When reviewing press advertising within the sofa market there seems to be little difference in terms of brand creative. Each one includes an image of a sofa, thank goodness, and there is usually a nod to lifestyle.
Sofa Workshop is no exception. It’s a recognised brand but there are some fundamentals that every advertiser should follow. Sofa Workshop has many brilliant qualities: great heritage and expertise, British-made along with a wide range of exclusive designs; huge fabric choice and handcrafted to order. But you’d be hard pressed to know it from this advert.
Placing this ad in situ, it has to work extremely hard. As the reader flicks through the weekend supplement, is there sufficient standout to make them stop and read more? After all, a sofa is a sofa is a sofa. What is different about a sofa from Sofa Workshop?
The star of the show is the sofa; you may not like this particular colour or style but overall, it is a good looking sofa, on trend with fabric and colour. So why show only half a sofa? When you consider the price of the media in conjunction with how much you see of the sofa, the sofa has been demoted to the chorus.
And so to the logo and strapline (A) – ‘our craft, your creation’ – a great message. But to understand this you need to read the body copy (B) which, given the use of white copy on a pale background, is rather a challenge. And it only takes on bad print run for this crucial text to be completely illegible.
Within this body copy are key messages – none of which stand out. The key selling points and call to action are lost amongst the body copy – diversity in font weight, colours and point sizes would have helped here. Simply re-positioning the copy onto a darker coloured rug would also solve this.
So a missed opportunity with the creative here we believe. But, without any attribution in the ad, the marketing team at Sofa Workshop will be none the wiser. The lifestyle strategy is understandable to a degree, but attribution is key to knowing what works in press and what will deliver the most bang for your buck. As a direct response ad agency, it’s a prime focus for us and our clients and how we make a real difference to their business and make the most of every opportunity they have.