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Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

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O.K., your advertising is winning awards, but are sales also increasing?

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

NOTE: This article also appeared in the March 16, 1998, edition of the American Marketing Association's Marketing News

One of the giants in the advertising agency business, Leo Burnett, said the only real test of "good" advertising is whether or not sales increased as a result of it. It’s certainly hard to argue with such logic. But somewhere along the way, it seems many companies have forgotten this tenet, so caught up have they become in producing "award-winning" advertising campaigns, oftentimes at the expense of increased sales.

Virtually every major company today, backed by the considerable talent to be found in all the major advertising agencies, as well as in some of the not-so-major agencies, can produce dazzling ad campaigns. And, from the standpoint of "production values," multi-media effects, intrinsic creativity, etc., they certainly are worthy of winning high accolades from the advertising industry and others. Still, there is that lingering question. . .are these same campaigns really doing the job they are intended to do, i.e., to produce increased sales of products and services? In some cases, the answer is a definite "yes"; in other cases, unfortunately, the answer clearly is "no."

What kind of advertising campaigns are we referring to here? You’ve seen them many times (and will continue to see them for the foreseeable future, we predict) in print and on TV and heard them on the radio. They are the ads that are flawlessly executed, have all the important "production values," and are altogether very appealing. The only problem is, it’s either not clear what is being sold or the "selling proposition" has been sublimated in order to achieve an "award-winning" look or feel. Let us cite some examples of the type of ad campaigns we’re talking about.

A campaign currently underway for a pharmaceutical company features a beautiful and carefree young woman frolicking through a meadow. The scene is rich in all the important "production values," e.g., the background consists of a clear blue sky, the mood is soothingly pastoral, the execution of the ad precise and pointed. There is only one "small" problem. Even though the name of the drug is mentioned in the "tag," i.e., "Ask your doctor about (brand name)," it never is made clear what the drug is intended to do for you! In other words, there is a key ingredient missing in this advertisement¾the benefit statement.

In another ad campaign currently appearing in major print publications, a major credit card company attempts to show the distinct advantages of its card over some competitors’ cards by using a comparison and contrast approach. The copy approach is something like this: "This card offers you this. And this card offers you that. And our card offers you all of this and so much more." Again, there is a "small" problem with this campaign, it isn’t immediately clear (or at least it wasn’t to us) which of the credit cards the ad was promoting! (Admittedly, upon re-reading the ad it became clear as to which card was being promoted. But not everyone is as masochistic as we are. Most people simply aren’t going to take the time and make the effort to read an ad twice in order to understand what is being sold.)

Obviously, you can think of many other examples where it isn’t clear at all which product or service is being "sold" in an ad campaign, or what the product or service is supposed to do for you, or even why you should consider purchasing the product or service in the first place over comparable products or services. If you’re at all like us, the predominant impression left by such ads is one of wondering why in the world a company would spend so much money for such an obviously ineffective ad campaign! Either the company has "money to burn" (unlikely) or it’s being ill-served by its advertising department and/or agency (more likely).

Now, let us hasten to add here that we fully realize how difficult it can be for an advertising agency to produce creative, effective advertising for some clients. We used to work for a company whose advertisements, both print and broadcast, were uniformly and categorically b-o-o-o-ring, totally lacking in creativity. At first, we assumed that the advertising agency creating the ads just wasn’t all that creative, or perhaps they simply didn’t understand our business well enough to produce top quality ads. However, we soon learned the truth of the matter after a visit to the agency’s offices.

Lining the walls of the agency office were samples of print ads that were the equal of any ads for imagination, creativity and a clear, concise selling proposition. When we asked the account representative why they weren’t doing such high-caliber work for our company, he simply said, "Your CEO won’t let us." That is, the CEO had put himself in a position to "clear" virtually all advertising, even though he was in no way whatsoever qualified to pass judgment on what constituted creative, effective advertising. The result, predictably, was bland advertising totally lacking in creativity.

Are we saying that advertising that is indeed "award-winning" is ipso facto advertising that doesn’t increase sales? Of course not. There are numerous examples of highly creative, award-winning advertisements that have had had a tremendously positive influence on sales. Consider, for example, the "Like a rock" campaign for Chevrolet trucks. Before this campaign, Chevrolet trucks sales languished. Soon after the campaign was launched, however, sales began taking off and are still heading upward for Chevrolet trucks. Or, how about the "clay-mation" (dancing raisins) TV spots introduced several years ago on behalf of the raisin growers. Soon thereafter long dormant raisin sales zoomed! Of course, these are just two of many, many examples of where advertising campaigns were not only creative and innovative but indeed performed the primary function of advertising¾to increase sales. You undoubtedly can think of others.

The point of all of this? If the primary focus of your company’s advertising efforts is simply to produce "award-winning" ads at the expense of increasing sales, then certainly you’re missing the "boat" as well as the whole point of effective advertising. There really isn’t any "magic" involved in having advertising that’s both highly creative and highly effective. If you’re in a marketing management position, it certainly could pay you to make sure that’s the kind of advertising your company is getting.