November 1, 2012 - As Andy Rooney might have said, "Have you ever noticed how some ad reps claim to know what is best for your clients? And how what is best is always advertising in their magazine?" Or they claim a superior ROI, though they have not a whit of evidence to back it up, and no real way to generate that evidence?

ROI is especially difficult to measure, since while the costs of an ad and its display might be captured, identifying the actual income, that magical "return" on the investment, is almost hopelessly beyond the ability of any company and their agency. At least in B2B. You would need to connect the purchase of a component or a fleet to the costs of creating and running the ad, and then ascribe only the appropriate share of responsibility for the sale as separate from the efforts (and associated expenses) of sales people and public relations and trade shows and direct mail and web sites and on and on.

Aerospace is not a realm of snap purchase decisions, which means influencing those decisions must occur over a span of time and with a strategic, integrated, campaign across multiple channels. Despite some reps' desire to convince me that theirs is the only place to advertise, and I should move money from other publications (or e-newsletters or web sites) to buy their product, it's only Jet A smoke and polished aluminum mirrors.