All is not yet lost

A question about TV ads

How long does an ad have to run before the makers decide it's hit its saturation point? The point at which we all have seen it so many times that they can switch to showing us a shortened, cheaper, punchline-only version of the same ad, and trust our memory to fill in the rest.

Who makes that decision, and what do they base it on? Are there different timeframes for different products, or different ads? Is it the mark of a well designed ad that it can be made into long and short versions? As opposed to the ones that only work at one length?

Of course, this is all secondary to the question of whether any of these ads are effective. As in, do any of them convince people to buy the product they are advertising. A lot of ads seem to get people talking about them, or chuckling over them, without doing a whole lot to motivate sales and actual revenue for the company paying for them. Is this really the case, or am I just not the target demographic for any ad out there today? I'm a 25 year old single working woman - surely some of these are aimed at me? Or are these companies really continuing to pay out for ads that do nothing more than keep their name in front of people all the time, even without an actual call to action.

Any advertising / marketing type people out there who can answer these questions?

posted by TiredMama @ 12/12/2005 09:23:00 PM