Advertising that sells?

We all have seen very stylish and great looking ads, ads that are interesting to watch and that win awards. Ads that you remember for weeks after you last saw them. Ads you talk about with your friends, ads that you sometimes wish you had created yourself. But do they sell? Do they make you remember the product they are promoting or do you remember the great ad but you don't remember for what it was? I have really seen a lot of great ads but when I'm telling about them to someone, I seldom can remember what the ad actually promoted.

And that's often the problem with stylish ads. Stylish & great looking ads do NOT equal most selling ads, these are two totally different things. You might notice the fancy ad more, but does it actually make you wanna buy your product?

Come back to awful washing powder ads. Now think, why are these ads still there? Why have they been pretty much the same for years? Leaving the competition out of our minds for a moment (other washing powder companies advertising in TV), they don't need to do as much selling as with eg internet companies. The reason behind that is we all need washing power one way or another. So the advertiser does not have to convince us to buy their product anymore, rather they just need to give you a minor brainwash with their ads to make you buy their product insteid of any other brand. And how they do it? They pay for you a dazzling number of ads every day to make the name fix into your memory. It doesn't really matter if all you remember that this xxx powder had awful advertisement. When you go to the shop, a big shop, you can maybe see tens or hundreds of different washing powders and you can be sure you will make your decision between the ones you know about and leave all others out of your decision making process. Now that's advertising!

With all that I don't want to say that interesting, stylish and great looking ads definitely do not sell. But what I want to say is that in addition to being stylish all ads need to be RELEVANT. Advertising need to create buzz in a way that it would be closely related to your brand. And be honest in advertising. If you say you're the best and after trying your product out it turnes out it sucks, the buyer will not make the mistake again. So say enough to get people buying, but don't lie.

Of course it depends on the type of product you're advertisign but often it's a good idea to tell your prospective clients your weak points, don't let them notice things first. In case of washing powder I don't really imagine how this might work but in case of many products it is a good idea.

To sell something, you need to help your potential customer. And then he will help you back.