Slater's Garage Ads & Audio

Ravioli Speed Dating

Brett — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:07:17 +0000

Just wanted to take a quick moment to thank Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. of Montreal. They selected our animated “Speed Dating” video as one of two winners of their Olivieri Pasta “Mondays Made Special” assignment, hosted by the awesome team at Poptent.

I’m now able to say, unequivocally, that Slater’s Garage is an international company. Thanks, you guys.

When Do We Throw The Party?

Brett — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:24:43 +0000

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

That quote is attributed to John Wanamaker, a 19th century department store merchant, and it raises an ongoing challenge for any business owner: How do I know whether my ads are working?

If you start your campaign without a clearly defined goal, the answer is simple. You don’t know.

What do you want your advertising effort to accomplish? “To increase sales” or “To get my name out there” is too broad a result. You’ll never know which half of your ad budget is wasted if you don’t articulate a specific outcome. You have to quantify success:

“We’d like to see foot traffic in our Scottsdale location increase 10% this quarter.”

“We want 50 people to come in for test drives this month.”

“We’d like 100 new users to sign up for our e-mail newsletter by year’s end.”

When you specifically define what success looks like for you and your business, your advertising team can craft a campaign toward that goal.

As for which half of your ad money is wasted? While it’s true that you may not know specifically which ads or which medium worked best, if you reach the goal you put forth at the onset of the campaign, then none of your ad money was wasted. The campaign worked.

And that’s when you throw the party.

Photo: x-ray delta one

Features vs. Benefits: “What’s In It for Me?”

Brett — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 15:09:01 +0000

As a person with money to spend, your customer only cares about one thing when we boil down the decision to make a purchase of any kind:

“What’s in it for me?”

So when you write an ad for your business (or when you approve one that someone else writes for you), that’s the question you should answer in your copy. If your ad doesn’t address that question, then your customer doesn’t hear your ad, because she doesn’t need to listen. Show the Benefit, and you give her a reason to pay attention.

So how do you get customers to listen? What words should you use? Make your copy customer-centric. Focus your message on them, not you. When you talk about what you have, that’s a Feature. When you talk about what your customer gets when they do business with you, that’s a Benefit. Imagine that with every sentence of copy someone hears when listening to your ad, they’re thinking that question above: “So what? What’s in it for me?”

Let’s look at some examples of Feature-based copy:

A car dealer’s ad might say: “We carry all makes and models.”

An ad for a lawyer might say: “We have over 50 years combined experience.”

A restaurant might tell you: “We boast a delectable array of pastas and salads, with 600 different dressings and sauces.”

You’ll notice a lot of “we have” phrasing in those examples. Now, put our customer’s question, “What’s in it for me?” before any of those phrases, and you’ll see that those copy points don’t adequately address what’s in it for the customer. Yes, Benefits are implied by those points, but by not making the copy about the customer – by not clearly illustrating the benefit – an implication is about as close as you’ll get to a sale. That is, if you’ve even managed to hold the viewer/listener’s attention throughout the spot. Instead, we can make the copy about the customer:

Instead of, “We carry all makes and models,” the car dealer might try something like, “You’ll find the exact car you’ve been dreaming about.” Ooh, really? I’ll find the car of my dreams? Sweet!

Instead of, “We have over 50 years combined experience,” maybe the lawyer says something like, “You can relax knowing our attorneys have won millions in settlements for people just like you.” I can relax? And you’ve gotten millions for people like me? Excellent. I’m interested!

And our restaurant could take their Feature of a huge menu, and turn it into a Benefit by saying, “You could eat here every day for three years, and never have the same meal twice.”

These are just very basic examples of how to turn Feature-based copy that’s about us, into Benefit-based copy that’s about you, and fulfilling a need, and that ever-important consumer question, “What’s in it for me?” If you can answer that question successfully in your ads, you’ll be that much closer to turning that prospect into a customer.

Photo: Danny McL

What Should Your Commercial Say?

Brett — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:54:14 +0000

Ask a hundred advertising creatives this question, and you’ll probably get MORE than a hundred answers, which may include responses like:

“It should be funny. People remember funny. Funny sells!”

