Weak Selling Proposition

It is said that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.  Likewise, an ad without a compelling USP is destined to flounder.  Skipping or skimping on the up-front work to discover the messages that will win potential customers to your brand is likely to result in unmet expectations.

Lack of an End Benefit

Ultimately, your target audience doesn’t want to know what your product can do – they want to know what it can do for them.  How will they benefit from your product?  This can be in a tangible way, or perhaps even better as an emotional end benefit (success, status, belonging, etc.). 

Insufficient Branding

“There was this hilarious ad with a talking horse.”  “What was it for?”  “No idea.” Unfortunately this is an all too common conversation.  Worse yet is misattribution.  An ad must leave a branded impression.  And ideally your brand will act as hero of your ad. 

Poor Stopping Power

An advertisement needs to capture – and hold – audience attention and interest.  Without catching viewers’ mental attention, there is little likelihood of them receiving the intended message.  Music, surprise, suspense, creative demonstration, provocation, beauty – there are many potential paths to achieving stopping power.

Lack of Clarity or Cohesiveness

Viewers need to “get” the message and not work too hard to do so.  A wide range of issues can inhibit this, such as a short ad that overcommunicates, visual or auditory clutter, a message that takes too much mental effort to extract from the drama or even worse drama that is not in synch with the selling idea.