Color Ads make a better impression
Has this thought ever crossed your mind?
“For the same price as 1 full color ad in a magazine, I can run a grayscale ad for 3 months!”
If you’re a designer, most likely not. So why is it that this train of thought is so popular among clients? In their mind all ads are equal, so the cheaper the better, and we all know that is not often the case.
A few years back I had a great client, but he loved to get as many ads in as many magazines as possible, so all his ads were grayscale. In his mind he was saving $600 by not using color. After some major convincing, he now understood the real reason why full color ads cost so much, and more importantly, why they have more of an impact than their grayscale bretheren.
When you have a client that is hellbent on getting 6 ads for $1000, this could make for some frustrating times. You could just make the ads for him and be on your merry way, or you could do what’s best for your client, and inform them of the psychological impact a full color ad can have.
Grayscale:
(1) First thing you should inform your client of, is that most grayscale ads get printed toward the back of the magazine, severely limiting their audience. Think about it, if you spent $400 on an ad that only 100 people actually read, that’s $4.00 per impression!!! Now that’s one expensive ad that does not hold up it’s end of the bargain.
(2) Grayscale ads, give off the feeling of “cheap” when only a few pages before everything had the vibrance of full color. This can lower your demographic’s opinion of your company.
Full Color:
(1) Psychologically, we as human beings are drawn to vibrant colors like moths to the flame. Our eyes almost draw themselves to the ad no matter if we are in the market for “said product or service”. This allows for many more impressions since people tend to read them automatically! If a full color ad cost your client $1000 and they had 1,200 people read it then that very full color ad only cost 83 CENTS per impression!!! A much better deal than $4.
(2) Color ads usually are in the front and main content areas of the magazine! More exposure!!! (That’s where I got the 1,200 figure from above.)
Remember, that color ads may be more expensive at first sight, but have a higher visibility rate than grayscale ads at the back of the magazine. It just makes sense, and your client will be thanking you!