Creating demand is a building process.

As I've pointed out before which you may have missed is that creating demand is a building process. We have to start with a foundation and then later on accordingly, there really is a chronological order to it all which means skipping ahead does no good. You'll have to go through all the previous sessions in order before you'll be ready to do any effectiveness doubling.  

Let us start by quickly summarising what got us to this point.

You chose a preprocessed word and linked it to your logo, as we discussed in chapter 5. With this, you're already making valuable subconscious impressions that are accumulating in consumers' brains. You are in good shape, now let's build.

We are going to take those two elements, your preprocessed word, and logo, plus a third element, a point line, and incorporate them into your ads and commercials.

This is called the simul conscious strategy you recall because you are affecting people who are both in the attentive and inattentive state. The result is a doubling of your ads effectiveness, actually, your effectiveness may have more than doubled since 80% of the receivers of each ad or commercial are in the inattentive state, that is a lot of people we could affect. 

You really have the potential to triple, quadruple, or even quintuple your effectiveness, but I like to operate on the conservatives sides, so let us just say we have a high degree of confidence, we can at least double the effectiveness of our advertising when we are using the simul conscious strategy. 

As is the case with every strategy and technique in this blog, simul consciously works for both small-scale and large-scale marketers.

If you are a tiny one-person outfit or a large multinational or anything in between, the simul conscious strategy will work for you. 

Now let us get into the mechanics of it. 

Since you already had a pre-process word and have attached it to your logo, the one remaining element you need to prepare is your point line. To get a clear understanding of the point line, I'd like to explain exactly what it is and is not.

A point line is a one-sentence summary of the main message you are trying to get across.  

It's the gist of the ad, a point line is not a slogan. 

Here is the difference: a slogan attaches to a product or company, it transcends individual advertisements. It's usually image-oriented and only changes every few years if ever. A point line, on the other hand,  attached to individual ads, is logo-oriented and may change with each ad. 

Here is an example: that shows the difference between a point line and a slogan. 

McDonald's' slogan one of many they've used over the years is:

"I'm loving it".

Their point line is "Open at 6 am for breakfast". 

A point line is a simple straightforward plain sentence, a point line is not a clever play-on-words poetic masterpiece.

You can give it some thought, some strategic reasoning behind it, you can revise it until you come up with the final version.

Just make sure your point line ends up simple and straightforward.

A point line is usually 9 words or less,  a point line is not an encompassing sentence. if you ask me what number of words is ideal, I'd say between 3 and 6. 

Here is how to create a point line.

Imagine someone who is exposed to your ad or commercial who does not want to pay any conscious attention to it. That person shouts to you "what are you trying to tell me, I do not have the time nor the desire to pay attention. So just give me the point quickly".

Your answer in as few words as possible is your point line. 

Do you remember my point line that summarised the previous chapter? 

It was "you do not need their attention".

Now I am going to create the point line for this chapter. 

I'll pretend some reader is shouting "Derek what are you trying to tell me", I do not have the time nor the desire to pay attention, so just give me the point, quickly!".  My response will be: "Double the effectiveness of your advertising".

There you go, the point of this chapter.

Time to put it all together.

Exactly how you incorporate your three simul conscious ad elements into your ads and commercials is very important. What I am going to do now, is give you a format or structure to follow when constructing your ads or commercials so you can achieve that spectacular effectiveness you deserve.

This structure is meant to limit creativity, you can still be as creative as you want to be with your advertising. It is sort of like fashion designing, the structure is the human body, 1 head, 2 Arms, 1 trunk, 2 legs. The same structure never changes.

How the designer adorns that structure is where all the creativity comes in. By the way, I realise that you, yourself may not be the person who actually designs your ads. Perhaps you use an ad agency or any number of freelancers to handle various aspects of your advertising. There is nothing wrong with you providing your agency or freelancer with the structure and asking that they follow the procedures.

They want to know want, what you expect, just let them know.

Here is my recommended structure for a full-motion commercial that may be viewed on television, computer, tablet, or any other device.

Step#1: Begin your commercial with your preprocess word and logo. They should appear on the screen in the first 1.5 seconds.

