The advertorial Edge

Whenever they're seen on TV, infomercials tempt viewers to order the products they feature. You must have seen one yourself. Infomercials are these long information-driven TV commercials that look like mini-TV shows. They sell anything-home exercise equipment, super stain remover, encyclopedia sets, health, sex appeal, happiness, anything.

In newspapers and magazines, infomercials are called advertorials. It's short for advertising editorials. These page-size advertisements take the style and character of a regular editorial item, but with the pull of an advertisement. Readers take them as seriously as the other articles in the publication. In short, the impact of advertorials on readers is stronger.

Nowadays readers have grown rather hard to penetrate by the standard advertisements. They quickly recognize any attempt to sell them something, and are as quick to flip the page. No matter what great creative artistry goes into every square inch of a print ad, it is still an ad in the readers' eyes. And as such, it is viewed with some degree of cynicism.

An advertorial does more than just try to sell something. It takes the space to fully explain the benefits of its offer. It can present a very subtle yet very powerful argument in favor of its featured product. A good advertorial is as sensible, and often as objective, as any editorial story. Therefore, it has high credibility with the readers.

Advertorials generally contain consumer benefits, product features, consumer testimonials, and, sometimes, a sales promotion incentive like a redeemable coupon or a special price offer. They're usually presented like a special article, usually in color, with matching photos or pictorial illustrations. They can actually be as eye-catching as the usual advertisement, only more dignified in form and content.

In a random survey, consumers said they had responded positively to at least one of every four advertorials they read, within a week of their reading it. That's a whopping 25 percent immediate response rate! The survey also noted that people found advertorials to be either interesting to read or useful, or both. They cut out clippings of these, especially the ones containing practical tips and important facts.

Why advertorials are yet not as common as the standard advertisements is perhaps a budgetary issue. An advertorial piece would normally entail a full page. A smaller space would either cramp the copy or, if not, would not stand out in the page. In other words, it should be a large-piece placement. And it can be quite expensive.

A small company's advertising budget may be able to afford only so much advertorial placements within a given period. If their product needs constant recall to push, like in the case of grocery products, they may have to go for smaller-size but more frequent ads.

Another problem is creating the advertorial copy. It may not be wise for small product manufacturers to write their own advertorials. It is a special form of communication that needs a professional to do. However, qualified advertorial writers are quite hard to find. Many professional publicity or advertisement writers lack the right mix of objectivity, salesmanship and credibility that a good advertorial copy requires.

Yet product marketers who have tried using advertorials express great satisfaction with the results. They say that for the same price-or sometimes even lower-as the usual advertisement of the same print space, advertorials are highly cost-effective. Many advertising producers also find advertorials to be a good-and economical-way of testing their sales pitch before launching infomercials on TV.

Moreover, the same advertorial material that is meant for media publication can be reduced to leaflet size and distributed to people around the business venue or point-of- sales. It can also be posted on the business' web site. A good advertorial copy can sometimes even slip smoothly into the free pages of newspapers and magazines and, always, into the hearts and minds of consumers.