Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1912 — THE BEST TIME TO ADVERTISE [ARTICLE]

THE BEST TIME TO ADVERTISE

By BERT M. MOSES,

President Association of American Advertisers. There is a popular saying that runs something like this: The best time to advertise is all the time.” i Like most sayings this sounds clever. This one is misleading and untrue. The best time to advertise is determined by weighing, analyzing, sifting, and finally adopting a method that cpmmon sense shows will fit nicely into your requirements. My business happens to be one which does not justify the use of large space. Two or three inches single column is about the limit of the present advertisement. A small space like that will show to best advantage on days when the fewest ads appear. So the first question I ask the publisher is this: “What days in .the week do the department stores use the least space?” , When I what these days are, I take the other days of the week.' This helps both the publisher and me.>

He is anxious to get copy on days when the advertising is light, and I get the best positions on those days. If you happen to have a seasonable article, the time to advertise it is when it is needed—that is so plain that to tell it here seems silly. Department stores, clothiers, hatters, and other merchants find it desirable to advertise most at that period in the week when the help in factories receive their pay. One of the fallacies which has become more or less fixed is the idea that it doesn’t pay to advertise in the summer. It would be just as logical to say people stop breathing in the summer time as to say they stop buying then. Hans Wagner, the great ball player, when asked the secret of his success in batting, replied: “I hit 'em where they ain’t.” So one of the good times to advertise is when the others are not advertising. The first mission of an advertisement is to be seen. Run your eye over this self-same paper, and note how some ads stick out, while others don’t.

This object lesson is under your eyes every day, and you can learn better by observing how others do it than I can tell you. Attention, however, isn’t the whole thing, because it must be favorable attention, or the reader will not stop and read.

The old idea of using a startling headline, or saying something outlandish and bizarre, has gone the way of other foolish things. A freakish ad. has the same effect as a loud vest on a man. Neither the ad. nor the man will make you feel like giving up your money. The best time to advertise has got to be figured out on the basis of common sense, and no one can tell you so well as you can tell yourself by trying out your own ideas. The best advertisement is that which is as plain and simple as you can possibly make it. Fine writing is not so effective as facts. Go right to the heart of the theme with the first word, get the thing said quickly, and then stop. Josh Billings told it all in this gem: "I don’t kare how much a man talks if he only sez it in a few words.”