40% Targeting, 40% Offer, 20% Creative

Having spent most of this fall with a cold or flu of some kind (blame the toddler for that one), I was especially intrigued by an ad I saw on Pandora the other night.

This ad is genius, and caught my attention for a few reasons. As the old advertising axiom says, an ad’s success stems 40% from targeting, 40% from the offer, and 20% from the creative. 

·       Targeting: These ads are clearly day-parted to run only at night. The time on my screen shot says 11:12pm, and judging by the number of windows open on my browser, I was in the middle of a few things. I love that this ad is basically telling me to go to sleep. Great advice! Also, time of year is obviously key for this ad to work. Running this campaign in the middle of July wouldn’t make much sense.

·       Offer: This ad offers up a coupon for two dollars off Tylenol Cold. Two whole dollars off something that probably costs around five bucks is actually a pretty good bargain for a consumer, not to mention that offering a coupon like that in an ad means a serious increase in click-through and conversion rates for the company doing the advertising. Win-Win!

·       Creative: My favorite part about this ad, and something that I think Pandora does that is really cool, is the playlist choices the user is presented with. The ad is like a nice mom: “It’s nighttime, you are tired, you are sick. Here are three different stations you can pick from to listen to. Here, take one of these and feel better. Get some rest!” 

Something as simple as offering up a few different targeted versions of an ad campaign for the user to watch during “The Office”  (like I saw recently on Hulu.com) means they are better targeted, and therefore more likely to get the user’s attention (“I got to choose it! Now…what exactly did I choose?”). 

Giving users an option to play around a little with an ad increases brand exposure and leaves them with a lasting impression of the product. Obviously, the hope is that the lasting impression is a positive one, but that is a topic for another blog entirely.