Advert production for magazine

stanmoresaver

Anyone out there have any pointers on advert production. Never done this before and very loathe to take a walk along the local high street.

I have the wordings, just need to make it look good and have a format that i can use to get to the publisher.


Any help really appreciated.

Savvy_Sue

Not sure I really know what you're asking, but if you are advertising in a magazine first step would be to talk to them about the format they want in it. I don't know what the modern equivalent of 'camera-ready' is, but if there is anything other than straight text in your advert then you need to know what graphics format they want, and even if it is just straight text you may want a particular font etc. If it's colour printing that's a whole different ball-game about which I know nothing ...

Try and get copy in in plenty of time: if they have to send you a proof then read it thoroughly and quickly and respond.

IME (which I admit is limited to advertising jobs!) you are paying an arm and a leg for the privilege of advertising in a particular magazine, so you might as well get your money's worth!

Talking of which, I have found with jobs that it is worth expressing slight reservation about the first price quoted. "Oh, that's a bit more than our budget runs to" has had an amazing effect for me! Don't know if the same holds true for other forms of advertising, but it can't hurt to try! And definitely worth asking for a discount for repeat runs, but dont tie yourself into repeats unless you are sure they are worth it.

bridiej

I was going to have some leaflets printed up at one point, they asked for it to be saved to disk in Word and they would be able to use that.

As for layout, any printer worth their salt should be able to advise you on suitable layouts and give you their expert opinion.

stanmoresaver

Thanks to both of you for your advice- sorry i didn't make my self clear. :doh:

Suppose I am asking for a referall to a printing company (internet based or not) that people have had good experiences with rather than taking pot luck.

gonzo10

stanmoresaver wrote:

Suppose I am asking for a referall to a printing company (internet based or not) that people have had good experiences with rather than taking pot luck.

This will all depend on what you want printing! Many printers tend to specialise in a certain area. I could tell you of a printer that can print 5000 business cards for £99 but he wouldnt be competitive when it comes to printing 5,000 40page brochures.

MDUK

stanmoresaver wrote:

Thanks to both of you for your advice- sorry i didn't make my self clear. :doh:

Suppose I am asking for a referall to a printing company (internet based or not) that people have had good experiences with rather than taking pot luck.

Are you placing an ad in a magazine or producing your own collateral.

It may be you are looking for a graphic designer rather than a printer. (nearly) all printers have design capability but it doesn't mean they are designers, i have seen some really poorly designed collateral produced by printers. If you are advertising with a publication them may well offer a 'design service' as part of the fee but again i have seen them churn out some really awful stuff. This is when it is better to bite the bullet and pay someone who knows what they are doing to produce something for you.

If you give a clearer indication of what you are trying to do i may be able to give you some pointers.

stanmoresaver

Basically its an eighth of a page colour ad promoting the service of my company in a trade mag-

Hope this isn't against the rules but you can access my website from my username which is similar content to the ad. I have the (allowed) text and just need a designer to format it and supply me with an appropriate way to get it to the publisher without paying through the nose.

VixxAnn

Any decent magazine will have a design department, true they may not be the best in the world, but they WILL design your ad for free if you have booked a slot in their publication.

From my experience, and I do this an awful lot, send them your text in basic word format on an email, also if you have any pictures, just send them over as jpegs. If you have a basic idea of how you want the ad laid out then get this written down descriptively the best you can and send that too.

Then you need to get a proof back from them ASAP, this enables you plenty of time to consider the design and get back to them with any changes. Make sure you do tell them ANY changes and get another proof. Then same thing again, and keep going until it is right. Don't worry about being a pain, they are being paid a large amount of your money (ads are never cheap or even a good deal!). Also its in their best interest to get the ad just right as you'll be happy, you will hopefully get more enquiries and then book with them again.

Good luck - hope it brings you some work.:D

payless

Does the trade mag not just accept something you knock up in word / publisher ( thats what I sent in when I did an ad... and they tarted it up )

Or does your principal network have these facilities ??

Must admit the one and only advert I paid for ( quality homes mag) produced no business at all , but calls from other people selling space!! that said I notice your client base is mentioned, so perhaps in a specialist trade mag it might work out better

stanmoresaver

Thanks to all who have given me advice on this-

In the end i haggled very hard and got a 40% reduction on their normal rate and they will produce an ad based on the word document i have sent them and capturing my "brand image" from my website.

fair comment about only creating calls from others trying to sell you more space, every other production ( but not that many as nearly all my business comes from referalls) i have tried resulted in this. This ad is not only to create enquiries but to back up my reputation within the particlar market.

Guess it's down to "nothing ventured, nothing gained"

Thanks again

:beer:

MDUK

stanmoresaver wrote:

capturing my "brand image" from my website.

Word of caution, if they try and capture images or logos from your website they will be low resolution, which looks fine on web but is likely to look very poor in print.

The alternative is to provide them with the original images in the appropriate format tiff, jpeg etc.

You often see ads in papers where logos have been scanned rather than re-drawn (this is partly what i meant i my earlier comment abuot the quality of free services)

See what they come back with but if you are not happy, push back, you are spending this money to give you some credibility, don't let them undermine YOUR ad.