Quote by William Bernbach - what counts is the truth

“The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” /William Bernbach, revolutionary American advertising executive, 1911-1982

When working in advertising, sticking to the truth is very important. However, many advertisers do not care about this simple rule.

Color symbolism: Meaning of colors I - The color red

Designer have to deal with colors a lot. Most of the time, the clients do not even know. Color can improve a design or it can destroy it.

Colors have different effects. Depending on the country and the cultural background there is a different color symbolism. The color symbolism mentioned here only applies to Western Europe and the U.S. only. Not every color has the same meaning in every culture.

Different color combinations can also have different meanings. In addition, there are different shades and hues for every color - whose meaning can also vary a lot.

The color red

• Red is the color of blood and also fire. This, it is associated with danger, war, energy, strength, power, passion, love, desire and determination.
• The color red is an emotional intense color: It enhances the breathing rate, the human metabolism, as well as the blood pressure.
• Red has a high visibility, which is why traffic lights, stop signs and fire extinguishers are painted red. Red is also used to show courage and is found in many national flags.
  
• Design and advertising
  Red emphasizes texts and pictures. It is often used as an accent color, in order to inspire people to make a quick decision. Red is the perfect color for "Buy now" or "Click here" buttons on advertising banners on the Internet or on websites.
  In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings, for example with red lips or red nails.
  Since red is associated with energy, the color is often found in advertising for sports, cars, games or energy drinks.
• Color gradiations
  
  • Light red is associated with sexuality, passion, empathy, love and joy.
  • Dark red stands for anger, rage, willpower, spite, courage, desire and leadership.
  • Pink is associated with romance, friendship, love and passivity.

For more information on the color red go to SensationalColor or Wikipedia.

Quote by Thomas Jefferson - don't stop advertising

“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” / Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, 1801-1809

Do you stop the clock when you are running out of time? Of course not! However, many businesses and organizations stop advertising, as they think they cannot afford it any longer.
How come that many businesses are able to advertise big time when everything goes well and they are in a good financial position? Once business slows down and they make less profit, the budget for marketing and advertising is cut. But shouldn’t you expand the marketing budget at this time?

Once the economy slows down, many businesses – big and small – cut their advertising. That means if you advertise now, you will be recognized much easier, as the advertising landscape is not as crowded. The chance of people actually noticing your advertising efforts increases. Maybe you are lucky being the only business in your industry showing consumers that you are there.
If you hide once your sales go down, your customers will not recognize you anymore and your sales will keep on going down. When your competitors hide is the perfect time for you to advertise and show that you are there for the consumers.

Fast reaction with personalized videos through social media - Old Spice smells like great success

When advertising through social media, being quick is essential. There are not many companies that are fast and at the same time deliver appealing content. A company that was able to do so is Old Spice - with advertising for deodorant and body wash for men. Old Spice belongs to the Procter&Gamble group.

The clip „The Man your Man Could Smell Like“ by Old Spice with Isaiah Mustafa was first published on Youtube on February 2nd, 2010 and has had almost 15 million viewers since then. On June 29, 2010, the Clip „Questions“ was added. As the actor from the clip tells in an interview, the entire clip is one single shot without any CGI (computer-generated imagery). To build the set in Vallermo, California, took several days.

A week ago, an Old Spice hype started, as the company added personalized videos to its Youtube channel OldSpice. The "Old Spice Guy" from the commercials answered questions and responded to tweets - topless and just with a towel around the waste. Even conversations and flirts between him via video and (female) users via Twitter started. The Old Spice guy answered to random questions from users - almost in real time. Within 24 hours, more than 150 videos were created.

The video responses are between 20 and 60 seconds long and react to the users' comments (Tweets, Youtube comments, blog articles, facebook comments, reddit comments and others). The responses contain a lot of charm and humor and are also sexy.
Very funny are the video responses to the twitter question of @isaiahmustafa, the actor who plays Old Spice guy or also the question of Haley Mustafa (the actor's daughter) who wants to know why Old Spice guy looks so much like her dad.
One questions however remains: who is the actual target group of the Old Spice commercials?
Old Guy certainly speaks to the "ladies". Nevertheless, the products are for men. For sure, Old Spice guy is every woman's darling - maybe guys should become jealous? Or it speaks to women who should then go and buy Old Spice products for their men?

Public Relations instead of Marketing

Utilize public relations instead of paying for marketing efforts.

