I came across a Cahners Survey on black and white VS color ads which is logical. And given its robust sample size it’s probably true generally speaking. It concludes that color ads work better than black and white ads. And big ads work better than small ads. If only life was that simple, Single Barrel would have 50% market share with Johnny Walker Black being a faint memory. And Digicel and B-mobile would have neutralised each other. The thing is life (and ad effectiveness) is never that simple.
For example, next week we are planning to do black and white/less than half-page ads for the UWI Fete that we believe will work. You know why? Because all the other fete ads are in full color and full page. So they are all looking the same. Can’t tell them apart. Our UWI fete ad, we hope, will stand out from the sea of color. It will get noticed because of its uncommon size (33 by 3, not full page), it will be in B&W and unlike the others it will adopt a minimalist approach to copy. And that’s the beauty of advertising. Big does not always mean better. Less is often more. And if all you have is a B&W budget then it does not mean you are doomed. Rather it means you need to use your brain because you lack brawn.
Here’s an excerpt from the Cahners study:
How is advertising readership influenced by ad size and color?
Purpose: To show the effect of size and color on “Remember Seeing” readership scores.
Methodology: This analysis used all half page or larger ads run in 16 Cahners publications from 1972 to 1986. The 65,752 ads were divided into categories by size and color. Median noted scores were then tallied, and comparisons made. Noted scores indicate the percentage of readers who remembered seeing the ad in the issue surveyed.
Cahners Advertising Readership Surveys are conducted by mail among a random sampling of 300-550 readers per issue. Noted scores for this analysis represent results from among 288,000 readers over a 15-year period.
Conclusion: An advertiser can expect higher readership from larger full color advertisements.
22 January, 2011, 12:55 pm
As I said to you previously I would like to know what kind of result Angustura is getting with their Single Barrel campaign.
From a novice position I notice during the Holidays every week the Billboards are changing the message (attacking B & W) and is still changing currently…
What message are they trying to convey – when single barrel are costing the same price as black & white?
23 January, 2011, 12:42 am
Royce, I think they are trying to position Scotch/B&W and JWB as ” a thing of the past” while suggesting that rum/Single Barrel is the “now drink”. It sounds like you are not buying the message or the rum, dr
23 January, 2011, 2:23 pm
Apart from I am not a rum drinker – playing devil’s advocate the Ad campaign caught my interest NEGATIVELY the statement, challenge and economic (price) was very bold (maybe that is my observation) I visit many friends over the holidays and they all had only whiskey to drink.
Maybe I am bias because I do not like RUM……..
24 January, 2011, 5:57 pm
Does anyone really pay attention to smaller ads? or is it a question of positioning?
You are right though anything can work once effectively done, just need to stand out but I think minimalist is a rare (beautiful) thing in our media.
Take Toyota’s persistent 5x2col full color ads – a strange direction for a automotive giant, are they really getting their worth? These days budget seems like everything ( after all it’s nice to conceptualize great ads, but it all has to fit the budget ) and I’ve seen beautiful ads hacked to death by a resize to a smaller (budget friendly) size.
Definitely full page is an attention grabber, but if you have to go with the fractional ads, they need to be simple and to-the-point, overloading a strip ad to fit a full page worth of info, works against the advertiser.
I think as well allot of Marketing Persons (the conduit to clients) do not have any idea of what it means to communicate to the populace, the simple visual psychology that is both selling and art. They are can only perceive the selling aspect. In today’s world where we are constantly vying for people’s attention.. you need to.. “think different”.
ps. An -GUST- tura “rum don’t walk” is like a horror sequel that doesn’t seem to want to die!
btw. All men I’ve surveyed hate it, all women like… go figure.