The enormity of advertising clutter is on the rise. The latest is the half-page advertisement by Stanley Lifestyles in the leading national daily today.
It makes sense to reiterate once again that advertising happens incidentally.
In a layman’s language, incidental ad exposure implies that an advertisement receives minimal attentional resources. At the same time, other more relevant information is being processed like a radio advertising spot between a news discussion or an advertising ticker on a primetime news show or a half-page advertisement on the first page of a leading newspaper will make the advertising message get lost in the melee of information.
A study on incidental ad exposure to examine whether incidental exposure to an ad increases the likelihood that a product depicted in the ad will be included in a consideration set suggested that the incidental exposure effect is relatively robust, occurring across a variety of factors such as when the consideration set formation context was memory or stimulus-based, when the buying situation was familiar or unfamiliar, and across two different product classes. Further, these effects were found despite subjects’ lack of explicit memory for the ads.
The advertisement aims to grab a consumer by the collar, hold his attention, and become the medium to convey the message, i.e. buy the product.
The advertisement by Stanley Lifestyles miserably fails to achieve even one of these advertising goals.
Because the messaging is not clear. “Makers of the Beautiful.” “Stanley Bespoke Luxury for the Aristocratic Few.” What does this imply? Your guess is as good as mine. There’s zilch clarity about the product and its USP that this advertising tries to sell. To add to it, how do you process a white horse, a lady with a birdcage and a high-end sofa. Is it a bespoke furniture brand’s advertisement? Could be. It isn’t staring at me in the face so I chose to look away.
Because of the missing centre of the layout. This particular advertisement’s centre is a confusing spot. It fails to grab a reader’s attention.
Because there’s no entry-exit point for a reader. The advertisement space has no access point for a reader to get in, stay for a few minutes, and then leave. The images, copy, and layout are all so jumbled up.
The purpose stands defeated. It must have cost a bomb to buy that half-page of prime advertising space in a leading daily. There’s going to be no return on the furniture boutique’s investment because of the messy advertisement, and that is saddening.
ADnaama 