Anatomy of a print ad
A print ad is a piece of advertising you see in a newspaper or magazine.
It is a primary medium (above-the-line) and has several sub-categories (below-the-line): Out-of-home (billboard, transit ads, ambient, etc.), merchandising collaterals (brochures, leaflets, menus, annual reports, direct marketing, etc.).
Print ads come in different sizes: from small (one column width) by “x” number of centimeters (height) to 9 columns by 53 centimeters—the full page of a standard newspaper.
All of them have one goal—sell a product, a service, or a brand.
The two main elements of a print ad are: Copy, the words you see, created by the copywriter, author of idea and messages in the ad, and Visuals (photographs, graphic designs or illustrations) laid out by the art director, the visual specialist who makes sure the ad is appealing to viewers.
The physical makeup of a standard print ad has:
– Lead-in—a teaser that introduces the main message to create excitement, usually found on top of the ad.
– Headline—the strongest element in the ad, always written in big, bold fonts like in newspapers, provocative, compelling, intriguing and attention getting.
– Subhead—reinforces the main message, usually contains the reasons-to-believe for your consumer promise, slightly smaller than the headline.
– Body—the whole informative content that carries all details about the product. It can be a one line or a paragraph.
– Tagline—a well-crafted catchphrase or slogan that capsulizes either the following: brand persona, what the product promises to deliver, a distinct point of difference written in a few, memorable words.
Slogans are not cast in stone. Top brands change their slogans all the time. There are good and great slogans. The great ones can stand alone without qualifiers or visuals.
There are no hard and fast rules in crafting, unless they offend. “Rules are what the creative mind breaks,” so goes the (advertising legend) Bernbach saying in advertising.
An ad can sometimes have no need for words or pictures. A powerful photo can be a ‘headline,’ and deliver the message without words, in the same manner as a picture can speak a thousand words.
An ad can be all-copy, with nary an image. It can be a great ad if the message breaks an existing belief and delivers a new truth or insight.