As with all advertising, and with all forms of media, it's absolutely essential to understand fully the 'nature' of a press ad. How does your audience read the publication? How do you treat its creation? How can it really work for you? Or how it can easily be a complete disaster?

To begin with, your advertisement is sitting in a vehicle that ISN'T specifically designed to run ads. People don't buy The Daily Adpaper or The Advertisement Weekly to read all the ads. They buy a newspaper to read the news, and magazines to read the articles, and your ad has to 'distract' their attention - not just from the news and the articles but also from all the other ads!

Here's a few slightly flaky but very scary facts and without getting into the details of original sourcing and accuracy, I'm quite sure that they're very close to the truth!

"Over 70% (of people) spend less than 15 minutes a day reading newspapers and magazines". I'm actually surprised that it's that much.

"65% of national 'tabloid' readers only read the first 7 pages and the last 3". Spend some time 'people watching' on trains, you'll see it's true (although try not to stare - it can attract some unwelcome attention).

"You only have 2.8 seconds to interest a reader". Like those bizarre Internet statistics - but I'm sure it's correct (ish).

"The average ad is read by only 4% of the publication's readers". So, if your target audience is 18% of readership, that's 4% of 18% of the circulation figure on a good day!

This may all sound doom and gloom, but it isn't meant to be. It simply means that we must pay greater attention to those many important factors to help us get the very best out of our press advertising. It can be very successful or it can be literally a 'waste of space'.

Ensure that it's the right media. Obviously, you may say, but a massive amount of valuable advertising budget is wasted talking to the wrong people.

Ensure a good position. Vital (see Rathbone ads). An ad on Page 3 may be 50 times more powerful than an ad on Page 62 in the same newspaper.

Ensure that you get noticed! This usually means a great headline!

Ensure that you know exactly what you want the ad to achieve.
And that may not necessarily mean directly 'sell more product'.

Ensure that the ad is well-crafted. A poorly produced ad is about as attractive as (and very similar to) a scruffy sales rep!

Finally, keep it simple. As all the greatest admen knew...
"The best advertising makes the complex simple" .

Or, to quote a real old pro...
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
Leonardo da Vinci c.1490...