The Magazine Advertising Mistake That Cost Me A Small Fortune
Easter Sunday, 10:15 PM
Dear Friend,
A few years ago my ad was doing so well in every magazine I ran it in, I thought I could do no wrong.
Listen and learn.
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Did something like this once. Ran a seminar and no one came. Optimism with 'Testing' is excellent advice.(wished I would have cut and run) Spending money you don't have is scary. (Seldom ends well)
Thank you for the "War" Stories, we learn more from failure than success.
I drink more coffee than Corona anyway.
Written better than spoken.
Regards,
-Juri Saragh
Oh Dan; There is no accounting for us in the human race. Don't bark, don't test, don't take calculable risk, don't seek out what your customer wants just give him/her what you think he/she needs. And on. Do you think there is something a wee bit wrong with our education scheme's? Or nobody listens to anything because they know best?
Dan, great story. Can you imagine if you would have paid full price for the ad, Triple OUCH!! I did a similar deal with an ad I ran successfully in the Globe & Examiner. Tried a crossover into the BB magazines for a real flop.
Dan
Thanks for that lesson.
A business owner I was talking to told me almost the same story. I suggested he placed his advertisement in a men's magazine, since it's for a men's product, then… he bursts out "IT WON'T WORK THERE" … "WE'VE GOT ONLY 2 ORDERS FOR A $2,000 AD"…
I was surprised.
Common knowledge states that the more targetted the media the better the results… Apparently he was getting his best results from a tabloid newspaper.
Dan,
Reminds me of a space ad experience I had back in 1972… and since you said you wanted to hear more about our experiences, here goes.
We negotiated a PI ad with the premier issue of PLAYGIRL Magazine. It was a negative option monthly panty host club where you got the first 3 pair free and then every month another three pair would be sent and billed if you didn't reject the postcard advising they would be sent for that month (similar to a record club deal).
The full page full color ad appeared (on the inside front cover as I remember it) in the premier issue of the magazine. Response went back to the publisher since a PI paid for every order generated and the publisher got half the money in the envelope. The publisher also entered the name and address of the customer and was to send us a consolidated check plus the mailing list for fulfillment (and data entry for continuity on our part).
The month passed and nothing came…
We called the publisher and the response was "NOT ONE ORDER". The only explanation was "Maybe the audience is not female, maybe it's a gay male audience"… Whatever it was, the audience wouldn't bite on a formula that was proven in the record business.
The lesson here… a publisher willing to take a PI does so because it is cheaper to run a page of advertising than authoring, type setting and then printing a page of editorial… and the publisher who does so may make an unexpected profit if the ad pulls… but the advertiser is entering into a no win situation. If the ad doesn't work it's a waste of time, effort and production costs… and if it does, the advertiser will end up paying more than if they just bought the space at rate card. Every time we ran a PI ad, that was our experience.
What a cool video setting… and another expense-saving idea . Thanx Dan
Thanks for sharing that, Mel. I'd love to hear more of your stories and experiences with space ads. Hardly anybody talks about it any more.
I begged several magazines to do a PI deal back in the 90's but they all refused. Maybe it was for the best.
That wasn't a flop. It was an investment in your marketing education!
Good point, Byron.
I make some really good coffee. Next time, I'll brew some coffee instead of Corona.
I rarely take notes the first time I watch something but for some reason I couldn't resist
I could really use saving a few bucks too.
Out,
Chris
I'm all for saving a few bucks, too. I've just had to learn it the hard way.
Thanks, Chris.
Hi Dan,
Ronald from Nigeria. Great advice there. You just saved me $3,000.
Thanks
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