I came across a Cahners Survey on black and white VS color ads which is logical. And given its robust sample size it’s probably true generally speaking. It concludes that color ads work better than black and white ads. And big ads work better than small ads. If only life was that simple, Single Barrel would have 50% market share with Johnny Walker Black being a faint memory. And Digicel and B-mobile would have neutralised each other. The thing is life (and ad effectiveness) is never that simple.
For example, next week we are planning to do black and white/less than half-page ads for the UWI Fete that we believe will work. You know why? Because all the other fete ads are in full color and full page. So they are all looking the same. Can’t tell them apart. Our UWI fete ad, we hope, will stand out from the sea of color. It will get noticed because of its uncommon size (33 by 3, not full page), it will be in B&W and unlike the others it will adopt a minimalist approach to copy. And that’s the beauty of advertising. Big does not always mean better. Less is often more. And if all you have is a B&W budget then it does not mean you are doomed. Rather it means you need to use your brain because you lack brawn.
Here’s an excerpt from the Cahners study:
How is advertising readership influenced by ad size and color?
Purpose: To show the effect of size and color on “Remember Seeing” readership scores.
Methodology: This analysis used all half page or larger ads run in 16 Cahners publications from 1972 to 1986. The 65,752 ads were divided into categories by size and color. Median noted scores were then tallied, and comparisons made. Noted scores indicate the percentage of readers who remembered seeing the ad in the issue surveyed.
Cahners Advertising Readership Surveys are conducted by mail among a random sampling of 300-550 readers per issue. Noted scores for this analysis represent results from among 288,000 readers over a 15-year period.
Conclusion: An advertiser can expect higher readership from larger full color advertisements.
