My good friend Jody Reese, Publisher, Entrepreneur and all that crap, www.hippopress.com, is on a rant. And trust me there is nothing fun about a rant from a guy who buys ink by the ton. So to try and placate him (maybe get a free lunch), today’s lesson is about CONTENT!

Why the caps, you say? To emphasize that ads and press releases must be creative to get attention. I don’t care if you’re buying space in newspapers like Jody’s (hey two plugs one blog, I’m thinking steak), or the Union Leader, (oops, maybe soup), WZID Radio, WGIR Radio or WMUR-TV, if it’s not creative I don’t care what you are selling. Advertisers have got to stop worrying so much about price and placement and start worrying more about what the hell they are saying.

The best location for your ad in any medium, or for your press release, is worthless if it does not have a compelling message and folks that means WORDS. If you cannot afford an advertising agency like mine I understand but at least talk to your sales rep and get some advice about how to say what you need to say. And my other pet peeve is trying to fit the entire Encyclopedia (oops showing age again) in the ad. Less is more. White space is our friend. And that’s why this week’s blog is this short. Go forth and rewrite those ads and press releases.

At first glance we would all say yes to that simple question. I mean radio, TV, newspapers, the Internet, RSS feeds, billboards, email…the list goes on.

We get our information and thus our exposure to goods and services from so many sources it’s sometimes hard for us to tell a client where to spend their money on advertising. Advertising is one of those words that is often misunderstood.

Yes, we have traditional advertising (radio, TV, newspapers, etc) and non-traditional advertising (RSS feeds, the Internet, viral marketing, etc). But one thing holds true for all of those mediums…if you have a good product at a good price you can generally create a market for yourself.

Hey, I’m not a genius and I’m certainly not the first guy in the business to admit we may have a few too many choices. Take Roy Williams. In his article about Pushing Past Media Overload he admits advertising isn’t what it used to be. But if you read his article, you will also see it [advertising] is not brain surgery— its common sense. In fact Roy has a few articles that cover the same subject and you can access them through the above URL.

Advertising agencies are not for everyone. Okay, get up off the floor. It’s true — we are not the right answer for many people. Why? Well for one thing we [agencies] don’t walk on water. The last time I tried that I got very wet. And second, we sometimes have a hard time dealing with potential clients who just want us to execute their plan. That’s not an “agency relationship” that’s a “vendor relationship” and that helps neither party.

So if you think you need help read more articles by folks like Roy Williams and if you find yourself even more confused by all the choices, call an advertising agency. But remember, if you want us to help you, you need to listen to us and we promise to listen to you. It can and does work.

I know. What a stunner coming from a guy who owns an advertising agency! But sometimes we think we are immune to what we do. So let me tell you what I did that made me realize advertising really does work.

My wife took me out on date night, and to my surprise, wanted to buy me some new golf shoes. Well there we were at the golf store and the sales guy and my wife kept talking about a particular pair of shoes, “Hey, those are the same shoes Tiger wears.” Now I did not just fall off the turnip truck. I did not expect that the shoes “Tiger wears” would totally improve my game but…what the hell.

Then I began to think. If one Tiger product is good for me, more must be better! Next thing I knew I was swept up in the Nike-hype about the new SasQuatch Driver and started hitting a few balls. I was smitten.

The day after date night I went back to the golf store and bought the driver…then a Nike golf glove, Nike head covers, Nike golf tees — but I drew the line at golf balls.

The point being: even my wife knew about Tiger Woods. She hates golf but she, like many, cannot get away from the pervasiveness of advertising in our society. Good advertising sells stuff. It’s okay it’s not a bad thing. But please don’t tell my wife about the driver yet — I kinda forget to tell her.