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Steve B
08-11-2009, 03:33 AM
Here is the first marketing piece for a new service we are offering.

Please review and comment. I'm especially interested in comments on the second side.

Landscape Lighting Ad (http://www.derbysfence.com/ads/esp_light_print.pdf) - Links directly to the PDF. It's a large file so may take a minute to load.

vangogh
08-11-2009, 03:56 AM
The link doesn't work. You need a login to view the image. You can attach it here or if you want send it to me and I'll attach it.

Steve B
08-11-2009, 04:58 PM
Sorry - I guess it worked for me because I have an account. It was hard to find a site that would take a .pdf.

I'll send it to you.

vangogh
08-11-2009, 05:30 PM
I guess I had that PDF already. Just didn't realize it. I've attached it here. Now let's see if I did it right. Apparently not. I'll try again.

Ok the file doesn't seem to want to upload for some reason so I did the next best thing. I uploaded it directly to your server and will link to it instead

Landscape Lighting Ad (http://www.derbysfence.com/ads/esp_light_print.pdf) - Links directly to the PDF. It's a large file so may take a minute to load.

vangogh
08-11-2009, 05:50 PM
Guess now I should offer some thoughts. First impression is it's a nice ad. I like the colors and layout and it comes across very professional to me. The houses in the images are nice, but they seem on the upscale side. Definitely the one on top. Harder to tell with the house on the bottom. Are these kind of houses your market? If so great. If not maybe the houses in the images should be more typical of the type of homeowner you're targeting.

The logo is clearly feminine. Do you see women making the buying decision?

The first bullet point doesn't read well to me. "Complete Installations or Repair Existing Systems" It's the repair existing part. Feels like it needs something else. Maybe repair to existing or repairs of existing. As is it feels off to me.

Overall I do like the ad

Steve B
08-11-2009, 07:54 PM
Thanks for fixing that Steve.

Yes, those houses are typical in my area. Even the one on the back is not unusual - a lot of horse money around here and a lot of very large properties (and farms).

I didn't think of that with the logo being feminine, but I'm guessing the decision on the lighting is at least initiated by the females most often (just guessing).

You'll notice there's plenty of room on the bottom of the first side for my new website address.

Is there any way to put the correct link in my original post so others don't get frustrated?

vangogh
08-11-2009, 08:55 PM
I added the link to your original post. Makes sense so people can find it right away instead of having to scroll down.

Originally I didn't even think about the feminine look of the look, but when reviewing the ad earlier it struck me. I don't think it's bad or good. Just made the connection to who would be doing the purchasing. You're probably right about women being more likely to purchase lighting for the home. Certainly not always, but if I had to guess I'd say they'd more likely make the decision.

lav
08-12-2009, 02:15 AM
I really like the front of the flyer it looks professional as vangogh said. To me on a personal note the back as it is wouldnt get me in, its too far fetched the house with the "before" label on it is not the same house. I think maybe I would see it as unbelieveable and would worry about false promises with the company.

On another note from a printers point of view if you designed this yourself I noticed your trim marks are a little out. The left hand side of the back is every guillotine operaters worst nightmare and you may end up with a white edge on some of your flyers. I would extend the image another couple of millimetres just in case.

rezzy
08-12-2009, 12:03 PM
Looking at the add my first question is: what is E.S.P?

Reading the text, I like the business language, professional quality fixtures with industry leading guarantees. I know, I am over critical of word choice, but I always take note when I see things like that.

For instance, my favorite is "oversized closets" or "oversized tub".

The bottom page, just doesnt look right. Is the idea, that adding lighting can make a "dumpy" house look like new? The imagery is not very strong for me at all. I think there are better ways to convince me I need lighting. Maybe using the security and safety angle.

Dan Furman
08-12-2009, 12:11 PM
oooh - I have a comment... it's not that good though. It echoes what some others have said.

The "before and after" on the second page left me with a very bad taste - right away, I thought it was a joke. Landscape lighting made THAT transformation? I mean, it's just such a HUGE departure, it reminds me of something like a comedy routine commercial parody where a product turns an old hag into a supermodel in a second.

Really, it made me laugh. But I'm not sure that was the intended effect. If it was, you nailed it. If it was a serious before and after, massive fail (sorry)

KristineS
08-12-2009, 03:06 PM
I have to agree with the comments about the before and after pictures. It's completely unrealistic and it kind of defeats the effectiveness of the other side of the ad. The other side looks like something a prosperous, responsible, respectable business would put out. The side with the contrasting houses imitates used car sales tactics, at least in my opinion.

Steve B
08-12-2009, 03:28 PM
"Really, it made me laugh. But I'm not sure that was the intended effect. If it was, you nailed it."

Apparently I nailed it then. Since it's obviously not the same house, it was meant to be humorous. I showed it to a guy yesterday and he cracked up as soon as he saw the before picture.