Articles in the press are more likely to be read than ads. People percieve ads consciously as advertising and therefore are less likely to notice them. However, more people than just your target audience read press reports.
Additionally, press reports are more credible than advertisements, as they are written by (independent) journalists, wheras ads are designed by advertising specialists.

In an article in the press your company or organization can be represented in detail - including pictures. In an ad, this is more difficult and only possible with a lot of money.
Press reports are free, whereas ads can be very costly. With the right PR, you can not only make your firm or organization known to the public, but also your products and services. You get the opportunity to build a distinctive and credible image, which will help you gain more customers, clients or members - especially in the long run.

Ads on the other side might increase awareness, but do not build credibilty. But how will being famous help you, if people do not trust you, because you lack credibilty?

Make sure the media report about you and not about your competition. You can for example feed the media with material, such as press releases. Organize interesting events, to which you will invite the media. You can organize a run for a good cause, hold an open house in your organization or as a company you can support a non-profit organization (NPO). Make sure that all events support the purpose of your organization or your company's goals. If you support an organization, you should make sure that the organization and your company are a fit. It makes little sense to support a non-smoking organization when you are a tobacco shop.

Publish a short press release with a picture for every event you organize. It is worth much more when the regional daily newspaper publishes a note on your event, than any marketing in form of an ad.

Facebook-Ads – How to create an advertising campaign in facebook

Facebook offers a very cost-effective way of online advertising with facebook ads. These are ads that can be set to be shown only to a very specific audience.

For example, you can set your ads to be shown to just 40 year old, single, male facebook users who have kids, like hiking and live in Switzerland. This example is very specific. However, you limit the number of facebook users, who will get to see your ad. The fewer attributes you set for your target audience, the bigger your target audience will be and the more facebook users will get to see your ad.

In order to advertise on facebook, you already have to be a facebook user. If you do not have a facebook account yet, you will have to open one.



Go through the following steps in order to advertise on facebook:

1. Log in to facebook with your user name and password
2. Click on your profile, click on “Create an Ad” on the right side
3. Now you can start creating your ad
4. „Design your ad“: Under „Destination URL“, enter the website that you want users, who click on your ad, to go to. You can add the URL of your facebook page or the url of your website. Under “Title” you should add a title for your ad. The text of your add can not have more than 135 characters and has to be added under “Body Text”. Under “Image” you can upload a picture for your facebook ad. This is optional. However, pictures can not be bigger than 110x80 px.
   The last sentence of your ad should give an instruction to the viewer, such as “Order now!”.
   On the right side you can view your ad, while you input the text.
5. “Targeting”: When you put in details here, you will see that the “estimated reach” will decrease. Remember that not all facebook users make all information in their accounts and thus may not be counted as your target audience, although they should.
   Under “Location” enter the country in which the ad should be displayed. The ad can be seen in the entire country or in specific cities (“by city”) and the area around them.
   Under “Demographics” you can provide information on age, gender, relationship status and languages of your target group.
   Under “Likes&Interest” you can add certain styles of music, bands, movies etc.
   Under “Education&Work” you can specify what education it is your target audience should have. You can even add a company or organization.
   If you advertise your facebook page in your ad, you should add it under “Connections on Facebook” > “Target users who are not already connected to:”. Otherwise, facebook users who already like your facebook page will get to see the ad as well.
6. Under “Campaigns and Pricing“ you will have to decide whether you want to „pay for impressions“ (CPM – cost per impression) or „pay for clicks“ (CPC – cost per click). You also have to add your maximum bid. The maximum bid is the highest price you are willing to pay per 1,000 impressions or per click. Just choose “Use Suggested Bid” – this is the simplest way when you are just starting out with facebook ads.
   I recommend you use the model of CPC (paying for every click on your ad), as this is more cost effective.
7. Click on “Review Ad”.
8. You will now see your facebook ad and you can also assign a name. This is especially useful if you decide to run different ads.
9. The costs for your ad will be charged to the credit card that you have already stored in your facebook account. If you have not put in your credit card information, you will have to do so now.
10. If you do not want to change your ad, click “Place Order”.
11. Under “Run Status” you will now see “Pending review”. This means that facebook is currently reviewing your ad. You will receive an email from facebook once your ad is approved and active.
12. In this overview, you will later on be able to see how many people have seen your ad and how many actually clicked on it.

It is advisable, to advertise with different ads with slightly different texts and target groups, in order to get a feeling what the target audience likes best.

Designing your business cards

Business cards are essential for your marketing! They are a cheap and simple way of advertising.

