I just heard a radio ad for a local
car dealership and this genius decided
that it would be cute to have his 5
year old daughter read half the script.
…the important part, where he was
listing his call to action, trying
to bring in new customers.
Now, of course there is a time and place
for kids in advertising. If you have a
product for mothers, a product for families
or a product for kids, then you probably
want them in your advertising.
However, you should think really long
and hard before you have a child actually
deliver your advertising.
The kids are not the ones that are buying
the product.
The adult is.
Of course kids are cute, but you are not
trying to win any awards here. You are trying
to sell more stuff, right?
Think about this before you have your dog,
your grandmother, or your poorly-speaking
little brother in your next ad.
You want your audience to hear and
understand your marketing message loud and
clear.
You want to make sure that your customer
is super-motivated to take that call to
action.
If they have to try and translate kid-speak
for just 2 seconds, you’ve probably lost them.
If you want to make sure that you have a
marketing message that will penetrate through
the pile of marketing messages that are
causing nothing but noise in the customer’s
life, then you want to develop a powerful
Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
If you want to be MORE than just a business
owner…
If you want to be more than just a salesperson…
If you want to take your business from just
getting by, to making some serious sales,
then you have to start with a USP.
My system is the ONLY all-inclusive Unique
Selling Proposition creator in the world.
Click here if you want to change your
business for good:
http://www.ultimateUSPcreator.com
Until Monday,
Joshua Black
*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.
{ 9 comments }
aw man joshua,
That picture kills me…brings a smile from ear to ear.
BrandonBurgh
.-= BrandonBurgh´s last blog ..TheInfoPreneur Blogging Conspiracy =-.
They air a local one here with the biz owner and his wife, and she’s just smiling vaguely into the camera, and he gives her the call to action line. And she kind of stumbles her way through it, eyes wide as saucers.
It reminds me of the scene in that old chestnut Wayne’s World, when the owner of Noah’s Arcade brings his wife on the set and she’s all star-struck “Ooo, this is where the magic happens.”
Gives me giggle.
I agree with Brandon. That picture is epic!
Kids in advertising can work, but almost always you need to use paid child-actors, in my opinion. Even so, Ads starring kids annoy me way more often than they grab me.
Putting your own kid in an ad is just silly. Did they really think that would help? Incredible.
.-= Marek´s last blog ..The Top 5 Outrageous Ways to Get More Twitter Followers =-.
Come on, those babies on the etrade commercials are awesome. They have voiceovers though.
.-= Mike Roosa´s last blog ..Motivated As Hell – The Review =-.
Joshua,
In many respects this is similar to the experience one goes through when calling someone’s home phone and getting an answering machine or voice mail greeting that was made by some barely intelligible child who can’t manage to put together two coherent sentences.
In the background you can usually hear one or both of the parents coaching the kid on what to say, and I’m sure in their minds it’s just adorably cute. But I can tell you from the caller’s perspective it’s anything but!
When I’m pressed for time and need to leave an important message, the last thing I want to deal with are the ramblings of a near-infant who hasn’t yet mastered basic (let alone fluent) speaking abilities. Even though this isn’t happening in a professional or business context, it still shows a lack of respect and courtesy for those callers that have to deal with it in the absence of the party they’re hoping to reach.
I’ll wrap things up by adapting what you say in your article to this situation, “If we have to try and translate kid-speak for just 2 seconds, you’ve probably lost us.”
Regards,
Doug
Doug,
You’re totally right, Doug. Thanks for stopping by. I think that the time and place for kids in advertising is a very tiny window and needs to be carefully thought about before using them to build a business.
-Josh
I completely agree! Kids in advertising have their place, but when you see them on commercials for cars or furniture, and they’re saying something like, “Call my dad for a great deal!” it actually makes me feel like the parent is sleazy because they’re trying to capitalize on their kid’s cuteness. So right away, I don’t trust this person, and there’s no way I’d do business with them. It’s one thing to have an ad not work, but to have it work against you? Never a good idea.
Haha, for a second I thought you were in my area because this has been a huge trend here as well.
The car dealerships have almost gone to war. One will use their son to walk around the cars, telling the pricing while another uses their daughter.
The problem is the have shaky voices which are hard to understand.
You touched on a perfect point – I’m not going to buy a car from a child. I don’t have kids. I don’t consider the additional room for kids a buying point.
They’re really missing the ball in my demographic.
Plus, they’re more annoying than ever. I can remember the kids voice but I couldn’t tell you which car dealership they represented – guess the marketing isn’t paying off.
@Murlu
Thank you for stopping by. Yep, it’s a real problem when the advertisement takes away from the actual message that the owner is trying to get across. There are way too many people that think advertising should be cute or just entertaining and totally miss the ball that they are supposed to be closing or creating a call to action. It’s a great thing for the small business owner in the know, however, because that just means that there will be less competition.
-Joshua Black
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