the tarmac, amidst South African Airways plain-Jane fleet: white, serifed type, and the most predictable logo possible, the South African flag.
They may not have Jet Blue or Southwest level service and support, but they certainly have an extra level of awesome. Nice work from Atmosphere.
(via/ Fast Company)
Mini’s Trash is Advertising’s Treasure
December 29, 2009
Great advertising is absolute trash. At least, it is when it comes to Mini and their insufferably cute Mini Cooper.
Click on image to see full size
Good Ol’ CP+B continued a tradition of great non-traditional advertising for the Mini Cooper line with these fantastic trash piles, adorned with a Mini-sized cardboard box. When it comes to marketing automobiles as a logical holiday gift, Lexus could learn a lot from Mini’s lead.
The heart of search: marketing Google
December 2, 2009
When it came to marketing, Bing went with humor. It went with the assumption that users couldn’t handle the amount of information they were given, that the Internet commoners wanted something more attuned to their thoughts. That their algorithm was better than Google’s, despite the difficulty in proving it.
Google? Well, they simply went for the heart.
We use search every day. It’s as much a part of our lives as the car we drive, the restaurants we frequent, the people we meet. Except for one thing: search leads us to those cars, those restaurants, those people; in a way, it’s so much more.
(Via Make the Logo Bigger)
Another batch of Wolff Olins snake oil
November 23, 2009
AOL (or, I guess, Aol.) revealed a new logo treatment today.
You can look elsewhere to see what the overall consensus is. (My take: What. A. Joke.)
That being said, there’s a bit of inconsistency that proves Wolff Olins’ ability to b.s. their way through a logo design.
“Historically brand identity has been monolithic and CONTROLLING, little more than stamping a company name on a product. AOL is a 21st century media company, with an ambitious vision for the future and new focus on creativity and expression, this required the new brand identity to be open and generous, to invite conversation and collaboration, and to feel credible, but also aspirational.” said Karl Heiselman, CEO of Wolff Olins.
Their solution, naturally: stamp the company name onto a handful of stock images.
Come on, guys. After the London 2012 debacle, don’t you think we should be trying a little harder? I mean, THE LEAST YOU COULD DO is make sure the fluffy, inspirational quote defending your work isn’t at odds with the nature of the work itself.
In These Tough Economic Times, PLEASE say something different.
October 29, 2009
Yeah, we’re all probably in the same boat. Absolutely sick and tired of being reminded of our financial crises, constantly inundated with “In These Tough Economic Times…” and “We Could All Use A Little Good News…” Frustrated beyond relief when the familiar pangs of mood music and serious voice over remind us how a company is going to buck the system by staying close to its roots, as if GM could really change this whole thing by releasing a hybrid vehicle.
So it’s always cool to see someone take the tired “save money during a recession” message and do something cool with it.
Like this Volkswagen guerrilla campaign for the new BlueMotion line of vehicles.
The gist: The European map on a batch of Euro banknotes is stamped with a representation of how far you’d get based on the banknote’s denomination. How far would you get with 50 Euros? It’s right there on the banknote.
Then, they released the bills throughout German VW dealers, service shops, etc.
And they did it all without falling back on tired clichés. Which, even without the awesomeness of the idea, gets a whole fist full of thumbs up from me.
Changing the conventional. Or, how to make a bus stand out.
October 22, 2009
A quick word from the corporate sponsor.
Constantly raising awareness. Moving toward a cure.
What’s that? Oh, yeah. We’re pretty excited about a pink bus.
Not just pink, though. PINK. As in, Avera McKennan’s new bus wrap – promoting the Avera Breast Center and featuring some of the region’s very own breast cancer survivors – is unmistakable and impossible to ignore.
After all – it’s bright pink.
Here’s the thing. Marketing and advertising have become so much a part of our every move that we begin to tune it out. We are inundated with visual and aural marketing at every turn. So it’s not just a fight to be noticed - it’s a fight to be relevant, with a message that people actually want to hear, promoting solutions, not features. Or, at least, to offer a change from the typical.
As marketers, we understand that our target doesn’t want to hear us. And it’s up to us to change that convention.
Which is why something like the Big Pink Avera McKennan Bus works. Not only does it promote a worthy cause - get mammograms! - but it’s also a bit jaunty. Jovial. A beacon of fun in an altogether too cluttered advertising and marketing landscape.
Buses are often seen as beat down. They’re driven hard and laid out to rest in some giant garage. We’re fighting to change that convention too, by turning them into a visual medium. They aren’t art yet, but how far are we from that? How far are we from accepting public transit as a focus of attention?
Because when you see a pink bus, is there anything you can do other than say, “Holy cow. That’s totally a pink bus?”
On Humor, Vitamin Water, and Steve Nash’s awesomeness
September 21, 2009
Vitamin Water is not Gatorade. It’s not even Powerade. In the “refreshment that passes as sports drink” category, it tends to lean more toward those weird Ginkgo Bilbao-infused concoctions and tea-flavored Snapple.
That being said, Vitamin Water understands its place on the market. It’s natural. It’s got vitamins. And while it will never overtake the heavy hitters, it’s vying to be the most creative and most beloved.
50 Cent is a part-owner. And Steve Nash is the lead spokesperson. And this is their newest viral sensation: a “flavor creator” through Facebook.
What we learn: Steve Nash is hilarious. Retro-cheesy is in. And having a sense of humor about your brand is important.
This is not to say every company should start hiring clowns and wiener dogs to perform abridged Shakespeare for every television spot, or that an insurance agency should eschew years of brand management and stability only to hire Carrot Top as a spokesperson. But when the opportunity arises, it’s important to understand the value of taking your company a little lightly.
Don’t drop common sense for the sake of a laugh. Never let amateurs take hold of your company’s name. Understand that - even in the face of humor - careful planning and execution takes precedence.
But if you have the chance to have a little fun, do it.
Your customers will thank you. The viewing public will thank you. All you’ll do is look a little more human. A little more memorable. A little more desirable.
(And, if possible, hire Steve Nash to help you out.)
- Where Is the Line? (On Advertorials and Front Page Ads)
- Being a Realtor on the Web
- On Deadlines
- That plane is really an infographic
- Twitter as a commitment
- A Quick Grammar Break: Brought to you by The Oatmeal.
- A Creative Legend In Our Midst
- Mini’s Trash is Advertising’s Treasure
- On How NOT to Request Attention on the Internet
- The OFFICIAL 2009 Gingerbread Man (Or Woman) Decorating Contest
- Sharron: Great article about Cami. And-Congratulations to Mark; a well deserved recognition.
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About HenkinSchultz
HenkinSchultz is an agency. An advertising and marketing and branding and design and production agency. All of those things, and then some.
But, underneath all that, we're really a bunch of thinkers. As in, we think about stuff, both pertinent and not, with and without boundaries, as if our lives depended on it. And this right here, Post Haste, is where we write about it.
Visit us at http://www.henkinschultz.com.