The first second and a half of your commercial is when the viewers' eyes are most likely to be there. It is also when their brain is most receptive to influence even in the inattentive state.

It is the most important part of your full motion commercial which is why our preprocessed word and logo need to be there then.

In the first 1.5 Seconds, the viewers' defenses or perception filters are at their lowest level, it's when the brain actually welcomes information, instead of blocking it out. In fact, the brain often uses what it sees in the first 1.5 seconds to decide what state to assume, attentive or inattentive.

Your preprocess word and logo make their strongest possible impression during this brief window of welcome.  Your preprocess word and logo do not need to be full screen, all though that is necessary strong. They could be smaller and on the side with some other video footage running behind them.

That could be strong too. 

 A much weaker strategy is to wait until the end of the commercial to finally show the logo, as though the advertiser is trying to make some sort of statement first before revealing who is making the statement. This would be like someone calling you on the phone and talking before identifying themselves. That would be kind of rude, not to mention ineffective.

What's the first thing you do when the following someone, you identify yourself of course.

Do the same in your full-motion commercials.

So if their defenses are down and they are paying some attention in the first one and a half seconds, and determining what state to be in, why don't I show something that jumps them into attention for the entire commercial. Well as I mentioned before, viewers have seen it all and are pretty desensitised.

Other than the word "Breaking News" or showing a naked person, both of which you are not likely to use. I can't imagine what information you might present, besides that,  you may be fighting the viewer by trying to get their attention.

The viewer doesn't want to pay attention most of the time though. But the viewer does want at the beginning of the commercial is an answer to the question: Who is speaking to me?. Give him or her the answer to that question and you have a better chance of getting them to stick around for whatever else you have to say. And if the viewer chooses to go into the inattentive state for the remainder of your commercial, so be it.  

Your preprocessed word and logo have made a valuable subconscious impression even nothing else happens. 

Step#2 In constructing your full motion video commercial is to show your logo repeatedly throughout the commercial. You don't know when an inattentive viewers' eyes happen to glance at the screen.

You want to increase the odds at least you're preprocessing word and logo will impress their subconscious. Have you ever watched someone when they are fast-forwarding through television commercials? Where are their eyes? Their eyes glued to the screen whilst they are fast-forwarding so they know when to hit the play button I guess.

Let us say you had constructed a commercial with your logo on the screen in the same position throughout the entire commercial.

What will the viewers see as they fast-forwarded through?

They will see your logo the whole time.

Fast-forwarding usually reveals snippets of video. If your logo were there the whole time, it would make a conscious impression as well as subconscious.

What it would appear awkward for your logo to be on screen the whole commercial or pop up periodically? Good! One of the ways to make your logo impress inattentive viewers is to let it appear on the screen in various ways even without any logical attachment to anything else going on.

Your logo needs no storyline justification for being there, just have it flyby, crawly, hang there, or be sitting in the lower right corner, whether that seems awkward or not.

You and the viewer will get used to it and any seeming awkwardness will dissipate in time anyway. 

Step#3 Show your point line in one of two possible positions, right after the first 1.5 Seconds of your pre-process word and logo or right after your logo appearance further into the commercial. Here is another option, your point line could be delivered strictly in the audio track and not visually. Just make sure it comes right after one of your logo appearances.

In this case, case the logo is visual. the point line auditory. 

Step#4 is to repeat your brand name several times in the audio track, the actual number of times depends on the length of your commercial. And yes you can repeat a phone number or website address too although this starts to get into direct response advertising which is a different animal.

With direct response commercials including long-form infomercials, we assume that the viewer is either in the attentive state or they are not a viewer at all. But do not forget, the simul conscious strategy is designed to affect people in the attentive state as well as those in the inattentive state, so you can't go wrong using it even in direct response commercials. 

Step#5 is to construct the audio track as though it were a radio commercial with full-motion video commercials, you have the opportunity to impress the viewers' brain from two different sources at once. There is video information entering through their eyes and auditory information entering through their ears, use both!

During a recent football broadcast, I left my room to get something from the kitchen when a commercial came on. In the time I was in the kitchen, I was paying some attention to the sound because I wanted to be sure that get back on the game resumed, guess you could say I was an inattentive viewer and an attentive listener, but what did I hear? 30 seconds of music, no one answer, no singing no words providing me with a brand name or point line or anything.

