Disingenuous - adjective

This article certainly would not be the first in the advertising industry to explore this subject. Unfortunately, the public perception of advertising does not get high marks. Recently I heard a radio commercial for radio. The announcer in this well crafted commercial was trying to convince advertisers that radio was the best way to reach the diverse marketplace. They made the bold statement that 93% of all people listen to radio.

All indications suggest that that statement is true. But this is where disingenuous comes in. There are currently 15,330 licensed radio stations in the United States. An advertiser running 1 ad per hour in only 1 day-part (early drive time, lunch time, etc) would need to run 4 to 6 ads on each station or a total of 61,320 to 91,980 ads each day to get to the 93% coverage stated. One ad per day with a local radio station might reach a couple hundred people if they didn’t use the commercial break to do something else. If an ad ran on the Rush Limbaugh show, the show with the largest audience in radio, it would reach 25 million listeners or about 8% of the nation’s population, not 93%.

Virtually all conventional media make claims that have some degree of creative use of numbers. Periodicals will give subscription numbers and than suggest that 4 to 6 times as many people “pass around” the publication thus giving the advertiser great exposure. Verification is generally not available.

Newspapers, both in print and online, will use measurements that also tend to inflate the actual impact of any advertising. Newspapers, for example, would need to have the same ad in each section to insure that the entire subscription base sees the ad. If I’m checking sports scores, an ad in the cooking section will likely never be seen by me.

Promotional product advertising does not need to resort to disingenuous comments as there is ample independent research to tell us the impact this special area of advertising accomplishes. From university research to industry associations to service providers, we have annual statistics that support the benefit of promotional product advertising.

A recent study by an industry service provider showed that a coffee mug was more impactful and customer recall was better than TV or radio. Initially 57% of people could recall the brand that gave them the coffee mug. Only 32 % of radio listeners could recall an ad and that dropped 28% for TV. And this did not take into account that the mug would keep on influencing, without additional cost for exposure.

University research has shown that response rates to advertising is nearly 400% greater if a promotional product is incorporated into the messaging. The point is that there is a wealth of information that you can use to explain the value of promotional product advertising to your clients. There are real facts, not inflated disingenuous statements. 

When the overall costs of advertising are calculated, the CPM (cost per thousand ad impressions) is lowest for promotional product advertising. No other media comes close. When the ability to target - placing the ad (on a well thought out product) in exactly the best prospect’s hands is considered - basically eliminating wasted contact with people that will never be a true prospect, that value is dramatically higher. I will not try to quantify that value for fear of doing what I accuse other media of - so fill in your own numbers!

Does any of this matter to you? It should, because developing new accounts based on the lowering of costs for advertising and marketing as a result of more focused and influential programs is almost always more interesting to potential customers than pitching a great deal on an umbrella or tee shirt! Discussing the work we do rather than the tools we use will keep your prospect's attention. All business people would rather invest in growing their business rather than buying ‘promotional products’. They want to invest in the results of the advertising not the items you are going to use to accomplish it.

With all this in mind, any local business that you hear ads for on radio or see on TV or your smartphone is a prospect you should follow up with. The ice breaking question is: Would you like to get better results from your advertising at lower cost? The industry has lots of information, real genuine facts to back you up.

2018 PPAI Promotional Products Fact Sheet
SAGE 25 Facts About Promotional Products