Online Video: The Next Big Thing in Mass Advertising?

When it comes to advertising to a mass audience, which medium is better: TV or Internet? It seems like the camps are divided. A younger group would vote for the Internet and typically older groups vote for TV.

Instead of trying to make that tough decision, especially in a slow economy where you don’t have as many advertising dollars as you’d like online video is a happy-medium that many advertisers are starting to use.

People would rather be on the Internet to communicate one-on-one with others. They would rather see commercials and mass messages from their TVs though. TV is the best medium when you want to communicate to people using different senses. With Internet, you generally can only communicate with sight, not sound. Online video is changing that.

TV Commercials Aren’t the Be All and End All of Advertising

The problem with TV commercials is that you don’t know when the people you are targeting are ready to buy and that’s one of the largest factors that determine whether an ad works. The message has to be relevant to the consumer and the consumer has to be ready to buy. Most consumers don’t need big purchases like cars and TVs every week. TV commercials featuring these products can be argued that they are wasting some of their money, which is true. These advertisers are only reaching a small number of people who are ready to buy. That’s where online video comes in.

Online Video is King?

Will online video be the medium that keeps mass advertisers happy? Will that be the venue that makes the most of advertising dollars? It’s possible.

Online video gives the advertiser the power to target more effectively. Let’s say a user clicks on two car banner ads on a Web site. The probability of that person needing a new car is pretty good. The probability is much better than the person sitting at home, not choosing which commercials to see next, unlike the Internet user. Once the Internet user clicks on a banner ad for a new car, that person is then shown an online video commercial featuring the car that was on the banner ad. That person has been targeted much more effectively than someone watching TV. This person chose to watch that ad. That means this person is ready to buy.

Online video eliminates the question of whether a consumer is ready to buy. Based on what the person clicked on and watched, you can then show the consumer another video with content based off of the first video’s content.

Online Video is Coming

Fox International Channels bought utarget.Fox, the largest online video network in Europe, in early 2008 to capitalize on this new trend. And hello! YouTube is a big hit, to put it mildly. Online video seems to be the answer to mass advertising’s question of when the consumer is ready to buy. Now all that’s left is for mass advertisers to make online videos that are compelling.

What’s So Bad about Recycled Paper?

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro writes about green business practices for The Inspired Economist. I checked out one of her blogs about greening print marketing. She gives reasons why marketers should consider using recycled paper in print marketing. She cites some pretty impressive and scary statistics:

· Globally, according to the Environmental Paper Network, 70 percent of trees used for paper pulp comes from biodiverse forests as opposed to tree farms, much of it from endangered forests.

· Illegal logging has destroyed or degraded 80% of the world’s ancient forests.

· U.S. pulp mills consume 12,430 square miles of forests around the world each year, an area almost the size of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.

Scary, yes? So what’s so bad about recycled paper that more marketers aren’t using it? Demolishing forests for more virgin paper stock that is “bright white” is contributes to global warming because the trees hold in carbon dioxide. When the trees are torn down, the carbon dioxide has nowhere to go but up into our atmosphere.

A marketer could state that the recycled paper just doesn’t look as good as virgin paper. Virgin paper isn’t as “bright white” as virgin paper because of the recycling process and because recycled paper isn’t bleached to make it white. I’ll agree that light gray paper doesn’t make colors “pop” like white paper can, but as a consumer, I must say that I would rather buy from a company with light gray recycled paper than I would from a company whose marketing materials are “bright white.”

The higher the post-consumer waste (PCW), the better. PCW is the amount of the paper that came directly from recycled consumer goods. The higher the percentage, the more waste that was kept out of the landfills. To find a paper company that you can get quality recycled paper from, check out http://www.celerydesign.com/paper/matrix.html. It’s the Ecological Guide to Paper in a handy chart form that tells you how much PCW is in the paper, whether chlorine was used to bleach it and is divided by coated, uncoated and other categories of paper. It lists over 30 companies, along with the type of paper the companies make that is recycled. It also gives the weights of paper, so if you want to find Bond/Copy Paper, just look for the “B” in a circle notation. If you need cover paper, look for the “CV” in a circle notation. There’s a legend at the bottom of the chart that tells you all you need to know to understand the chart.

When it comes to cost, that could be the biggest reason why more marketers don’t use recycled paper. However, the costs are coming down and certain types of paper, like letterhead paper, cost the same or even less than virgin paper. Thicker types of recycled paper can cost from 3 to 10 percent more than their virgin counterparts, but if using recycled paper helps your brand’s image, I say it’s well worth the money.

What’s So Bad about Recycled Paper?

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro writes about green business practices for The Inspired Economist. I checked out one of her blogs about greening print marketing. She gives reasons why marketers should consider using recycled paper in print marketing. She cites some pretty impressive and scary statistics:

· Globally, according to the Environmental Paper Network, 70 percent of trees used for paper pulp comes from biodiverse forests as opposed to tree farms, much of it from endangered forests.

· Illegal logging has destroyed or degraded 80% of the world’s ancient forests.

· U.S. pulp mills consume 12,430 square miles of forests around the world each year, an area almost the size of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined.

Scary, yes? So what’s so bad about recycled paper that more marketers aren’t using it? Demolishing forests for more virgin paper stock that is “bright white” is contributes to global warming because the trees hold in carbon dioxide. When the trees are torn down, the carbon dioxide has nowhere to go but up into our atmosphere.

A marketer could state that the recycled paper just doesn’t look as good as virgin paper. Virgin paper isn’t as “bright white” as virgin paper because of the recycling process and because recycled paper isn’t bleached to make it white. I’ll agree that light gray paper doesn’t make colors “pop” like white paper can, but as a consumer, I must say that I would rather buy from a company with light gray recycled paper than I would from a company whose marketing materials are “bright white.”

