Like most of us, I’m not a big fan of interruption marketing, particularly those annoying and obnoxious inserts and sticker ads that come in the daily newspaper. But here’s such an ad that actually works. It was about 4″ x 4″ and came affixed to the front page of our local newspaper with temporary adhesive.



Why does this ad work?

It gets your attention. You can’t miss the big WARNING message in the official looking stencil font. Black on yellow – sticks out like a sore thumb. If you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Too many advertisers make the mistake of going for subtlety. Forget it. Hit me over the head, please. I’m busy.

It’s timely. People are shipping holiday gifts now, so interest in the UPS warning is at its peak.

It creates fear and motivates action. You’re telling me newspapers are no good to protect my gift in shipment? Leapin’ lizards! I better do something – I don’t want little Joey’s piggy bank to disintegrate into a pile of ceramic shards.

It offers two special deals. I can get money off packaging supplies or packaging services. If I’m shipping a fruitcake that could survive an atomic blast, I can still make use of the coupon.

It reassures. Notice the plug for their Pack & Ship Promise Guarantee. If I’m thinking of hand delivering that delicate little piggy bank, now I have an excuse not to.

It covers the basics. All the necessary contact information is there, including simple directions (“Next to Krispy Kreme”). This shows attention to detail. Finding this particular UPS outlet is difficult, as it is tucked in one of several little strip malls along a major shopping corridor. How often does an ad execute the sales job but fall short on picking up the order?

It has a creative element. The sticker was attached to the front page of the local newspaper … and it talks about how a newspaper sucks as packaging material. Putting the ad in context makes it relevant and more interesting. The ad gets past our filters in a way that a completely irrelevant ad would not.

Think about your advertising. Does it contain all these elements?

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