Are Your Ads Invisible?

Here's what your ads look like right now.

But it's not your fault.

You're doing the best you can.

You're trying to keep it safe and professional.

But what you can't see is everyone else is also doing that.

This creates white noise.

In a sea of white noise from all sorts of other companies advertising all sorts of things.

No wonder people have trained themselves to ignore advertising.

But it also creates an opportunity in your market.

To be the one who is different.

Now different is also risky.

It might backfire. You may alienate a few people.

You will also win a legion of adoring fans if you do it well.

The first step is look at what everyone else is doing.

Get all their ads.

Put them on a wall.

Write down all the claims and appeals they make. All the offers.

Make sure yours is included.

Is it really different to everyone else?

I looked at thousands of ads in thousands of markets and I can tell you it probably isn't.

Now have some fun.

Write down all the things you'd like to say in your ads if you had no constraints whatsoever.

If it helps you can adopt the no filter approach of someone like Donald Trump.

Like him or hate him he speaks freely.

So, write down everything.

No judgement at this stage.

Wait a day then come back and add more ideas.

The crazier the better. Try and scare yourself a little bit.

Then wait a day again.

Now look at everything you've got and ask yourself which one of these would stand out on my wall of ads?

Run that one.

I guarantee 99% of people reading this won't do it.

And they'll keep running invisible advertising because it feels safe.

But you may want to ask yourself this question.

Is advertising with no response really safe?