Donald-

You took the words right out of my mouth. The best pulling ads are usually the ones that make designers cringe.

I like your idea of selecting 15 more powerful words to replace the ones he has. Keep the current layout, which is nice and uncluttered, but get the AIDA formula working. I'd probably keep the BIRTHDAY PARTY MAGIC SHOWS, or something similar, just to let people know what the ad is for. Maybe make it a subhead, though.

Maybe you should reevaluate where and how you are advertising. My wife teaches Kindermusik, which is targeted to children from birth through seven years of age. Over the past twelve years, she has advertised in parents and kids magazines, various flavors of Yellow Pages, and special newspaper pull-out sections for football, weddings, summer camps, etc. She has made live appearances at Easter egg hunts, baby fairs, and orchestra young peoples' concerts. She has pretty much tried it all, and has found that the best response, by far, comes from:

1. Advertising in newspapers targeted to surrounding areas, and
2. Word of mouth from parents already enrolled.

Admittedly, her situation is a bit different from yours, in that she is able to advertise seasonally - a couple of months before the fall and spring semesters and summer camps. The parents and kids magazines seem like a perfect place to advertise, but most of the parents admit that they only pick up the magazines as something to distract them while sitting in the doctors' offices, and that they seldom take them home or really read them.

Something else that seems to have helped her is making the ad an unusual shape i.e., tall and thin or wide and thin. On a page with a lot of ads the same size, eyes seem to be drawn to something that looks different.

You might also try to vary the ads from month to month. For example:

"Thirteen Reasons for Booking Dr. Goober for your Birthday Party"
"Reason number 1: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
Next month, "Reason Number 2: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", etc.

or

This month: "Book Dr. Goober NOW for Your Child's Next Party!"
Next month, "Book Dr. Goober NOW for your Valentine Banquet!", etc.

Offer early booking discounts when booked and/or prepaid by a certain date. My wife probably increased her enrollment by 10-15 percent by doing this, and she doesn't have to hound the parents about payments during the semester. She actually increased the regular price slightly and discounted back to the regular price (sort of like furniture stores)...

Piggybacking on this idea, offer "referral rebates" to existing customers who recommend you to a friend who books and pays.

Maybe you could run a larger ad quarterly and a smaller "teaser" ad the rest of the time.

Don't be afraid to ask those who contact you where they heard/read about you. That will give you a great idea about the effectiveness of your existing advertising.

Most importantly, though, MAKE SURE YOUR SHOW IS WORTH BOOKING! Many performers overestimate their own abilities and value. If you are perceived as a professional offering something truly special beyond a funny hat and a bunny, you will be in demand.

Best of luck in finding out what works for you!

White space vs. text heavy advertising.

Keep in mind that the text heavy advertising is usually a larger ad -- often 1/2 or full page ads where there is plenty of room to write your message. If you are dealing with the size ad that Mike is using, white space is necessary to make the ad POP out and grab attention. Yes, I'm sure there are exceptions to that rule. But you'd better be one heck of a copywriter if you are going to fill up a little 2" X 3" space with text. And you still need to get a reader to stop and take notice of it first -- hence the large, attention getting headlines used in all good ads.

I agree with Terry. You need to have words in your ad that are emotionally charged. LOVE, FREE, Happy, Mom etc. And in a small space like Mike is using, I would (and do) use bullets to highlight the features and benefits.

Actually, I used to use the size ad Mike has, but last year I downsized it to a 2" x 2" ad. That's pretty small. But the number of calls didn't change. My ad now consists of a characture of me, 5 bulleted phrases, my name, web site, phone number and the word MAGIC SHOW sort of central in the ad. All that and plenty of white space too! It's all in the placement.

Scott .

I made a table flyer that included
"15 top reasons why you should buy Mai-Ling's CDs"
and it was the greatest thing.

It included a photo, a short bio, a couple of quotes,
the top 15 reasons and a letter of recommendation.

it was on a 8.5 x 11 piece of paper but everything
stood out.

try different things in your ad, even if its a tiny one.

Hey Mike:

Not a bad ad really. I've done my share of print advertising. I've found that consistancy is the key. Get your ad looking good, and don't change it. You want to keep giving then the same visual image, so over time (sometimes over a LONG time) your name will stick in peoples heads, and they'll call you.

Here are some questions:

1) Do they always put your ad in the same place in the magazine (same page, same place). If they don't, ask them to.
2) Is there some sort of border, or frame you can put around it? Boxes create focus, especially if you're the only box on the page.
3) How many months have you placed the ad, and have you done it every single month? If not, you're wasting your money. Frequency is the key. And, sometimes it takes a long time for print ads to really start working.
4) Does the mag have an on-line prescence? If it does, be sure you're being well represented there also.

You have to be patient. I'd give it 12 months before evaluating it's effectiveness. And, if you're not getting a response rate of 10x, there are probably better ways to spend that money and get a better response.

The thing about print ads are that they are easy. Get a design, pay some money, wait for the phone to ring. If you spent that money in other ways, with a little more effort, you might be better off. But there are a lot of unanswered questions, so who knows?

Good luck to you.

Oh... I'd say something like "Ages 3-10" and I'd take out "live doves". Sounds like something people would enjoy, but some people are going to imagine all of these birds flying around their house. Not a pretty picture. Leave them in the show, just take them out of the ad.

And, I'd insert the word "safe" in there somewhere. Parents nowadays are uber-concerned about their child's safety. If you could differentiate yourself as the "safe" magician, you'll book tons of shows.

Heck, I don't even do b-day parties! Sorry for wasting your last 30 secs. I'll make it up to you, I promise.