Banner Ads put vendors’ names in front of potential buyers of their services. Banners are not the catalysts that prompt adjusters to call immediately for the services represented by the vendors; what prompts a phone call or a referral through the vendor’s website is a claim situation that demands that banner advertiser’s type and quality of service.  Then the claims adjuster goes through the names in his or her mind.  What service provider is going to be the right fit for this particular case? They probably never directly remember some banner ad in such a given moment. 

Service providers always want to be on the list in the adjusters’ heads.  Display Advertising in print and Banner Advertising on a web page continuously reinforce name recognition.  It’s through name recognition and familiarity that a case gets referred.  It’s through that perpetual name recognition and name remembering that when the need for a service comes up, the buyer reaches for that particular service provider.

I have discovered well lately, that most vendors who service the claims industry don’t understand this principle.  They don’t understand that nobody is going to just call up and say, “Oh, I just saw your Banner Ad so I thought I’d call you up and try you out by giving you a case.”  It doesn’t work that way.   No way.  Display and Banner Advertising communicate perpetually over long periods of time.   It’s constantly reinforcing a service in the potential buyer’s mind.  And then when that potential buyer has a need and is to become a real buyer, a certain vendor’s name comes to mind.

Recently, an interested Banner Advertiser said to me, “May I have a trial period and just try it out for three months and see how many referrals I get?”  I said no.  No way.  I said I’d be stealing that client’s money for so short an Ad run; plus, that client would not be able to directly measure referrals through a Banner Ad at all, but ESPECIALLY not through a short term Banner Ad.  I said that would be a disaster so I refused to sell.   I felt like I would be flushing that client’s cash down the toilet.

In the long run, it’s the advertising and everything else a vendor does to become known, that all come together to create knowledge and familiarity. 

Imagine you’re watching a football game some Sunday afternoon and you see a Coca-Cola commercial during half-time.  Chances are, you are not going to run out to the supermarket right then and there and buy a six-pack of Coca-Cola because you watched a Coke commercial.  But, over time, and it’s been a very long time for Coca-Cola, you tend to check out the six-packs of cokes in the supermarket when you decide to buy some soft drinks.  You don’t even think about it consciously, but you find yourself picking up a six pack or two of Coke and placing it in your cart.  Often, you may not even remember any specific, particular commercial.

And no, you don’t call up Coca-Cola headquarters and say to an executive there, “Hey, I just saw your commercial on television.  Nice advertisement. I’m going to start drinking coke.”   Nobody does that.   We are unconscious creatures who are persuaded subliminally by our unconscious minds.  We get a good feeling about a product or service and very unconsciously and at an emotional level we are drawn to that particular product or service.  We irrationally find ourselves buying it.  But this is not an overnight process.  This is a long term process. 

When someone sees a Viagra ad, one does not run out and buy a pack of Viagra. Of course, one needs a prescription.   But over time, one comes to know what it is and then someday in the future some man might say to his doctor, “Oh, by the way…” But that male patient never calls the drug company and says, “Oh, I saw your Viagra commercial and I thought your medication must be so wonderful that I decided to get on it.”  It doesn’t happen like that.

We see the exotic Corona beer commercials with the scenes on a sunny beach with the limes perched on the rims of the bottles while a couple sits relaxing in chairs wearing their beach attire.   Then at some time in the future we are sitting in a restaurant and decide to drink a beer.  Somehow we happen to order a Corona.  We don’t know precisely why.   We don’t tell the waiter, “Oh, I saw that commercial with the couple on the beach drinking two Coronas, so I decided I’ll order a Corona.” 

So, display advertising, banner advertising, and commercial advertising are impossible to directly measure.  Responses to them are never direct.   The responses are a long, mysterious and indirect process that are not directly measurable. 

 Readers may write to writer Lonce LaMon at lonce@adjustercom.com