Hopefully, you’ll remember that in a recent article I railed against advertisements that contained a picture and very little descriptive copy. The creators of those adverts obviously hope that the picture tells the reader what the advert is all about.
Well, here’s another one of the same ilk that is a complete waste of space. It’s for that wonderful tourist attraction Sovereign Hill at Ballarat. But with only a picture and a few words it really doesn’t tell you what the place is all about.
Now, if you’ve been there before and you liked it, you hardly need a big advert like that to remind you to go again. So, really, the advertisement is directed at people who have never been to Sovereign Hill or never even heard about it.
Surely there should be some exciting well written copy that tells people what it’s all about, how good it is, what the attractions are, what you can do, where you can eat, where you can sleep and especially what’s in it for the kids and so on. Some enthusiastic testimonials and maybe a few tantalising photos of people having fun would be worthwhile too.
This advert does none of that; it’s just a picture and a few meaningless words (unless you know the miners’ story) plus a boast about a tourism award. Would it excite anyone to make a visit a priority? I think not.
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Golly, think what they could do with the advert that would have people really itching to go. At least they could try an alternative along the lines I’m suggesting to see if it increases patronage (and that great marketing question, “How did you did you find out about us?”).
Still, most advertisers forget that you’ll never go broke underestimating the intelligence of your marketplace. And others suffer from ‘curse of assumption’ the dreaded belief that your market knows what you know.
Oh, I’ve just had a thought! Maybe they are getting too much business!
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