“The business name should be mentioned no fewer than three times.”

“The phone number should be in there – at least twice — so people know where to call.”

And so on. And while answers may vary, I think anyone can agree that a commercial’s job is to compel customers to do business with you. So the short answer to the above question would be, “Your commercial should say anything that gets you closer to achieving that end.” Sounds simple, but the increasingly more difficult trick is to have an ad campaign that cuts through the vast barrage of impressions consumers are exposed to every day. Back in the old days (which in many communities was as recent as the late 80s), there was a local newspaper, a few radio stations, and three or so TV channels. Getting exposure for your business was easy. There were only so many places you could be seen or heard. So, your ad didn’t have to work very hard to bring in business. Your ads didn’t have to be good. They just had to be there.

Obviously, times have changed. Choices for consumers of media have spanned beyond broadcast, beyond print, and beyond cable. And most businesses don’t have the budget to be everyplace, so your choices of where to run your ad remain limited. So you have to get maximum impact from the ads you do run. So, how do you make your commercial stand out?

1) Your spot should clearly illustrate a unique need for your product or service. If someone doesn’t think they need you, how are you going to sell them? And if it’s not a unique need for your product, you risk losing customers to competing businesses. Your ad should clearly answer the question, “With all the choices out there, why your business?”

2) Your spot should tell your customers how their lives will be better if they do business with you. Talk about benefits, not features. A feature is what you have. A benefit is about what your customer gets. Make it about them, not you. (I’ll tackle this subject this in greater detail in an upcoming post.)

3) Your spot should be memorable, so viewers/listeners think of you first when they need your product or service. Memorability can be achieved in two ways: via repetition, or via a powerful message. A powerful message is emotional. It evokes feeling in those who see or hear it. A list of stuff you do (“We offer oil changes, tire rotations, alignment, brakes…”) doesn’t make anyone feel anything when they hear it. Result? You have to air that spot a lot more times to elicit a response from a customer. An ad with a strong enough message and a powerful emotional element can evoke customer action much sooner.

4) Your spot should tell them what the next step is toward fulfilling that need. This is Sales 101 stuff: You have to ask for the sale. When I speak with a client about his ad, one of my last questions is, “What do you want people to do when they see it? Stop by? Visit your website?” You’d be surprised how often this question catches people off guard, and it’s really the most important element. It’s the part where you ask for the business. So have a clear “next step” in all your ads.

There are ways to maximize the impact of these elements, and we’ll talk more about them in upcoming posts (and especially if you hire us). But it’s been my experience that the most effective ads use these components to at least some degree. The next time you watch TV or listen to the radio, look for the businesses that use these elements well in their ads.

Photo: l1mey

Every Time Your Spot Airs

Brett — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:21:37 +0000

Every time your spot airs, this guy wants to change the channel. Make him NOT want to.

Every time your spot airs, you have 30 (or 60, or 15) seconds to make an impression.

Every time your spot airs, no one else can use that time. Your competitor’s spot can’t air. It’s your 30 seconds, and yours alone. You have the stage. Make it count!

Every time your spot airs, you have the chance to tell your customers how you can make their lives better.

Every time your spot airs, it costs you money, so make sure you GET something for the money you spend, in the form of increased store and/or website traffic and ideally, sales.

Every time your spot airs, you’re “getting your name out there.” But is that leading to sales? Make sure your message leads to ACTION from your current and potential customers.

Every time your spot airs, tell people what to do next: Buy, call, stop by, visit our website, look for our flyer, etc.

Every time your spot airs, talk about your customer, not yourself.

Every time your spot airs, you have an opportunity to be memorable. Leave “boring” to your competitors.

Every time your spot airs, your message will be reinforced. Air it often.

Photo: petergerdes

Crazy Eddie and Reach Vs. Frequency

Brett — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:53:56 +0000

I guarantee that readers from the New York tri-state area will remember these commercials with near-total recall. Crazy Eddie was a consumer electronics chain that operated in the greater New York area in the 70s and 80s. And before they went out of business (due to massive and multiple counts of fraud by the owners), their biggest claim to fame was the renowned Crazy Eddie TV commercials, which featured New York DJ Jerry Carroll as their spokesman, frantically shouting about Crazy Eddie’s low prices on color TVs, stereos, and so on. The spots always ended with the same slogan, which, if you’re from the area, I’m sure you know:

“Crazy Eddie! His prices are INSAAAANNNE!”