For business cards, there really is no standard format. However, there are a few formats that are common:

• 85 x 55 mm (EU credit card size used in Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland)
• 85.6 x 54 mm / 3.370 x 2.125 in (credit card size according to ISO 7810)
• 74 x 52 mm / 2.913 x 2.047 in (ISO 216, A8)
• 81 x 57 mm / 3.2 x 2.2 in (DIN C8)
• 100 x 65 mm / 3.937 x 2.559 in (with photo)
• 88.9 x 50.8 mm / 3.5 x 2 (business card size in U.S. and UK)
• 91 x 55 mm / 3.582 x 2.165 in (Japanese business card format)
• 90 x 55 mm / 3.54 x 2.165 in (used in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden)
• 90 x 54 mm / 3.543 x 2.125 in (used in Hong Kong and China)
• 90 x 50 mm / 3.543 x 1.968 in (used in Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Finland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary)
• Fold-over business cards usually folded to one of the above formats

As paper, you should select something stable, such as 300 g/m² or 350 g/m². Thin paper is cheaper, but does not look professional.

You can design and print your business cards on one side or on both sides. The one-sided print usually is a little bit cheaper. You can just have something printed in black on the front side - the print shop will call this 1/0. Or you have something printed in black on both sides - 1/1.
However, I recommend using color. Either just on the front side (4/0) or the front side colored and the back side in black (4/1), or both sides in color (4/4). '4' stands for the four printing colors used: cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
You can also use special colors - at additional cost of course.
Also, you have the opportunit to have your business cards coated with a UV lacquer. This is offered by most of the print shops now.
Another possibility, which is particularly common in the U.S. is the thermography process. Thsi simulates the more expensive raised-print effect with the application of plastic powder that is melted onto the card.

The font on your cards should be adjusted depending on the appeal wanted. Avoid using all capital, script or ornate writing - these are difficult to read.
Select a font size that is not too small - less than 8 pt can only be read by some people with the help of a magnifying glass.

Your business card should appear clearly. Do not stuff it with too much text. Do not overload your card with too much information, as this will appear cluttered.

If you already have a Corporate Design (CD) - a consistent corporate identity - you should also use it for your business cards. At least your logo should appear on your cards!

Important content of your business card:

• Logo
• Company name
• Maybe a short description of the company
• First name, last name, title, function
• Full address
• Telephone, mobile telephone number, fax
• E-mail
• Website, blog, facebook page

There are several possibilities for having your business card printed.
One way to print the cards is doing it yourself - with your own printer and special business card paper. However, since this appears unprofessional, takes time and is not necessarily cheaper than having the cards printed professionally, you should make use of another possibility: You can use a local print shop or an internet print shop. Mot internet print shops are a little bit cheaper - however, they lack personal contact. To find an internet print shop simply google 'printing business cards'.

How to create a facebook page for your business or organization

Online marketing is becoming increasingly important for small businesses, organizations and also freelancers. Marketing through social media is becoming more and more interesting. Facebook is the social network, where most users have an account. Therefore, you should also take the opportunity to market your business or organization here. The start is simple – just create a facebook page for your business or organization.

• In order to create a facebook page for your business or organization you need to register with facebook and then log in with your username.
• On the left side click „Ads and Pages“, click on „Pages“.
• Here, you click the button „Create new page“.
• Depending on who you want to create the page for, you have different options: „Official Page“, „Community Page“ or a group.
• Official Page is meant for businesses, organizations and artists.
• Community Page you create when you are looking for people to share a certain topic with, such as „Recycling“.
• For your business, you should create an official page.
• Here you can choose from three different options: „Local business“, „Brand, product, or organization“ and „Artist, band, or public figure“. For each option, you also have to choose your industry/kind of business/organization/person.
• Add the name of your future page and then check the box „I’m the official representative ...“, to facebook’s terms. Click „Create Official Page“.
• Now you have created your facebook page.
• Now upload your company logo or a picture of yourself. This picture will be shown as a profile picture next to each of your entries. To upload your picture go over the grey question mark with your mouse, click „Change Picture“ and then „Upload a Picture“. Now you can choose a picture from your hard drive and upload as a profile picture. It is best to choose a picture that is squared, otherwise parts of the pictures will not show.
• Klick on „Write something about ...“. Now you can type a short text about your business/organization/yourself. A few words are enough here.
• Up in the tab „Info“ click on „Edit information“. Add all important information on your business/ organization/ person and then click „Save Changes“.
• In the tab „Photos“ click on „Create a Photo Album“ and upload photos of your business/ organizations/ person. These pictures can be seen by visitors of your facebook page.
• On the left side click on „Edit Page“ to set who can upload what to your page.
• Click „Suggest to Friends“ in order to invite your facebook friends to your new page.
• At the bottom on the left click the button „Share“ to pust your facebook page to your regular facebook profile.

