Are you getting the proper return on investment of your advertising dollar? Do you feel that your marketing dollars and advertising expenditures are getting the results that you want? How do you track your advertising and marketing dollar expenses? Do you survey customers to make sure how they learned about your products or services?

Have you considered the ratio of advertising dollars to new customers? Are you sure that your advertising dollar delivery is sending the proper message to your target market and potential customers? What methods do you have a place for tracking advertising and marketing dollars? Do you have a sophisticated system or are you relying on the data that the last advertising representative or account executive gave to you?

If you were an advertising salesman what kind of data would you want to give to your customers and businesses that advertise with you? Probably data that make it look like their advertising dollars and marketing dollars are well accounted for and deliver excellent results from the target group or target market.

If this is the system you are relying on to make sure you are not wasting your marketing and advertising dollars then you can expect to continue to waste your money and never achieve the goals you have set out to achieve in your company. Please consider this in 2006.

Is your company heavy on the advertising and marketing side of things? Are you able to insure that your customer is indeed getting the message? Are you properly getting the word out and are you able to make sure that your customer or target-market it indeed absorbing this message?

Perhaps you need to consider a strategy to make sure that the customers mind is indeed picking up your message and registering it. Perhaps you need a disruptor in your advertising; a way to single your ads out and increase your chances of being seen? Do you have an advertising disruptor strategy? Do people see and remember your advertising; is it registering? Well, one way to tell is if it is actually working?

What I am saying is your advertising is competing for the consumers eyeball and you need to know if it is working. Sure, you can put a scantily clad picture of a gal in a bikini in your ads, but is that relevant if you are advertising for a bank, accounting practice or a Karate Studio?

You see you need a disruptor to grab their eye. If you put a picture of a high kicking person in a karate outfit with a black belt on, well they will get the idea and then you can give them you on target simple pitch and message. You must consider a disruptor in your advertising. Consider all this in 2006.

If you can’t find a banner that meets your needs, and can custom design your own. You can customize your banner and distinguish yourself from hundreds of banners seen everyday. You can then submit your specification to a banner production company; they will produce it for you.

Make your design simple – the simpler the design, the easier it is to read. People glance at banners as they are passing or driving by. They will not take in minute details, so the less said the better. If you’re advertising for a road race, give the facts like name, date and location. Also include a number or location to go to for more information. Attractive designs with direct to the point or edgy captions work best. Consult a graphic designer or ad copywriter for advice on this point.

Captions or any words printed on your banner should be in large fonts, and a combination of contrasting colors will work well. The key is to outline the letters with white to separate the colors. If you have at least a sentence to print use a banner that is a horizontal, rectangular shape. This will allow you to maximize the surface of the banner. Drop banners, or those placed vertically are usually for one-product advertisements, with very short captions. Squares are also used for the same purpose. Again, stick to simplicity. A professional artist can help you transform your bright idea into a life-sized banner. To save time and fees, be as specific and detailed as possible with your directions.

First, thanks to the good folks at Yahoo! for their Long and Winding Road summit series they presented here in Dallas this morning. They are a class act and man are they on brand. My name tag looked professionally printed and my name was even in the Yahoo! approved font.

The main topic of this cooperative effort by Y! and OMD was the purchase cycle and how it has been affected by the internet. I agreed with most of it, although the majority of the findings were affirmations more than discoveries. Actually, the most exciting part of the presentation for me was that a key take away was nearly identical to something I wrote about in my 6/6 posting: Create your media plan around the consumer's daily behavior rather than starting with one medium and filling in around it. A very bright gentleman named Mike Hess, Global Research Director at OMD, presented this and other findings. Mike, I'm glad we're on the same page ;)

Speaking more big picture, one of the two topics/findings they covered ties in wonderfully to this week's Ad Age poll (Thanks to Tammy Cancela at New Media Gateway for this forward.) The findings indicate that there are four different "roads" to a purchase. Quick, Winding, Long, and Long & Winding. Now let's revisit that Ad Age poll. The question posed is whether or not Clear Channel's idea of creating one second long radio ads will work and stay around. Maybe for the "Quick" road described in Yahoo!'s study, but not likely for the other three. In other words, for very low dollar purchases where there is a clear category leader - this might be fine. For the rest of us, it's useless.