I’ll show this video [if clicking on the above embedded video doesn’t work, click this link instead] because (a) it is from the brilliant Derren Brown, the genius behind The System (that I ‘lifted’ for my own cruel experiment in spotting scams, a week or two ago) and (b) it shows that there is power behind the concept of advertising.
However, the problem is this: while ‘awareness advertising’ may indeed work (as I think this video, which I believe to be genuine, seems to prove) you need VERY DEEP POCKETS to make it work …. your message has to be in front of each person’s eyes multiple times, which takes money – a lot of it.
That’s why, for me, advertising is something best left to the McDonalds and Coca Cola’s of this world and the small guys, like you and I, are much better off with more direct forms of sales and marketing.
For example, I have used: e-mail newsletter campaigns (low cost and slightly effective), referrals (free and fabulously effective), PR (which is totally free and reasonably effective), and educational courses (where I was actually paid to speak and that were completely effective) to deliver my message in a very cost-effective way … I am not aware of a single client who came to my businesses through any of the advertising campaigns that I allowed myself to be talked into (VERY rarely, I might add) over the years.
But, watch the video even if you are not in – or planning to be in – business … it’s a hoot 🙂
Adrian, that’s been my exact same experience with my practice. Any big dollars we’ve ever spent on tv commercials, radio commercials, big time ads, big time phone book advertising hasn’t paid off even close to what we spent and sometimes producing nothing at all.
On the flipside, any personal contacts i’ve made, business cards i’ve directly given out in face-to-face fashion, health fairs i’ve attended to contact people myself on my own free time on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as good old fashion word of mouth referrals etc.. have all paid off ten-fold.
I feel big time Radio Ads, and TV Ads, might have their place in this world, as it keeps the company name in front of people. But as, Adrian suggests, this is for those with really deep pockets.
Adrian, cute videos,although the Carrot thing,I did think of Carrot during this experiment, but fell it was more because I recently fed this ladies horses with (what else but Carrots) . So Carrots was already on the mind. Perhaps his little experiment had little bit to do with it.