Not a week goes by where I don’t see an email about a special offer for some last minute advertising space left in an upcoming publication. While the offers can be enticing and very reasonable financially, my advice to clients before they pull the trigger is to remember the way you need to analyze every activity like this – make sure it is strategic and not episodic. Is this a publication that you have been advertising with recently so the audience is conditioned to seeing your name regularly? Is the message and creative you may develop for this one-off the same as readers may see across other mediums? The point is, when you are executing a strategic communications campaign, every tactic must tie together and continue to tell the same story. You don’t want to surprise audiences, and trying to get lucky by placing one add that will likely get no traction falls into this category. Sure, it may be buying season in the Federal Government, or the entire issue is dedicated to the key market area you want to penetrate.
Despite how enticing this opportunity may be, I would only consider this offer if it is part of a strategic, ongoing plan and it aligns with all the other messages that are getting delivered to the market. If you are going to execute an advertising campaign, then do it right by starting with the goals you are trying to achieve and matching up your buy accordingly. Otherwise, I can think of a lot more strategic ways of spending that money on that “last minute” advertising space.