Of course there are many other advertising possibilities for your facebook page. Just try out a few things and also do not forget about your competitors. Every now and then check what the competition is doing facebookwise.

Your association or club on display

Marketing for your association or club is not as hard as you might think. A great, inexpensive way to reach people in your town and to advertise your small non-profit-organization (NPO) is advertising in shop windows and display cases.

Perhaps there are display cases in your town or city that small NPOs can rent for little money or even no money at all.
You can design your display case again and again with very little effort.
Depending on the kind of display case you use, you can put in posters or even whole exhibits.
Keep your showcase clean and up to date! No one likes to read old, yellowed newspaper clippings with dead mosquitoes around. Set out new information in your display case at regular intervals - this will attract visitors' attention over and over again.

Be mindful with copyrights. If you exhibit photos, the people shown should agree to the publication of their image.

If you do not have a display case, you should check with local stores that have a shop window. Ask these stores whether you can present your club in one corner of the shop window. Maybe there is a local company that has supported you before? Or has one of the club members a shop in a great location with a shop window?
It is also possible to present your association in the shop window of a local store for a few days every months.
Do not hesistate to ask local companies!

It should become clear from your display case or shop window, what your club does. Many people may come by for the first time and not know exactly what your club is for. It is best to mix the latest club news with general information about your club.

Do not put too much text. Rather display lots of photos and graphics. Photos should not be too small, otherwise people will not be able to see them properly through the glass. Print your photos on letter sized photo paper. Make sure to replace the photos before they fade out (that can happen very fast in the sun - a few dayscan make a big difference)!

Always add the address of your website. Anyone who remembers the URL might look at the website at home.
When presenting your club also mention a contact, for example the chairman of your club, so people know where the information comes from.

Both your display case, and the space in the shop window you can decorate to suit the season. But do not go overboard with decorations. Too much can become corny and therefore deterrent.
You can use decoration to attract people from a distance - for example, with lots of color and unusual things.

Advertising with flyers - preparing a brochure step by step

Although the creation of flyers and brochures can be very time consuming, it is worth it. You have the opportunity to present your company/club. And not just with words, but also with images.
In addition, flyers and leaflets can be read anywhere and over a longer a period of time. Products or services that need a lot of explaning can easily be presented in a flyer or brochure.

1.Budget
Before you get started, you should determine your budget. The amount of money needed depends on whether you wnat to design the leaflet yourself or hire an expert.

2. Hire a designer or make it yourself?
If you think about making the design of your flyer on your own, you need to figure out, whether it is really worth it. Calculate how long it will take you to learn the software and how to design it and also how long it will take you to get the flyer ready to have it printed. Then multiply this number by your hourly wage and double the amount - for all the suffering and trouble you will go through when creating the flyer yourself, when nothing works out the way you had imagined.
Then consider whether it is worth this sum to your or if you should rather hire an expert.
You should provide your graphic designer or agency with sufficient information. The more information you provide to your designer, the faster and easier he/she can work on your flyer.

3. Purpose
Consider the purpose you need the flyer for. Do you want to run image advertising and you want to present your company? Do you want new members for your club? Do you want to collect donations for your organization?
Do you need short information leaflets for your stand at a fair or a comprehensive brochure with prices?

4. Type of flyer/brochure
Depending on the scope of the content or the information that you want to pass on, you need to decide on a flyer or a brochure.
- Flyer: A flyer has at least one page and consists of a single piece of paper that is folded.
- Brochure: The brochure is somewhat more comprehensive and consists of several, usually stapled pages.

5. Audience
Who will get your flyer? Should it appeal to young people or rather to adults? Depending on who you appeal to it does affect the design of the flyer.

6. Quantity
How many flyers do want to print? Printing will get cheaper per flyer if you have them print more. But do you really need 10,000 flyers or brochures? Maybe 5,000 or 1,000 are enough? Printing too many does not make sense if you are not able to distribute them in a timely manner. Nobody likes to read an outdated brochure. It is always possible to have copies printed later on.

