Alternative Advertising for the Budget Conscious

Budget is the main concern of businesses for availing advertisements specially in this global financial crisis we were experiencing right now. But adverting is also very important, specially in a period like this. Why? Branding is of utmost importance so people will still have loyalty to a product despite of a weak economy and will appear that the company or business is doing all right. Mainstream media is the most effective way of advertising but if you are looking for an alternative to lower the cost, then below are some options: (I omitted online advertising because I already made a post for it)

Transit Ads

Also known as transport ads that targets commuters and motorists alike. Those ads are sometimes an LCD panel mounted on the vehicles like taxi cab or bus or a signboard mounted on top of jeepneys. Sometimes we see a wrap-around posters on cars, taxi cabs or buses. Since this form of advertising is mobile, it can reach many places and be seen on almost any places in the country unlike a static billboard built beside a highway. Billboards also have it’s disadvantages. They are also very large and expensive compared to transit ads and MMDA is against it because it clutters metro manila and also dangerous to lives and property.

Placemat Advertising

I never heard of this before and also never seen a placemat with advertising on it. Well naturally if I will eat in a restaurant like Pizza Hut or Max Fried Chicken the placemat will have a logo of their company on it. Also, I was thinking, what if Greenwich Pizza will advertise on Pizza Hut using a placemat, will Pizza Hut approve it since the advertiser is a competition? Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it. But on the contrary, it is an effective medium of advertisement because people have no choice but to look at the placement while they are dining. As long as the advertiser is not a competing business, like for example, a bank will advertise on a diner, then it will be effective. It also have more advantages over a flyer which most often end in a waste basket.

SMS Advertising

This medium of advertisement seems not so new because most telecom networks are already using it to advertise their own products like for example: TEXT CHUVA CHUVA AND WIN 1 MILLION WORTH OF PRIZES. I haven’t got any third party advertisements on my mobile phone so far, only prank texts. Sending promotional text messages to someone not aware of it is similar to email spamming. That is why there is a law in the U.S. where email spammers are convicted and people who have emails need to opt-in on any mailing list before promotions can be sent to them. Anyway this is the SMS advertising company’s problem but it will reflect on our businesses if we will not investigate further on the company where we will endorse our advertising campaign.

Just be sure they have an opt-in procedure where SMS subscribers have to register first before they can receive advertising SMS messages. This way those who will receive the advertising campaign are already filtered out from those not interested and we can be sure that they will read and not delete it immediately. By the way, normally SMS advertisement are sold in packages like for example 1,500 text messages for Php1,000. So if you will not implement an opt-in method, those who are not interested will just delete it. If 750 text messages were not read and deleted, then you already lost 50% of the advertising cost plus the negative impression of your business.