The spots weren’t knock-yer-socks-off creative. They certainly weren’t pretty to look at. So, why, then, even after more than 25 years, are these commercials remembered so vividly? Why can pretty much everyone from the area remember “INSAAAANE!” as soon as you mention “Crazy Eddie?” Because the commercials aired and aired and aired. Radio, TV, cable… for years. They used a consistent and memorable format for their ads, so that slogan and that brand became emblazoned in the minds of whomever saw/heard them. And that’s why, years later, I can still recite the “ten great locations” with pinpoint timing and accuracy: As long as they were open for business, they never, ever stopped reminding people that they were open for business.

That’s the difference between reach and frequency. With reach, you’ll get “a lot of eyeballs,” as they say — a lot of people, potentially, will see your ad each time it airs. Frequency, however, refers to how often your commercial airs. Ideally, you want both. You want to reach a lot of customers a lot of times. However, only businesses with mammoth ad budgets can generally afford to advertise on such a grand scale. Most local businesses, by comparison, have limited budgets, so they have to choose between running an ad during a widely-viewed program (high reach), like the Super Bowl, or the finale of American Idol, which may cost several thousand dollars (Locally, of course. Nationally, it’s millions) for a single commercial, or running several ads throughout the week (high frequency), during lesser-viewed shows, but at a significantly lower spot rate. That is, fewer people may see your commercial each time it airs, but it will air more times.

Okay, so, if you have to choose between reach and frequency, which do you choose? If it were my business, and my ad budget, I’d take frequency every time. People learn by repetition. Think about your times-tables when you were a kid: You learned them by repeating, and repeating, and repeating them: “6 x 5 = 30… 6 x 6 = 36… 6 x 7 = 42…” You remember stuff by seeing it and hearing it over and over and over. Now, apply that notion to your business’ advertising campaign. Will a customer remember your business by seeing your ad once during Survivor: Detroit, or by seeing it every day on TV during the local morning news, and then twice more on the radio during their commute to work, and then once on the way home, and then later that evening while watching Pawn Stars on the History Channel?

Looking back at the Crazy Eddie example, I mentioned that they never stopped reminding people they were there. Neither should you with your business. Of course, the reality is that not every business has a budget big enough to advertise all the time. But that should be a goal to shoot for. If you can’t advertise all the time, at least try to advertise as often as your budget allows. The more times your ad is seen, the better your customers will remember you when they need your product or service. Give them as little chance as possible to forget you.

To do otherwise would be INSAAAANNNE!

Madison Avenue Meets the Beatles

Brett — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:37:13 +0000

Something fun for a Friday morning. I’m not sure the source or the significance. It might have been done “just for fun.” A Google search of the “Absolute Music” slate at the end proved inconclusive. However, it was great for a laugh (especially the shot of the engineer potting down the slide that says “Ringo Voice”), and I think this is the kind of content that would make for great viral advertising. The brand is memorable, the piece is clearly shareable, and it’s not presented as overtly “commercial.”

Credit the share to friend/colleague Mike Dow from The Mike and Mike Show at Kiss 94.5 in Bangor, Maine.

How to Reinvent Your “Wheel”

Brett — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:35:25 +0000

I’ve known about Mad Men, heard it was great, but just never got around to watching it until recently re-upping my Netflix subscription. I stumbled across this piece from the final episode of Season 1, when Creative Director Don Draper helps Kodak re-brand their slide projector, which they called (up until this moment) “The Wheel.”

This is the kind of stuff that made me want to get into advertising in the first place. It’s a great example of how looking at something from — literally — a new angle can entirely change how we perceive it. By turning Kodak’s “Wheel” on its side, it becomes something else entirely: a “Carousel.” But the transformation isn’t complete without one crucial ingredient: a strong emotional attachment. Only when Don Draper adds in the “nostalgia” element do we truly see (and feel) the impact that the Carousel not only has on the guys in the meeting, but also the impact that it will have on the public.