The higher the post-consumer waste (PCW), the better. PCW is the amount of the paper that came directly from recycled consumer goods. The higher the percentage, the more waste that was kept out of the landfills. To find a paper company that you can get quality recycled paper from, check out http://www.celerydesign.com/paper/matrix.html. It’s the Ecological Guide to Paper in a handy chart form that tells you how much PCW is in the paper, whether chlorine was used to bleach it and is divided by coated, uncoated and other categories of paper. It lists over 30 companies, along with the type of paper the companies make that is recycled. It also gives the weights of paper, so if you want to find Bond/Copy Paper, just look for the “B” in a circle notation. If you need cover paper, look for the “CV” in a circle notation. There’s a legend at the bottom of the chart that tells you all you need to know to understand the chart.

When it comes to cost, that could be the biggest reason why more marketers don’t use recycled paper. However, the costs are coming down and certain types of paper, like letterhead paper, cost the same or even less than virgin paper. Thicker types of recycled paper can cost from 3 to 10 percent more than their virgin counterparts, but if using recycled paper helps your brand’s image, I say it’s well worth the money.

How Professional is Your Business Card?

Let’s say you’ve met with two professionals today that are competitors vying for your business. One professional leaves his business card, and it’s got a clip art photo on it and perforations from being torn out of an at-home inkjet printer business card kit. The other professional leaves her business card, and it’s got a glossy finish and a logo on it, and no perforations. Both professionals impressed you with their sales pitches, so now which professional has left a better impression with you now that you have their business cards? My bet would go to the woman.

A professional-looking business card can make all the difference when you’re making a sale or closing a deal. An amateur-looking business card that looks unpolished can give out a bad impression. Your business card is a reflection not only on your company, but on you personally.

To be sure you have a professional-looking business card that won’t turn any potential clients away, ask yourself the following questions.

1. Does the finish of my business card look professional? Yes, even business cards come with finishes. Business card printing has gotten quite fancy and sophisticated and now you can add a glossy finish or a matte finish to your business card. Depending on your business card’s design, a glossy, matte or aqueous coating can add that bit of professionalism you need. Glossy is shiny, matte is decidedly not shiny and aqueous is somewhere in between. Generally, color heavy business cards do well with a glossy finish while all others work well with matte or aqueous finishes. Work with your business card printing company to figure out which is best for your business card.

2. Does the design of my business card look like it was drawn by my 5-year-old niece? Obviously, your business card's design is the biggest factor in whether it looks professional. A well-designed business card (without clip art!) gives off a better impression than one designed with no structure and that uses font that is hard to read. The color choices, the hierarchy of text and the positioning of the information presented all contribute to your business card’s professional design. The best type of art to have on your business card is your logo.

3. Are you missing any contact information? The design and finish are valuable for visual appeal, but it’s your contact information that sells you. Be sure to include your company’s name, your name, title, phone number, fax number, business address, email address and Web site address. If you’re missing a Web site address or email address, you could be seen as old-fashioned. If you don’t have either, get one pronto!

4. Did you use both sides of the card? Anymore, you can get information printed on both sides of your business card without adding too much expense to your total price. Business cards with info printed on both sides can add an air of quality to your business card. Use the back for your tagline, as an appointment reminder, as a referral card or to list helpful info, like local emergency phone numbers.

Your business card says a lot about you. Ask yourself these questions and answer truthfully; the answers can help make or break your next deal.

4 Ways You Should NOT Design Outdoor Posters

Outdoor poster printing is important for all businesses, no matter what the industry. Outdoor posters include signs that hang in your business’s windows, signs that hang on the outside of your building, posters that are set on easels on the sidewalk and billboards along the highway.

Poster printing can be a great deal, but it’s not that cheap so you don’t want to waste your money by designing ineffective posters. Here are some ways to not design your posters and the ways you can create an eye-catching poster that will get people to slow down and stop in your store.

1. Make your poster hard to read. This is one of the most crucial mistakes marketers make when designing posters. Even though you might want to use a fancy poster font that is elegant and in curly cursive writing, that’s not the best choice for posters that will be viewed from more than 20 feet away. If your font isn’t clear, people won’t take the time to try to figure out your message. Make sure your sign is legible from the viewpoint of driving cars or on a sidewalk full of people.

2. Clutter your poster. By cluttering your poster with lots of words and images, people driving by won’t know what to look at first. They might only get part of your message and will therefore be confused. Instead, have one or two main images and a few words or have no images with a short phrase or tag line of no more than 8-10 words. The 8-word limit applies mostly to billboards, but it’s a good rule to follow for all other outdoor posters too. Be sure to use plenty of white space so your poster is easy to read. About 30 percent of your poster space should be filled with white space.

3. Don’t appeal to impulse buyers. Studies show that at least 55 percent of all retail sales are due to impulse buys. By using your sign to only identify your business, you’re missing out on all those impulse sales. Use your sign to relay a tempting call to action, like “Stop in now for 25% off.” If you have a popular product that sells out quickly, let people know you have that product in stock for a limited time.

4. Hide the poster. This might be an obvious mistake, but it’s an easy mistake to commit. Drive down the road in front of your store from all angles and make sure there’s no tree or neighboring sign hiding yours. Put your sign as close to the street as your city ordinances allow. Make sure your sign can be seen from all angles.

Also be sure you use colors that don’t blend in with your poster’s surroundings. If your poster will be hanging on a green light pole, don’t print a poster on green poster board. If your poster will be on a red brick building, choose colors that will help your poster stand out from the brick.