ADVERTISING: What works? What doesn’t?

If you listen to the pundits, when it comes to advertising you’ll get scores of opinions on what works and what doesn’t. Some people will tell you that newspaper ads don’t work; others will say that radio doesn’t work; still others will say that flyers don’t work; and so on. THE FACT IS….EVERYTHING WORKS! The real question should be, “What is the most effective and efficient media for YOU at a given point in the growth of your business and based on the resources you have available to advertise.


Secondly, when a particular media doesn’t get the results you desire, you need to ask yourself…”Is it the media or the message?”

Let me give you an example:


Several years ago in the auto appearance business, I directed a high-power Toronto advertising agency to create an ad to sell popup sunroofs back in the days they were in vogue. This agency came up with a full page ad that we placed in the Toronto Sun newspaper and we ran it on the back page of the first section of the newspaper – a very expensive position to buy. The results were abysmal, to say the least.


I didn’t fire the media; I fired the agency! We then created a new half page ad in house with the headline that read: TIDY CAR SUNROOFS ARE GUARANTEED FOR LIFE! HERE’S WHY! The copy included 10 bullet-point features of the sunroof. We ran this ad on an inside page and wound up selling over 100 sunroofs on the first day it ran! Obviously, it wasn’t the media that didn’t work; it was the message in that media that made the difference.
This example, of course, holds true for virtually any method of advertising that’s out there. If it didn’t, those media simply would not exist; at least not for very long.

Wanna bet this ad would make your

phone ring off the hook????