7. Distribution
Where do you want to distribute your flyer? Where will you put it so people can pick it up?
Depending on where you will put your flyer, it should be designed differently, so that it stands out and will be picked up by people.
Will you send him by mail?
If you want to send your flyer primarily by mail, you should consider what else you want to put in the same envelope. Do not have your flyer printed on heavy paper if you intend to send it with a letter, as the envelope will get too heavy and you will end up paying a lot for shipping.

8. Content
The contents of your flyer or brochure is based primarily on the purpose of the flyer, the target group and the distribution. Formulate short, precise and clear sentences. Think about a meaningful and clear structure for the entire text. The target audience should understand what is at stake!
The entire text should be structured in a way that even when just skimming through it will become clear what is going on. Add highlighted key words to your text that jump immediately when reading.

9. Pictures and captions
You might think captions are unimportant. The opposite is the case. Captions are usually read before the actual text.
Do not describe the image, but set up important performance data in the captions.
How to get budget-friendly photos if you do not have your own, you can read here:>Budget-friendly photos for your advertising<

10. Selection of a designer or an agency
Agencies can be found in the yellow pages. Freelance graphic designers who usually work a lot cheaper than agencies are more difficult to find. Ask people you know, other business owners, who they are working with. Check with several graphic artists and also sit down with them to figure out whether working with them would be possible.

11. Selecting a printing company
If you work with a graphic designer he/she will be able to help you when choosing a print shop. Otherwise, you can of course ask different printing companies and get quotes from them.

12. Printing and print-ready file
If you want to create your flyer yourself, you should ask the printing company which file formats can be processed there. If you create your flyer for example with Microsoft Publisher and the printing company does not have this software, it will be impossible to print the flyer.
Most printers will need a PDF file containing your data. This should have embedded fonts and graphics - this can be set when creating a PDF file.
Images should also be converted to CMYK. Most digital cameras create photos for the screen view - these photos are only available in RGB. If you do not know how to convert them, just pass them to the printing company. Also make sure you have high-resolution photos with at least 300 dpi. Otherwise, your photos will print slightly blurred/fuzzy or pixilated.
Do not just make photos or graphics that you insert in Word, Publisher or any other program bigger! Photos are usually inserted with the biggest size possible and if you just make them bigger, they will become blurry or pixelated.

Obama and the social networks

Social media are becoming increasingly important for advertising and PR. More and more organizations create positions for people that take care of communication with customers/members through social networks.

The American President, Barack Obama, already created such a position a while ago. Now, this position as a social networks manager is available, as Mia Cambronero does not want to do it anymore.

Getting paid for hanging around in facebook, twitter, myspace and others all day? That sounds too good to be true.
However, it is not completely clear, what qualifications are required for such a position. Of course you will need experience with social networks - but how much experience can anyone have with something that has not been around for a long time? Social networks are not yet matured and keep on developing. Those people having to do with social networks have to acquire new knowledge quickly, in order to make sure they do not miss any trends an are up to date all the time. Of course, you will need a certain experience in writing thrilling and motivating articles. Correct orthography and phrasing are always important in a job like this. Also, marketing knowledge and experience, as well as creativity might come in handy. You should be able to develop new social media strategies. Managing social networks is not a 9 to 5 job - you are always working...

But now let me go - have to send my applicaion to Obama real quick!

Marketing in the clouds - green information and communication technology?!

The term "cloud" or "cloud computing" is based on an infrastructure or business model delivering data, entertainment, news and other products and services directly in realtime from the internet to the device. Data does not have to be stored on your own computer anymore, instead it can be retrieved from everywhere with a internet connection.

Google is probably the most famous example for an organization building in the clouds. The most known services by Google - such as Google Mail, Google Documents and Google Earth - are supplied from a cloud.

The cloud is growing at a time when everyone is talking about climate change and reducing emissions and also contributing to an increase in energy consumption. When the cloud grows and more and more data is being saved in the cloud, the energy consumption of the cloud grows as well. All the data that is being shown in realtime, virtual mountains of videos, pictures and other data have to be saved somewhere and also have to be available immediately. The "somewhere" are data centers - huge facitities saving data and eating big amounts of power. The ones making decisions on how the clouds are built rather care for making even higher profits, instead of taking care of reducing emissions or stopping the climate change.

Facebook for example gets its power from a supplier who gets most of his energy from coal power stations. These are the biggest source for greenhous gas in the US (Facebook group that wants Facebook to use renewable energies: http://www.greenpeace.org/coalfacebook). Yahoo! on the other hand has its own data center, powered by hydroelectricity, which reduces the carbon footprint.

