Against the Tide To grab attention in a crowded marketplace, try breaking away from the pack with an understated ad.
By Jerry Fisher
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Flip through most big consumer magazines, and what do you see inbetween the editorial matter? A blur of colors, exclamations,toothy pitchpersons, toll-free numbers, a coupon here, a Web sitethere. Or maybe it's page after page of anorectic models,greased in almond oil and draped in designer gear. Or perhapsit's a sheaf of toddler images showing little Trevors, Trentsor Madisons goo-gooing over their strollers, burpy dolls, car seatsor lozenges for little sore throats.
If any of these represent the kind of environment in which youplan to advertise, maybe you need to be a contrarian and create anad that leaps out with clever understatement. That's what thead shown here does. Created by Chicago's famed Leo Burnett USAad agency for Eggo, a division of Kellogg, it is designed in anunexpected letter format (contrasting with most of the ads beforeand after it) and sports a fresh and whimsical, triteness-freeheadline. No, the heading doesn't directly promote a benefit,as we're taught in Headline Writing 101. But it gets anexemption for being relevantly offbeat. To quote one of my favoriteadvertising pooh-bahs, the late Victor Schwab, on the value ofdeveloping headlines like this: "Many a headline fails to stopreaders because its vocabulary is so hackneyed. No word or phrasein it has any attention-getting element of surprise. No words,expressions or ideas are used that are not commonly seen in theheadline of an ad." So "You're sticky and we'resorry" gets a thumbs up.
The rest of the letter-ad reads, in part: "Toour friends: For years you've had to eat your Eggo waffles withsyrup that can drip from the bottle onto your fingers. But now weare putting an end to your suffering. [Eggo Syrup is] a greattasting complement to America's favorite waffles . . . and evenbetter, it comes in a high-tech, no-drip bottle."
The new Eggo Syrup bottle, with a "perfect pour no-dripspout" (no doubt a shoo-in for the next technology timecapsule) leaps out as the only color element on an otherwiseblack-and-white page. By contrast, the ad could have shown akitchen table full of little kids using the product and a headlineproclaiming the end of the sticky syrup bottle. But to me, it wouldhave been just another fleeting image in a blur of ads, lost in theflutter of an eyelid.
What should you take away from this example? When it comes togetting attention in advertising, always consider going theopposite way of traffic.
Jerry Fisher (www.jerry-fisher.com) is a freelance advertisingcopywriter and author of Creating Successful Small BusinessAdvertising.
