ADVERTISING.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18690, 13 May 1926, Page 11

ADVERTISING.

THE WAY TO SUCCESS

ADDRESS BY MR WILL AITLETON

'•We all know about advertising success," said Mr Will Appleton, of Wellington, in an address before the Canterbury Advertising Club last night. "What we want to know is how to improve what we are doing, and avoid mistakes in the future. Though I have been in advertising for many year.', every day I am learning something fresh."

"Pitfalls in Adverti.-ing." was the. title of Mr Appleton's address, which contained much that was of importance and value to the business man as well as to the members of the club. There was a large attendance, a number of business men being present. Mr W. R. Carey presided.

Effective Advertising.

The best advertising, Mr Appleton said, was that which is absorbed by tho public without being conscious that it is advertising. An advertisement should arrest attention or it may be overlooked, but the reader should never bo over-conscious of the means employed. Every advertiser liked to get out of the rut and shoot up a few. rockets, but noise alone would not influence public opinion because the public, in tho mass, is conservative. Popular lines dropped out of public favour, but the fault was'not the consumer's, but the advertiser's, who may have failed to keep up the quality, or more likely be has failed to keep the public educated. Advertising required time as well as money, and it was this that made it the safest and best investment. "Because of this," said Mr Appleton, "few competitors have; the money, fewer have the courage, and fewer still have the patience to take the time necessary to build a success big enough, and permanent enough to endanger the leadership which your advertising has created." Constant advertising was business insurance, ensuring not only the present, but the future market.

raise Economy,

Some advertisers were alarmed at the cost of art work and plates, but they forgot that when they bought space they only bought certain blank space, and it was what was-put into it that counted. The slight additional cost of a good design, or of appropriate copy, made all the difference between a really good advertisement and a poor one. Space cost money, and the more expensive it .was the' more necessary it was to fill it to the best advantage. It was false economy to stop advertising when business fell away. , When trade was slow was the time when extra punch should be put into advertising, and when it became most effective. An advertisement then got more attention because more timid operators left the field to the enterprisuig and optimistic advertiser. Experience proved that the trader who went after the trade got it every time—good times or bad.

The Best Medium.

''When Mr Coates went to the country last election, what did he do?. He went into the advertising columns of the newspapers. That is a sign of the times," Mr Appletou said, "and it shows, the power of newspaper advertising." If an advertiser was in. the principal newspapers of a city he could safely resist advertising schemes of pretty well every other description. In the newspaper the advertiser was reaching the largest possible percentage of possible purchasers, and he was talking ej;ery .working day in the year in the medium that goes into the family circle, that is, part of the family life, and that sustains peculiar iutimate relations with the home. People are in a receptive frame of mind when they are reading the newspapers, and, if the advertising is properly written, it cannot but incite action. A.newspapcr advertiser is fortified against all comers because .he knows that he is covering the most promising .held intensely and completely." On the motion of Mr R. H. Webb, and bv acclamation, Mr Appleton was accorded a vote of thanks.