I guess it's dangerous attempting humor. I picked a radically different house just to make sure people didn't take it literally and realize it was humor. Hopefully, nobody will really think I'm implying you can quadruple the size of your house, remove a porch, fix the roof, paint the door, change the color and material of the siding, and add a huge tree lined driveway just by adding some landscape lighting. But, I could be wrong.

Dan Furman
08-12-2009, 03:35 PM
"Really, it made me laugh. But I'm not sure that was the intended effect. If it was, you nailed it."

Apparently I nailed it then. Since it's obviously not the same house, it was meant to be humorous. I showed it to a guy yesterday and he cracked up as soon as he saw the before picture.

I guess it's dangerous attempting humor. I picked a radically different house just to make sure people didn't take it literally and realize it was humor. Hopefully, nobody will really think I'm implying you can quadruple the size of your house, remove a porch, fix the roof, paint the door, change the color and material of the siding, and add a huge tree lined driveway just by adding some landscape lighting. But, I could be wrong.

The humor here doesn't quite work for me, as a reader really won't be "sure" it's intentional. I mean, I laughed, but I wasn't sure I was meant to. Here's how you can improve it:

put a "footnote" asterisk after the "imagine what.." sentence. Then on the bottom where you explain the asterisk, in really small letters, say "To experience the full effect of this type of transformation, winning the lottery is also suggested. But hey, those are still some really nice lights, aren't they?"

Now there's no doubt.

Steve B
08-12-2009, 03:41 PM
That's a great suggestion Dan.

KristineS
08-12-2009, 05:09 PM
That is a terrific suggestion, Dan. It totally changes the feel of the picture and allows the potential customer to be in the joke.

rezzy
08-12-2009, 05:40 PM
Agreed. Making the joke stated helps.

prova.fm
08-12-2009, 09:48 PM
I thought the flyer was funny. I couldn't help but laugh, a few times.

vangogh
08-13-2009, 12:52 AM
I got the joke too and thought it was funny. I thought it was obvious that the difference wasn't just the lighting. However I do see everyone's point about it. I think Dan's copy does a good job or reinforcing the joke without anyone mistaking it.

nealrm
08-13-2009, 09:06 AM
The ad looks good to me. Adding the text about winning the lottery is a good point. I'm not sure how this looks in print, but I think the photos could be better. Get with a professional real estate photographer in your area. With a little bit of HDR processing, he/she should be able to get the lighting AND show the house details.

Blessed
08-13-2009, 10:07 AM
OK - so I'm late to the discussion here :)

Anyway... I do like the front of the flyer and the back - with Dan's suggested wording to make sure that everyone "gets" the joke is great. Humor in advertising really is a fine line to walk... sometimes it works, sometimes though, when people don't "get" the joke it completely undermines everything you've ever done. Adding the copy keeps the humor, will draw more people in and eliminates the risk of having people not "get it"

Steve B
08-13-2009, 11:05 AM
I sent an e-mail to my supplier (that gave me graphics for the card) and he said it's been used many times by different lighting comapanies. He said this piece has been around for many years. He said it has been a fairly successful piece and he never heard any issues about people not getting it. Of course, perhaps it would have been wildly successful if it didn't turn off the people that didn't understand it was a joke.

I agree - I've seen better photos of landscape lighting. These were done by someone else. I think Remipub (one of our members that does my printing) will make them look pretty good, but I haven't seen them in print yet.

nealrm
08-13-2009, 11:54 AM
Steve,
Maybe it just me, but if I received a flier of this type I would expect it to show work done by that company. Either that or note somewhere on the flier that these are examples.

lav
08-13-2009, 07:22 PM
Either that or note somewhere on the flier that these are examples.If they are royalty free or if you have the right permissions to use them I dont think you need to state that. But I agree with your other point nealrm that the exposure could be a little better. Getting a shot just coming on dark with the lights glowing on a nice house which still shows the detail of the house. Take it into photoshop and "warm it up" you will have a very inviting house.

nealrm
08-14-2009, 11:12 AM
Lav - It's not the copyright on the photos that is the issue, but the impression that the photographs show homes were he did the work. That is not the case here, these are generic examples of work that could be done.

Remipub
08-18-2009, 06:03 PM
I find it interesting how there are some opposite impressions of the images on the back. When I first saw the artwork I laughed and thought "that's clever." Humor in advertising is a very good thing - many beer companies seem to bank on that fact. The question is - will it have the humorous effect that was intended to the majority of viewers. To me it was obviously intended to be funny and I thought it was great. Others (so it seems) look at it more critically and view it as unrealistic.

Would be interesting to see a panel study getting the input from a random group of consumers. I wonder how the percentages would work out.

Express Web Studio
06-24-2014, 02:57 PM
PLEASE don't be offended but it's terrible. Especially for high end customers who would be purchasing landscape lighting.

It look amateur on the front and the back is fake. I wouldn't trust this contractor.



Good luck!

vweconsulting
04-10-2015, 03:04 AM
The logo is clearly feminine. Do you see women making the buying decision?

Good eye! I didn't catch that at first glance.