Why spend $0 on ad photography when you’re spending tens of thousands of dollars for a full-page newspaper ad?
Why would a national company use an amateur cellphone snapshot when its brand image at stake?
The Globe and Mail today published an ad supplement about franchising. The online version isn’t quite the same as the print version but it does have many of the same photos. The back cover of the print version has a full-page ad for a large pet care company. The amateur point-and-shoot photo missed the purpose of the business. It also missed everything needed in good photography.
Newspaper Advertorials
Readers may not know that some sections of a newspaper are actually advertorials produced by the ad department and/or outsourced to freelancers. This includes the sections for new cars, new homes, gardening, education, investing, travel, weddings and every other special section. I spent almost two decades at a Toronto daily newspaper and was involved with many of these sections.
The usual arrangement for these advertorial sections is that a business will receive a glowing editorial if it buys an ad in that section. The bigger the ad buy, the bigger the article.
Properly produced advertorials do serve a purpose for both consumer and business. Companies should be prepared to take advantage of these special sections when possible. A company can use its web site to publish its own editorial information if newspaper advertorials are not currently offered.
Photos Are Mandatory
Few of the featured companies, in today’s The Globe and Mail advertorial section, were prepared. Much of the photography was amateurishly done. Photos were out of focus, poorly exposed and badly composed. Crooked buildings and bad editing were obvious.
When producing advertorial, most newspapers require each featured business to supply their own photos (note the plural). It’s obvious from this Globe and Mail advertorial that some companies didn’t have more than one photo because the same image appeared in both the editorial and the company’s advertisement. This diminishes the value of the editorial.
Companies need to have business photos on hand, ready for use in press releases, public relations and media handouts. These can be produced over a period of time instead of being shot at the last minute when the need arises.
The photos should, as much as possible, have an editorial look to them. Editorial photography is more effective at getting attention and communicating a message than advertising photos.
Half of the photos in The Globe’s advertorial section failed basic requirements. That’s probably why the newspaper had to resort to using a cheap stock picture on the cover. None of the supplied photos were good enough for the section front page.
None of the featured companies in this newspaper advertorial section were ready for their close-up. They all lost the marketing advantage of free front-page coverage.