Just unrecognisable music.

Some marketer paid good money to air that commercial then failed to deliver any message. Evidently, he or she expected people to be sitting in front of the television and actually watching the commercial.

Speaking of radio, or any auditory commercial, the implementation steps are almost the same as with the video commercials. 

Step#1 Present your preprocess word and brand name in the first 1.5 seconds.

Step#2 Repeat your brand name several times throughout the commercial.

Step#3 Deliver your point line right after your brand name.

As you can see, using the simul conscious strategy is pretty simple once you've done it a few times. 

Now let us see how to simul consciously construct print or still ads that could appear in traditional newspapers, magazines, direct mail pieces, or even brochures. Still, ads could also appear in various electronic media including websites, tablet newspapers, or magazines, or embedded in apps.

Rather than suggest implementation steps which you probably know by now, let me suggest what you might want to avoid with a print or still add. There is a common format that looks something like this: 

At the top of the ad, big and bold is a double entendre play on word headline or a picture that is supposed to catch the eye or both then having presumably grabbed the reader's attention, they lead the reader through a thick of a directionless copy.

Eventually, getting around to making the point. Sometimes the copy never makes a clear point, then they plot the logo at the very end usually in the lower right corner. 

You have probably identified several problems with this visual format and would not waste time enumerating all the problems. 

Just remember the vast majority of readers aren't going to pay conscious attention to ads, the solution is to simply use your 3 simul conscious ad elements as the main ingredients of your still ads.  

For example, you might consider using your point line as the headline, which will be very strong,  another option would be to begin your body copy with your point line, and of course, your preprocess word with the attached logo should be big enough to jump out.

What about billboards? or banner ads? Billboards, banners, and even bumper stickers are great simul consciousness mediums because the consumers' subconscious mind is wide open when they are driving or surfing the web.

Of course, you do not have much physical space to work with, do not try to cramp too much information under a billboard or banner ad.

Your preprocess word and logo along with your point line and perhaps a photo are all that will fit. But those are great elements and they will make subconscious impressions. 

As we wrap up this chapter, I have got to caution you against unintentional simul consciousing, that is, you may be inadvertently impressing the subconscious mind, with a message that hurts you rather than helps you.

The first way this can happen is when you depict a very disappointed, frustrated, or otherwise unhappy customer, you show your logo.

I have mentioned this before in a previous chapter you may recall, so you probably know where the problem comes in. In the attentive state,  the receiver is paying enough attention to get your intended message, they understand your depicting an unhappy situation and that your product or service alleviates the problem and leads to happiness, got it!

But to those in the inattentive state, your intended message doesn't get through, instead of having the troubled customer you are depicting and your logo you are putting can get linked in the inattentive receiver's mind. This is not good, the other way you can unintentionally simul conscious is with comparative advertising. It happens when you mention a competitor's brand name or show their logo in your commercials.

You see this more often with large-scale marketers rather than with small-scale marketers because the big corporations have a battery of lawyers who can fend of the inevitable lawsuits.

I can remember one package delivery company that showed their competitor's trucks as well as their own in television commercials and magazine ads. There was a soft drink that showed their competitors logo as well as their own and one Pizza company that showed a competitor's delivery guy choosing to eat another company's product instead of his own which happened to be the advertisers brand of course.

Once again the problem occurs with the inattentive viewer whose conscious mind blocks it all out but whose subconscious mind is impressed with all the logos shown.

Here is what is interesting, the subconscious mind doesn't assign any values to the information it receives, it doesn't assign your competitors logo a negative value and your logo a positive value, rather your competitors logos that you're sharing your ads are making just as valid an impression as your own logo in the mind of the inattentive receiver.

So now you know how to simul conscious effectively and how to avoid any potential problems, get busy, construct great ads and double the effectiveness of your advertising at no additional cost.

In the next chapter, I will discuss ways you can maintain and grow demand over the long haul, I'll even mention specific demand busting pitfalls so you can insulate yourself against them.

It will be fun and I'll meet you there.