What makes you notice advertisements?

Question

this can be a tv ad, poster, radio ad, billboard, website etc. Which are the best?

Which are the most effective?

Any other comments?

Answer 1

This question needs to be split into two (so that I can answer it better, that is!).

Question 1

What makes you notice advertisements?

As the other contributors have already noted- s*x, humour, wit, and other eye-grabbing techniques will get your attention sometimes. But what *media* is most effective at making you notice an ad? Its hard to say, but some media will be effective for your product and others won't be. Just think it through logically. Advertising a new tv show in the paper or an oil futures course in prime time tv are both poor ideas.

Question 2

Which are the most effective ads?

I would say direct response style ads, which can be found in the paper, magazines, snail mail, email, or radio (and of course infomercials on tv).

Why are these the most effective ads? Because they're constructed from the most rigorously tested field in advertising. They contain advertising techniques which speak directly to their target consumer, and punch all kinds of "hot buttons", as the jargon goes.

These ads are the most effective too because they are highly targeted. Direct mail obviously goes straight to your letter box. You can sell the aforementioned oil futures trading course via direct mail to affluent members of society, but you don't pay for the other 99.9% of the population who could care less. Even if you're using direct response in the paper, the successful practitioner will single out the prospect they want with an attention grabbing headline and copy, and disqualify who they don't want to call them (to save your business time & money).

Infomercials are like direct response ads for tv. They generally sell you things which everyone could use... sunglasses, real estate investment courses (which has much greater mass appeal than say share trading), LOTS of weight loss... and because of that they can achieve amazing ROI's.

If you're going to invest in some direct response advertising, make sure you read up and practice... Sugarman, Halbert, Kennedy, Collier, Makepeace, etc, etc, etc all have great material to help you on your way.

Answer 2

The 'best' ones are amusing .. and usually seen at the cinema ..

However I often have NO idea what they are trying to 'sell' (sometimes I fail to even 'spot' the brand !) .. so I'm sure they are not 'effective' ..

.. when it comes to changing my buying behavior, the only 'effective' ads are those that I happen to see when I am looking to buy that type of product .. and even then, I believe the only effect is to cause me to research that item 'as well' ..

To be really honest, most adverts reinforce my opinion that the products being advertised are over priced and ineffective .. and to be avoided like the plague ..

PS fed up with google/yahoo adverts ?

Don't want your searches 'biased' by the highest bidder ?

Don't want YOUR buying habits SOLD by google / yahoo (or your ISP) to the highest bidder (so they can thrust even more junk in your face) ??

Use scrooge instead ....

Answer 3

They have to have at least one of these qualities for me to even look twice at them:

funny

have a catchy tune

s**y-for tv,posters and billboards

And they ALL have to be simple and to the point!

I have No-Script and Ad-Block installed in my firefox browser because I HATE ads on websites.....they're freakin annoying

Answer 4

some that attract my attention is if they are crooked or upside down, but they also annoy me, OCD.

ooooh there are some that are blurry, those get my attention.

maybe bright neon colours.

Answer 5

- I think its generally wit, humour or emotion in that order. Pretty females in enticing positions are also attractive! ;-)

- Ad effectiveness is generally a consequence of the target market and the content of the ad.

- I would say that every advertiser strives to stay on top of the target customers brand recall through ads so as to influence his buying behaviour.