Writing an Advertisement

3. How Big and How Often?

3.1 The size and style of your ad should depend on the publication it is to appear in.

• For example, Philglas & Swiggot, a wine shop in London specialising in Australian wine, used a simple ad in the local paper to let people know the shop had opened. The launch ad said 'SUPERB AUSTRALIAN WINES ... at sensible prices', then gave the shop's address. It was large enough to stand out, but no more, and it told the readers exactly what they wanted to know.
• The same shop also sells special wines by mail order. To promote this, a series of ads was placed in Wine magazine. These were quite different. They aimed to create a stylish, sophisticated image and listed individual wines, using jargon only a wine expert would appreciate. The ads were large and attractive and included the shop's distinctive logo.

3.2 The type of publication and the cost per ad will dictate how often your ad should run.

• Philglas & Swiggot's initial local paper ad was repeated for 20 weeks.
• The expensive ad in the monthly wine magazine did not need so many repeats, especially as many readers kept each issue.