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Gary and Jessica Houghton
11-15-2008, 4:16 PM
Okay, I need some help. I was contacted by phone to place an ad on a local sports poster displaying the team's games. It was only $150 for the ad. The size of the ad was about 2" x 2". Not huge, but okay by me. I have no budget for these things so I thought I could do something to help gain some exposure of our store. We got the poster...
Oh my goodness, you can't even read our ad. The poster is horrible. Everything is blurry. I could have printed one better. I told the man dropping off the poster how upset I was by this and he called his boss. Boss said take $50 off. I was stuck between doing the honorable thing (living up to my commitment) and going with my feeling of not paying a dime. I paid. I then noticed three other major mistakes with other ads. Wow, I was taken for a fool.
I was contacted by the manager who wants to keep my business. He wants me to advertise in another poster for the spring season. He said he would discount my ad to $50. Should I continue to advertise or tell him no? I know this seems like a no brainer for most, but I'm having a hard time with this one.

Thanks for the input.

Jack Harper
11-15-2008, 5:19 PM
Let him know you will consider the third poster but the next one will, of course, will need to be free to properly make up for the bad one.

Robert Rosensteel
11-15-2008, 7:25 PM
Hi Gary did you get what you paid for? What would you do if you engraved a persons award and it looked bad? The printers should not charge you for the next add. Or refund your money.

Dee Gallo
11-15-2008, 8:00 PM
Oh my goodness, you can't even read our ad. The poster is horrible. Everything is blurry. I could have printed one better. I told the man dropping off the poster how upset I was by this and he called his boss. Boss said take $50 off. I was stuck between doing the honorable thing (living up to my commitment) and going with my feeling of not paying a dime. I paid. I then noticed three other major mistakes with other ads. Wow, I was taken for a fool.


I spent many years designing ads and doing pasteups for things just like this. Most of the time people gave us really bad homemade business cards or worse yet, faxed them to me, but it was on me to make them look good. That's what the customer pays for. Did you provide the ad (art and copy) or did you leave it to them? Would it have been acceptable if it was not blurry? If it was the printer's bad job (either layout or printing), I would neither have paid them nor sign up for another drubbing. I assume you actually paid the sports sponsor, not the printer. When printers get away with poor business practices like that, it just encourages them to continue. The sponsor should not have accepted the job, so the loss is on them and they should refund your money or offer a free "next time". Printers love these jobs since the "real" (paying) customers never contact them to complain. Volunteers are just so happy their organizational nightmare part is over, they just accept the job and don't complain either. And remember your little $150 is only a fraction of what they took in for the whole project.

There must be other places for you to spend your hard earned money on advertising. $150 might sound like a cheap deal, but when it's totally wasted, it's a pretty bad deal. You might be better off donating $150 worth of small freebies to businesses/schools/offices/libraries/chambers of commerce/churches, etc. with a lot of traffic. Or taking out an ad in a local paper.

keep 'em honest - just my 2¢, dee

David James
11-15-2008, 9:39 PM
No, I am sure you can find another place to spend your hard earned money that will at least do better business. Also, as engravers, our work is expected to be perfect. If our ads, publishing's, and other exposure to our company isn't perfect, it reflects negatively on us.

Joe Pelonio
11-15-2008, 9:58 PM
No, I am sure you can find another place to spend your hard earned money that will at least do better business. Also, as engravers, our work is expected to be perfect. If our ads, publishing's, and other exposure to our company isn't perfect, it reflects negatively on us.
Exactly right, that ad could do you more harm than good.

Mike Null
11-16-2008, 12:21 AM
I am one who has never seen any payback for that kind of ad.

In fact, I spend every dime of my ad budget on the internet and have very good payback.

Mitchell Andrus
11-16-2008, 8:38 AM
Mike, agreed.

I do run print ads in (+50,000 circulation) magazines (never local rags, menus, booster books, etc) to drive people to me site, though. That DOES pay.

Booster ads of this nature are just donations to a good cause with a middle-man to screw up the ad. Write it off and move on, lesson learned.

Mark Winlund
11-16-2008, 12:40 PM
I am one who has never seen any payback for that kind of ad.

In fact, I spend every dime of my ad budget on the internet and have very good payback.


Same here. It is not an advertising medium for you, it is a way for the sports team to not have to pay for their advertising. You might as well go out and have a nice dinner in a restaurant... you'll get more out of it.

Mark

Bill Cunningham
11-16-2008, 8:32 PM
I find most local advertising such as this, just about worthless. If I do one, like the one I put one every year in the local horticultural society booklet. I consider it a donation, and it gets me business from the hort-group. I used to have a deal with Welcome Wagon, I would print their advertising handouts, and they would include my advertising in the local visting information they leave with new residents. In 12 years, the only business that ever got me was from other merchants wanting simple advertising handout for Welcome Wagon, usually 30-40 bucks worth of business cards, and as my business got busier(and not from Welcome Wagon) , it was finally not worth the time and effort to set up the welcome wagon fliers anymore, so I dropped them..
I get often get calls from promoters, trying to sell ad space in local police, fire, school. etc.. 'handbooks' (once you buy one, your on the 'patsy list' and you will be hounded forever. These groups sell lists among themselves) I just politely tell them I do not advertise locally, because thats not where my business comes from.. In all honesty, only about 5% of my business walks through my front door... The rest come through my website, or my industrial customers use my fax machine.. I do spend annual money on a 1" yellow page ad, but 'only' from the major local area Yellow page book.. Most cities now, have everyone and their brother publishing some type of phone book and most just end up dumped in the recycling box as soon as they hit the doorstep.. Another waste of money..
Your yellow page company will also try to sell you a 'link' from their directory (usually about $20.00+ a month) this is a total ripoff.. Think about it, when you search on line for a company or product, local or otherwise, do you search using the yellow page site, or Google? Ya I thought so, and neither do your neighbors! Word of mouth, is the ONLY local advertising worth anything.. But always be honest, and treat people fair. W.O.M. can also be your downfall!

Gary and Jessica Houghton
11-19-2008, 11:30 AM
Thank you all for your advise. I apologize for the delayed response. We live in a relatively small town that is growing. We have lived in the community for quite awhile and know many people. We do support the local schools and ads from this small town actually do well. I took a shot, got the bad end of the deal and now face the challenge many of you have faced; What next. I will take into consideration all of your advice.

Dee,

The ad was supposed to be my business card. Not too shabby of a card, if I do say so. The printer printed something similar to my card, but not my card. Thank you for your 2 cents.

Thank you again everyone.

Tom Delaney
11-19-2008, 1:27 PM
Any ad's should involve a 'proof' before they go to final. If they are not willing to show you EXACTLY what it will look like - and where you'll be in the printing. Thank them politely and move on (I like the idea of a nice dinner)!