So, what’s your business’ “Wheel?” What’s the thing that, if you look at it a different way, sets your product, your service apart from the others? Once you answer that, the next question is: What’s the emotional connection you want to make? How do you want your customers to feel when they use your product or service, when they see or hear your ad, or when they think about your business?

I’ll give you a hint: It’s probably the same way you feel about your business. If you can tap the same emotion, the same passion that made you want to start your business, and then convey that emotion to your customers, then you can turn your Wheel into a Carousel.

Cliches! Everybody’s Doin’ It!

Brett — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:31:15 +0000

The great thing about cliches is that they’re really easy to write. Someone’s already done the work, in some cases, many times over (Caution: Video contains some naughty words):

But the problem with cliches is that, by definition, they’re predictable and overused. So when you use them in your advertising, viewers and listeners tune out your message a lot faster, because they’ve already heard it. And the more times consumers hear these overused lines, the less meaning they have, the less impact they make, and the less weight they carry. Worst of all, this overused language gets tuned out by the listener/viewer. Think of some of the classic examples:

“Affordable dining in a comfortable atmosphere…”

“Service second to none…”

“Over _______ years experience…”

“Prices too low to mention here!” (I never understood this one. Why can’t you mention them?)

“It’s the ONE sale you DON’T want to miss!”

“Conveniently located…”

And so on. When you use this kind of language in your ad copy, the words mean absolutely nothing to the potential customer who might be hearing or seeing your ad. Look at it this way: Can you really imagine someone coming into a store and saying, “Hey, I heard your ad! Is this the place with service second to none?” Not likely. When we write spots for our clients, we work hard with them to find those things about their business that are unique, that only they can deliver. We produced this commercial for a Bangor, Maine candy store a couple years ago:

And they ended up selling out of chocolate lobster dinners and “boxes of chocolate where the box IS chocolate.” The thing is, I’ve shopped there, and I can say, without prejudice, that Specialty Sweets does offer “service second to none.” But the thing is, you can’t qualify that claim. EVERY business can claim it, LOTS of businesses already DO say it in their ads, and none of them would be lying. So when used in an ad, the phrase means nothing. However, a specific, unique product or offer CAN be qualified: “Hey! I want one of those chocolate lobster dinners I saw on TV!”

So, before your next ad goes to air, review the copy. Does the language look familiar? Has it been said before? Have you heard it in another commercial? If so, change it, so people who see and hear your ads sit up and take notice. Surprise and delight your customers. Use your imagination, take some time, and use words that are unique to you and your business.

Home (Page) Improvement Projects Making Headway

Brett — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:13:34 +0000

Regular visitors to this site may have noticed some pretty major design changes lately.

The bad news is, we don’t really HAVE a lot of regular visitors to this site. The good news, though, is that these new design changes are part of a plan to change that. We’ve merged the old Slater’s Garage site with the old Slater’s Garage blog, which has until recently been hosted for free by WordPress.

We recently opted for a self-hosted blog, and we picked up a new WordPress theme called Headway. Their latest 3.0 version has just been released, and we’ll be using it as the central design application for the new Slater’s Garage website. It’s unbelievably simple to install, and the drag-and-drop design format makes it even easier to use. Plus, because we opted for the Developer license, we’ll also soon be able to help some of our clients improve their blogs and expand their social media presence.

That being said, there’s still a bit of a learning curve as we find our way around the new Theme. But, again, the good news is, we’re learning a lot in a very short time, and we’re finding out that the Headway theme plays a huge part in making that learning curve much more gentle.

We invite you to visit us in the coming weeks to see the re-design as it takes place, and we also invite you to visit a couple of the other blogs we manage — Stay Home and Eat, and The Sales Vitamin — both of which are also in the process of being remodeled with Headway as well.

Expanding into this media space is a huge deal for us, and we’re looking forward to the journey. Thanks to the gang at Headway for producing this amazing blogging tool, and thanks to you for your patience during our renovation.