Despite the economic crisis the cloud computing industry is growing. The data centers of the industry leaders are growing in number and in size. How much electricity is needed for cloud computing every year is not clear. It is also not clear, how much more electricity will be used during the next years.

At the moment, more and more companies in the cloud computing business are trying to reduce the energy consumption of their data centers - mainly to reduce costs. For most companies, the ecological advantages are of secondary concern.

If cloud suppliers really want to offer green and renewable clouds they will have to use their power and influence to make more investments in renewable energies possible and also promote laws associated with it. Also, we need much more investments in research and development of storage media.

Greenpeace started its “Cool IT Campaign” in 2009. With the help of dedicated companies and also the public, the campaign tries to put pressure on the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, Greenpeace supports a policy that combats the climate change and increases the use of renewable energies.

It will take a while, until cloud computing becomes totally green. Until then, the advertising of cloud suppliers stays greenwashing (with a few exceptions)...

Communication in advertising is similar to advertising in interpersonal communication

Why do we communicate? It is simple - to meet with our social environment.
The communication process works as follows: A sender wants to send a message. In order to do so, he/she encrypts the message, which is called encoding. The message is then sent through a channel to the receiver. The recipient must then decrypt the message, which is also called decoding. The meaning of a message only emerges after the receiver decodes it.
Usually, we think we know the meaning of a message. However, we are often wrong, which results in a misinterpretations of the message.

When decoding or interpreting the message, the codes we use are very important. Without codes we would not be able to decrypt the message in a meaningful way. Codes can be verbal or nonverbal. Nonverbal codes are usually more important for decoding. Verbal codes can be spoken words and sound. When talking about nonverbal codes, we usually mean body language, such as appearance, facial expressions, gestures, posture, eyes, head movements, body contact and spacing, but also the tonality and voice. These signals are more subliminal, but essential for decoding.

According to Young and Matt*, communication in advertising works in a similar way: for the transmission of messages to customers different codes (pictures, texts or sounds) are used.
This means, that in advertising as well as in interpersonal communication, it is important how the message is decoded. Many means of advertising contain complex product descriptions that customers do not understand. It must be ensured that the message that is being sent also arrives at the receiver the way it is meant to.


*Young, H. and Matt, J.-R.: Momentum. Die Kraft, die Werbung heute braucht, 2004, Lardon Verlag. 38,- €

Social networks for small businesses and organizations

Every day we exchange lots of information through social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Youtube or Xing. So why not use these online communities as a marketing tool? Millions of people gather in social networks to share information or videos, and to make photos available for others. Companies and associations can also make their news and information available in these online communities.

Effective advertising through marketing mix

The most effective way to attract customers is a mixture of online and offline media - which connects real life with virtual life on the Internet. This combination could become your success!
A very positive aspect is that companies and organizations can create more personalized advertising through clusters (identification of groups). In the various social networks this could be distribution by age, gender, region, or interests such as hobbies, work, etc. Therefore, social networks should be used to promote niche products with very specific and individual target markets. It is not easy to sell everyday products with this approach. The identification of groups should be an easy task, since many people add everything about their lives in their profiles in online communities.

Target audience: aliens - does advertising in outer space make sense?

If you advertise for a specific audience, you certainly expect this group of people to utilize your services or buy your products.
But not the "Touristikgemeinschaft Heilbronner Land", a tourism association for the area around Heilbronn in Southern Germany, which now advertises on a rocket - for a knocked-down price of 4000, - €.
Whether this makes sense is debatable. Extraterrestrials probably will not visit the area. Nevertheless, the tourism community is getting a lot of attention through this advertising campaign.


Press article from the regional newspaper Suedwest Presse Ulm, from 27.10.2009

Ad design

Your ad should consist of several elements: the eye-catcher - this can be a photo or an illustration; a headline - the headline that appeals to the audience, of course; the text – which explains to your audience in brief what this is about; and of course the logo and the address of your company.
It is important not to forget the A.R.A.-principle (Action - Reaction - Action)!

Impact of your ad

It has been scientifically proven that the first impression is crucial in an advertisement.
Therefore, you should have your ads made by a professional – this will cost you, but you will set yourself apart from the poorly designed advertisements of your competition. Updates ad can be made later by the publisher of the magazine in which the ad will appears.

To function, your ad should not be oversized. A small ad is absolutely fine. Also, if your ad is smaller, you will have the money to advertise several times in a row!