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Advertising Intoxication, I Had One Too Many
From the point of view of a marketer, I'm going to take
you through the first 45 minutes of my vacation. I want to try to
convey a sense of the mind-numbing effects of advertisement over-saturation
which I was exposed to.
The plane lands and the captain says "Ladies and gentlemen
thank you for flying with American Airlines it's been a pleasure
serving you."
I exit the plane's gateway and step into the airport looking for
the baggage claim signs. Instead I'm greeted by a 10' by 15' wall
displaying a Domino's piping hot super-zoomed pepperoni,
mushroom, green peppers and grey-colored sausage pebbles pizza.
Turning right toward
baggage, I'm walking towards a hallway covered in backlight ads
for Hyatt Regency Cerro Mar hotel, Ruth Chris restaurant,
and Wyndham Hotel golf course. I shy away from the bright
lights and look left only to find a chain of side-by-side duty free
stores showcasing display windows with towering sculptures of Johnny
Walker Black bottles with their slogan "Keep Walking(tm)"
-- my thoughts exactly.
Leaving Johnny a quick second behind, I find pictures
of half- naked JLo promoting her new fragrance for...well
I don't know if it was for men, women or pets -- my focus was elsewhere.
As I pass JLo, I find neatly placed cartons of Virginia
Slims cigarettes reminding me that "You've come a long
way, baby.(tm)" as their slogan says. I agree, yes it was it
was a two- hour from flight form Miami.
Come to think about it, visually I had a "drink", met
a "naked" JLo and "finished" with a "cigarette"...
and my vacation had yet to start.
Ahh, finally I get to the escalator that leads down toward baggage
claim. Descending onto the first floor I'm greeted by a large horizontal
banner that stretches from one end of the staircase to the other
saying "Welcome to Puerto Rico" with the sun setting
on the beach backdrop.
I step off the electric staircase and say to myself "baggage
carousel number 24". I start counting down baggage stations
and, next to each carousel number, I see a variety of ads ranging
from Bacardi Rum to Yellow taxi services.
My luggage shows up and I grab it by the Samsonite branded
handles. Walking toward the parking lot where my father is waiting
to pick me, up I step on to the street. As I'm about to cross the
last lane to enter the parking lot, I make one final abrupt stop
to let a Red Bull-plastered minivan pass me by.
This was equipped with plastic wings, a tail and a slogan that says
"Red Bull gives you wings.(tm)" After all the walking,
I could use a pair.
I find my father's Mitsubishi SUV among the sea of neatly
parked cars, all showing the brand of their maker. Finally, I get
to the car, load the baggage and walk up to the front and open the
door. Before I could sit down I was reminded which radio station
I'm listening to -- the melodic and timeless jingle of "Fidelity
95.7 FM".
But wait, no ad-venture is complete without one final ad surprise.
As we approach the exit tollbooth and my father stops to pay the
attendant, I look ahead, to find wrapped around the tollbooth's
electronic arm, an ad for "Primera Hora" an emerging
newspaper. How's that for media placement?
From the time it took me to step off the plane, pick up my luggage
and pay the parking fee, I was bombarded with pizza ads, fragrances,
liquor, taxi service, energy drinks and finally bringing this ad-venture
full circle, a basic medium of advertising space a--newspaper. And
it all took a mere 45 minutes. How's that for saturation and ad
immersion?
My question to you is, do you remember all the ads you saw last
time you visited an airport? Probably not and do you know why? You
selectively block them out of your mind.
It gets to the point where we are so used to ignoring ads in general
that we don't even pay attention to the ones we might be interested
in.
Think of website pop-ups if you need an example; they pop-up and
we immediately look for the "x" to close them. Some of
these pop-ups are in a websites where we find information of interest,
yet we are trained to click on the "x" to close.
This is just the beginning, the future promises a lot more ad interruptions
and a lot more "creative" places to place them.
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Bottom Line:
The
solution to getting your products and services purchased is
stronger relationship with clients. Spend more time investing
in media such as eNewsletters that develop new relationships
with potential clients and maintain existing ones on a continuing
basis. Spend more time with them not on them.
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Your
feedback is important. Let me know what you think, I'm I full of
it? Just reply with your comments.
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Happy 4th of July, [contact-first_name]
Marcos and Group- making targeted eNewsletters that build
relationships and not more ads.
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