“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”

Advertising is life made to look larger than life, through images and words that promise a wish fulfilled, a dream come true, a problem solved. Even Viagra follows Mark Twain’s keen observation about advertising. The worst kind of advertising exaggerates to get your attention, the best, gets your attention without exaggeration. It simply states a fact or reveals an emotional need, then lets you make the leap from “small to large.” Examples of the worst: before-and-after photos for weight loss products and cosmetic surgery—both descend to almost comic disbelief. The best: Apple’s “silhouette” campaign for iPod and the breakthrough ads featuring Eminem—both catapult iPod to “instant cool” status.

“When in doubt, tell the truth.”

Today’s advertising is full of gimmicks. They relentlessly hang on to a product like a ball and chain, keeping it from moving swiftly ahead of the competition, preventing any real communication of benefits or impetus to buy. The thinking is, if the gimmick is outrageous or silly enough, it’s got to at least get their attention. Local car dealer ads are probably the worst offenders–using zoo animals, sledgehammers, clowns, bikini-clad models, anything unrelated to the product’s real benefit. If the people who thought up these outrageous gimmicks spent half their energy just sticking to the product’s real benefits and buying motivators, they’d have a great ad. What they don’t realize is, they already have a lot to work with without resorting to gimmicks. There’s the product with all its benefits, the brand, which undoubtedly they’ve spent money to promote, the competition and its weaknesses, and two powerful buying motivators—fear of loss and promise of gain. In other words, all you really have to do is tell the truth about your product and be honest about your customers’ wants and needs. Of course, sometimes that’s not so easy. You have to do some digging to find out what you customers really want, what your competition has to offer them, and why your product is better.

“Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.”

In advertising, you have to be very careful how you use facts. As any politician will tell you, facts are scary things. They have no stretch, no pliability, no room for misinterpretation. They’re indisputable. And used correctly, very powerful. But statistics, now there’s something advertisers and politicians love. “Nine out of ten doctors recommend Preparation J.” Who can dispute that? Or “Five out of six dentists recommend Sunshine Gum.” Makes me want to run out and buy a pack of Sunshine right now. Hold it. Rewind.
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1. Free directories: directories are perfect for customers that are searching for a particular topic. What’s great about them is that you only have to post once and they are good for long periods of time. It saves a lot of your time when you don’t have to resubmit your information every week or every month. The bad news is most of your traffic won’t come from here. I still feel it is worth it to get your link out there. Just take one day and set it aside for posting to free directories. You won’t need to do it again for at least 6 months.

2. Classified Ads: These are great for work from home businesses. Think about it. Where do people go when they are looking for a job? That’s right-the classifieds. The only downside to classified ads is that you have to resubmit them quite frequently. Once you find which classifieds bring you the most traffic you can concentrate on them and weed the others out. So it is really more time consuming in the beginning, and doesn’t have to be later on when you get the hang of things.
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Organising corporate events can be exciting and interesting but simultaneously stressful and nerve-racking. This is especially true when corporate event managers are faced with a dilemma in balancing the need to create an enjoyable and beneficial event, and at the same time entrusted with the responsibility to create publicity for it.

Nevertheless, if the right approach is used, creating publicity for corporate events will become an easier task to manage. The following tips will provide you with an insight on some of the best practices used in creating publicity.

1. It’s always a good idea to work in a team, and delegate the task of creating publicity to a particular team member. This way, you won’t be caught up in the legwork, but rather be involved from an event manager perspective. Your responsibility then is to make decisions and guide others in getting things done for you.

2. Selecting the right person to delegate this task to is also an important factor in making your event a success. It is essential for this person to possess the necessary contacts with media companies, such as television stations and newspapers, way before the event kicks off.
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When it comes to logo design, you ultimately want it to convey your brand in the best possible manner. At the same time you don’t want it to take up too much space. That is the greatest challenge – to be able to create a winning impact within the space constraints. Here are the 7 factors you need to consider to have a logo that spells success!

1. Research always helps in effective logo design
Never make the mistake of rushing into creating a logo design. It will only make matters bad. You need to do a fair bit of research to understand the company, its objectives and mission as well as its business goals – both short and long term. You also need to know the demographics of the target audience.

2. Attractive and unique: two elements of great logo design
You would obviously want your logo design to catch the attention of the customer. At the same time it should not be screaming for attention. It should test the intellect of the customer; make him or her think a few minutes after seeing the logo. If you notice some of the top logo designs each of them have a unique aspect to it that depicts something about the company.

3. Simple and memorable logo design
One of things you need to really focus on is to make sure your logo design is not too cluttered or too fancy. This will just confuse the customer. Ultimately you want the customer to remember your brand. That will only happen if the logo is easy to remember. Also be sure that the logo sends out positive signals to the customer.
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