I've got a book somewhere in a box in the attic or garage written by a famous car dealer who got into the ad agency business, wrote several books, and was kind of a big deal back when.
And to tell the truth and don't remember the guy's name, or the name of the book or the name of his agency, but I do remember one of his ALL-CAPITAL-LETTERS, highlighted-and-underlined, never-forget-this rules of automotive advertising.
And I only remember it for one reason: When I read it, I thought it was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. Still do.
The guy got rich and famous telling dealers to never, ever, under any circumstances, let any of the viewers/listeners of your ads know you're trying to sell them a car until at least 7 seconds into the ad. I knew he was wrong then, and today, 20 years later, I've got the scientific evidence to back it up.
A new ad skipping study of 100,000 viewers from Tivo, presented to the Advertising Research Foundation, finds that viewers who become emotionally engaged in a TV spot within the first few seconds were dramatically less likely to fast forward through the ad than those who were not engaged.
No new information here, just scientific proof of the obvious fact that people pay attention to stuff that they're interested in, and more importantly, tune out the vast majority of stuff that they're not.
Whether it's radio or TV or any other form of advertising you've only got seconds to grab the consumer's attention, before they mentally tune you out or physically click away from your message.
I can't tell you the number of dealer spot I hear that start with the weather report: "Well, Spring is in the air, flowers are blooming, and here at Jone's Brothers Motors, we're..." Blah, Blah, Blah.
If you were in the market for a new Merdedes, what would get your attention faster, another "spring is in the air" spot or "Over 50 Mercedes Benz C300’s in stock from just $399 a month at Bluegrass Mercedes Benz"?
Instead of wasting the three most important seconds of your relationship with a potential customer with the weather report, zoom in on the 1% of the population in the market for a car, and right off the bat, grab them by the ears and tell them you can make them a great deal on the car they want. TODAY.
<b>--Terry Lancaster is the co-founder of <a href="http://www.instant-events.com/">instant-events.com</a>, an automotive advertising services firm with dealer clients in every English speaking nation on the planet</b>
