I don’t really read a lot of physical magazines anymore.  There are many reasons, but the big one is the ads.  I hate the pull out cards that seem to be spring loaded like a can of crazy snakes, and I can’t stand every other page selling you something.  Most of the time these ads have little if anything to do with me as a consumer and I have subconsciously trained myself to totally ignore the content.  To me they’re just blank pages you have to flip through to get to the good stuff.

…and I’m not alone.  The traumatic downfall of print media can largely be attributed to the failing effectiveness of print ads.  Folks simply don’t respond to them.  You can give me all the “yeah but it’s a subconscious impression” bullshit you want – none of it matters.  Pick any 5 people and ask them the last magazine ad they remember and can articulate back to you, and you’ll be hard pressed to get an answer.

So what is a company to do?  Should you still be paying for ad space in a magazine or newspaper if few are paying attention?

Microsoft thinks so, and decided to MAKE people pay attention.  As I was flipping through the latest issue of BusinessWeek, I came across this:

Click on a page to view the full-sized version

My initial reaction was “Who the hell scribbled red marker in my magazine!?!?!”  I was agitated.  I scanned the pages to figure out what exactly happened.  Why was this particular story mamed?  Was it some disgruntled person in a mail room?  Was I sold a used copy!?!  But then I realized this wasn’t a real article, and was in fact an ad from Microsoft.  I noticed certain words weren’t crossed off and were part of the marketing message.  Then I got a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing I was successfully tricked by a marketer.

This ad is a perfect example of how advertising needs to evolve in a cluttered print world.  Consider what Microsoft accomplished:

1. They got my attention via a core human emotion
2. They held my attention and pitched their message
3. I was able to remember the message after the fact
4. AND most importantly, I was compelled to tell others about the ad

How often does this happen in a magazine?  Hardly ever, and these are the basic tennants of any marketing campaign or promotion!  Why have so many agencies failed to pull off this kind of work?  We may never know.

What I want you to take away from this example is simple: know how to creatively use the medium in which you are marketing.  This ad works because it uses the rules of the magazine and then seamingly breaks them.  It was presented like a legitimate piece of content, but with an added twist.  It went against the grain – while everyone else was using the same fonts, photos and boring messaging, this ad did the opposite.  It broke through the clutter.