It’s been a great holiday with a lot of traveling and for once, watching some television. Making it an understatement, I saw a myriad advertisements. After seeing each one, I thought to myself, “absolutely no one will buy that because they saw this sign,” “no one will call the number because of the poster,” “no one will request the free information because the commercial tells them to.”
I had my advertising epiphany.
Advertising isn’t about creating action, getting someone to call, to buy, to request free information, even though it appears that way. No. Advertising is about creating a sense of familiarity because one day the world will work it’s weirdness and someone will need to call a lawyer because they know someone who suffered a heart attack from taking a specific type of doctor prescribed drug.
When that time does come, they will search for lawyers and notice one specific law firm. It will stick out for some reason, possibly stir some memory. It’s unlikely they will remember they saw an advertisement on a billboard for it, but that doesn’t matter, the sense of familiarity is there.
That familiarity, that’s what advertising is all about. That’s what creates profits. That’s why it’s okay for advertisers to blow money like crazy on what appears to be a pointless billboard advertisement.
Familiarity.
