Advertisement is a SoyJoy to Behold

Do you ever look at an ad and say, What a great ad? Even if you are not interested in the product, you can appreciate the communication values, both real and emotional/psychological, in a good advertisement. Unfortunately, just like the nursery rhyme When she was good, she was very, very good; and when she was bad, she was horrid?bad ads make you shake your head in wonder, and they generally outweigh the number of good ads.

With media becoming more segmented and ad budgets following suit, marketersparticularly smaller ones whose budgets are largely in print medianeed to push those print ads to their maximum effectiveness, to make their budgets work harder in order to engage consumers and stimulate trial.

Too often, when we review ads for theAdAudit, we see simple flaws for which easy fixes could improve effectiveness, dramatically. The audit score range translates to: 90-100, Powerful (and rare); 80-89, Effective; 70-79, Improve; and 69 or less means, Start Over. A majority of ads fall into the 70-80 score range.

Many ads have good points, which are frankly overshadowed by poor art direction. Most often, copy is too small or not legible enough in the reverse format, or an ad may not be message-consistent in headline, graphics and copy.

The SOYJOY ad is a brilliant exception, with a 91.05 score. A benefit headline that sends you to the SOYJOY Website: WWW.YOGA-FORYOURMOUTH.COM ; but, even if you dont go there at the moment of reading, you get the strong benefit message that this is a good-for-you health bar. Ads that score in the Powerful 90+ score range are indeed rare. You wont forget this one:

HeadlineThis category has seven points of analysis with emphasis on stopping power and selection of the target market. This ad features a powerful and interruptive headline for a health-oriented consumerdefinitely does its job. Visual ImpactWith eight points of analysis, this category is critical to an ads stopping power, product name registration and emotionality, among other factors. The red background says stop and read. You get the product name, package and enticement quickly and easily. How many ads do that? The selection of red for the ad is interesting. In addition to its association with stop, red is also considered the power color. This product would seem to be a better fit with the green, health/ nutrition imagery. A strong green would have been just as arresting (theres so much of one color and an uncluttered ad space), but with a much more relevant psychological connection.

CopyThe ad did a little less well in this category (of 10 analysis points), mainly because of more average scores in permission to believe, news value, readability (copy not sharply defined) and emotional connection. However, it is still in the Effective score range.

Consumer AppealThis summary category of six points of analysis deals with how it all hangs together, how well the ad shows an understanding of the consumers need, and how/if it sets up the dissonance factor with her existing product. Indeed, a very high score, with just a touch of weakness in dissonance with any currently used product.

Overall, this SOYJOY ad is an example of how even good ads may be pushed to the maximum with a few key improvements. The take home message to marketers: Dont let the art director run your business!

Suzanne Grayson, managing partner in Grayson Associates Marketing Consulting firm (www.GraysonAssociates.com), has spent her career in marketing of consumer products, and in the beauty industry. Her expertise is in branding, advertising, product strateg y, product positioning and development. Her company recently launched theAdAudit, a proprietary system to analyze the effectiveness of print advertising. It follows the introduction of theBrandAudit, the unique analysis system of a products potential for success, prior to the launch. For further information, e-mail [email protected].