I'm quite sceptical of the benefits of advertising, always have been. However, when used as part of an integrated campaign of direct marketing and branding, strategically placed advertisements within targeted publications can make your marketing budget produce excellent results.

Still not convinced? Whilst the success of any advertising campaign depends entirely on your objective, message and target audience, here are a couple of examples of where advertising works and works well.

One of my clients wanted to generate registrations for a Technology Update I was organising for them. To generate attendance, I used a combination of a targeted postal invitation, opt-in email bulletins, direct email marketing and an advertisement in Computing magazine. I received over a hundred registrations on behalf of my client, and because I tracked the source of the registration I know that a third came from the advertisement, so in this case advertising certainly helped to achieve the campaign's objectives.

Another client previously used advertising to promote their network management software. Advertising worked well for them because basically, when they didn't run the ad, the hits on their web site disappeared and their customers stop downloading evaluation copies of their product.

Advertising services

• Advertising concepts and design
• Advertising copy
• Media search, selection and buying