RSS feedPublished: November 21, 2011, AdAge.
Cue "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid on YouTube. By New Year's Day you will have heard this song in stores and on the radio and maybe on your own iPod more times than you will see an effective digital ad from the retail sector.
Why? First, people don't get tired of the song. Second, retailing is too focused on direct response to get its message heard amid all the clutter of the holiday season.
Don't oversell direct response. We see this mistake over and over. Try the following experiment on Google. Search "winter jacket" and then "Gore-Tex jacket." You'll find hardly a website or ad campaign that communicates any information other than lower prices. But abandoning good creative in the busiest shopping season makes no sense.... Read more.
