I heard a radio ad today for retractible awnings. The ad basically said that if your last name began with A through M you can call today but if not, you would have to call tomorrow.
I’ve heard this before for things like diet and male enhancement pills - snake oil stuff but never for a bona-fide product.
Why would you attempt to exclude 50% of your listening audience (50% for arguments sake - I know the surname distribution isn’t 50-50)? Or are people supposed to say “wow, this is a great deal, I can’t wait until tomorrow, I’m calling today anyway?”
It’s the second reason (psychological: “Wow if the ‘demand’ for this product is supposedly such that they have to ration order-taking, well golly gee maybe I should do this, too!”)
Similarly if you see a TV commercial that has one of those “offer” timers where the offer supposedly expires in 00:00:00 seconds format, well this is bogus too. It’s all about creating a “supposed” hype that whatever is being hawked is in great demand.
It also gives the Advertising viewer (or reader) a DATE or DEADLINE by which to respond, the idea being that if you don’t give a pigeon a deadline to act, the pigeon never will.
I’ve heard the same ad and find it hilarious that they play the same ad every day.
“Hi, I’d like to buy an awning.”
“When did you hear our ad?”
“Just now.”
“Sorry, you’ll have to call back tomorrow.”
“Oh wait, I mean, I heard it yesterday.”
“In *that *case, let’s write up that order, shall we?”
They don’t actually turn any customers away. The ad creates a sense of urgency, and it creates the image of a business so overwhelmed with customers they can barely manage it.
Interesting approach for a generally unexciting product.
I’ve heard the same for “Government Mortgage Foreclosures”. I don’t understand how most advertising works, especially spam. The masses must be a lot stupider than I can imagine.
Radio production guy here. The awing company is not only selling a bill of goods.
It’s highly likey they were sold a bill of goods by a radio salesman who needs to make his/her number this month.
I thought I read somewhere (on SDMB maybe?) that it is also an easy way for the advertiser to get a good estimate of which ads are generating the most sales, i.e. they arrange for the ads to be shown at different times on different stations or locations and can tell from when the calls come in where the caller heard the ad.
The purpose of an ad is not to be memorable, it is to sell. There have been plenty of TV commercials that have become very famous, that didn’t move product at all.
I could easily make an ad that everyone remembered. Making an ad that sells is a little tougher.
Not always. There are things like brand awareness and publicity to consider. Should the OP, at some time in the future, need a retractable awning, or need to recommend one these people are going to come to mind as a place to start.
The “Amish Miracle Heater” ads do this as well- Something to effect that you can only order in the next two days. But, I see the same ads every week in the same magazine.
Plus, it seems as if the ‘miracle’ is that you plug it into your wall and it provides heat. So, it’s a space heater with a wooden mantle and a picure of a fireplace on it. Wow.
Well, it didn’t do Outpost.com a damn bit a good and I consider their Super Bowl ad to be one of the most memorable, and funniest, commercials ever. And I buy a lot of computer related stuff online.
Or maybe they need to repeat the phone number twenty times in a row. Yes, twenty times in a row. Got that? Twenty times in a row. Once more for posterity. Twenty times in a row.
This commercial, with the sales pitch, and the A-M gimmick, is clearly a sales ad, not an awareness ad.
Even in a branding/awareness ad, it is not true that the ad is successful if the ad is remembered. To be successful, it needs to go beyond that. First, the brand, not just the ad must be remembered. This is a big problem with many memorable ads. The ad itself is remembered, but the viewer/listener has no idea what the ad is for. In a case like this, the ad is remembered, but not successful. Second, the brand needs to be not just remembered, but there needs to be some sort of positive image. If I made an ad that equated my product with the indiscriminate killing of kittens, I might well be remembered, but the ad would not be successful.
I stand by my point that remembering an ad does not mean the ad was successful.