MKT 498 Week 2 Advertising Message Strategy Example

Ten Minutes, Every Ten Minutes: An Advertising Message and Creative Strategy for the Launch of a Rapid Bus Line in Sioux Falls

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

MKT/498: Integrated Marketing Strategy

Week 2 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Prairie Line Transit, the Gold Line and its creative concepts are composites written for a model paper.

In Week 1, the situation analysis for the Gold Line, a composite bus rapid transit route opening in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, next August, identified three communication problems: three competing names for the project, low awareness and a belief that buses are slow and meant for other people, and the need to get residents to try the line once. Prairie Line Transit has since adopted Gold Line as the single name. Marketing director Anita Lindqvist now needs an advertising strategy whose message will also guide public relations, promotions and the stations themselves. This paper reviews research on how advertising persuades and presents the objective, positioning, message, appeals and creative concept.

How Advertising Works

Vakratsas and Ambler (1999) reviewed more than 250 studies of how advertising affects consumers and concluded that no single hierarchy, such as awareness followed by interest and then action, describes all advertising. Instead, advertising works through a mix of cognition, what people think and learn, affect, how they feel, and experience, what they have done with the product. The relative importance of each depends on the product and the audience. For a transit service that most people have never used, advertising must supply information, change feelings and encourage a first experience.

Two Routes to Persuasion

Petty et al. (1983) tested how involvement affects persuasion in an experiment using ads for a disposable razor. When participants were highly involved because they expected to make a decision soon, the quality of the ad's arguments mattered most. For the participants with little at stake, simple signals like famous faces in the ad carried more weight than the arguments. A commuter seriously considering whether to give up a parking permit is highly involved and wants concrete facts. A resident seeing a billboard while driving is less involved and responds to simple, memorable cues.

Creativity That Works

Smith and Yang (2004) proposed a general theory of advertising creativity in which divergence, meaning novelty or unexpectedness, is the defining feature, but creative ads must also be relevant to the audience and the brand. Divergent ads attract attention and deeper processing; irrelevant ones are remembered without the message. The Gold Line concept must surprise people who think they already know what a bus is, while staying tied to the line's real advantage.

Advertising Objective

Within three months of launch, 60 percent of adults in the metropolitan area will be aware of the Gold Line, and 35 percent will agree that it comes often enough to use without checking a schedule, measured by surveys before and after launch.

Positioning Statement

For medical district commuters and college students who assume the bus is slow and unpredictable, the Gold Line is the fast, frequent way across Sioux Falls that comes every 10 minutes, so riders never need a schedule, unlike the city's older routes and the daily search for parking.

The Single-Minded Message

The Gold Line comes every 10 minutes, so you can just show up. Frequency was chosen over speed, price or comfort because the Week 1 survey found that 64 percent of residents did not know how often buses run and that long waits were the most common complaint among current riders. Frequency directly answers the main reason people dismiss the bus.

A single fact that removes the biggest doubt does more work than five benefits competing for attention.

Appeals by Audience

For medical district commuters, a rational appeal will lead: the line runs every 10 minutes from free park-and-ride lots, and a monthly pass costs $35 compared with $45 to $70 for parking. For students, a social and lifestyle appeal will lead: the line connects campus to downtown and the shopping area, and riding is something classmates do. For the general public, a light, confident tone will introduce the line as part of a growing city.

The Creative Concept

The concept is Ten Minutes, Every Ten Minutes. It plays on the repetition of the number to make the frequency memorable and pairs it with a promise of short trips: about 10 minutes from the park-and-ride lot to the hospitals. The visual identity uses the Gold Line color on every bus, station, ad and social post, with large clock graphics showing the next bus always moments away.

Execution 1: Billboard

A gold billboard on Interstate 229 shows a large clock face with the minute hand split into six equal slices. Headline: Ten minutes. Every ten minutes. Below, smaller: Gold Line. Just show up. Starts August 18.

Execution 2: Thirty-Second Video

A nurse finishes a night shift, walks out of the hospital and reaches the station as a gold bus arrives. On-screen text counts the time to her park-and-ride lot. A student watching her laughs at a friend still circling for parking. Voice-over: The Gold Line comes every 10 minutes. No schedule. No parking. Just show up.

Execution 3: Social Post

A short video shows a station's arrival screen updating: next bus 9 minutes, 4 minutes, arriving. Caption: Your new commute does not need a schedule. Gold Line, every 10 minutes from August 18.

What the Concept Avoids

The concept deliberately leaves out several true claims. It does not lead with the environment, since the survey found that few drivers rank emissions above convenience when choosing how to commute. It does not lead with price, because a cheap fare reinforces the belief that buses are for people with no other choice. It does not show empty, gleaming buses, which would look like a promise the line cannot keep at rush hour. Each omission keeps the message on the doubt it is meant to remove.

Creative Brief for Every Tool

Audience: commuters and students first, the public second. Problem: people assume buses are slow and rare. Message: the Gold Line comes every 10 minutes, so you can just show up. Support: dedicated lanes, real-time screens, park-and-ride lots. Tone: confident, friendly, local. Mandatory elements: Gold Line name, gold color, launch date. Public relations, promotions, station signs and driver briefings will use this brief.

Conclusion

Research shows that advertising works through thought, feeling and experience, that involved audiences need strong arguments and that creative work must be both surprising and relevant. The Gold Line strategy answers the main doubt about buses with one fact, frequency, expressed through a memorable concept that every IMC tool will repeat.

References

Petty, R. E., Cacioppo, J. T., & Schumann, D. (1983). Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: The moderating role of involvement. Journal of Consumer Research, 10(2), 135-146. https://doi.org/10.1086/208954

Smith, R. E., & Yang, X. (2004). Toward a general theory of creativity in advertising: Examining the role of divergence. Marketing Theory, 4(1-2), 31-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593104044086

Vakratsas, D., & Ambler, T. (1999). How advertising works: What do we really know? Journal of Marketing, 63(1), 26-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299906300103