Best Firm Ad -- EVER
The best professional firm ad EVER appeared on page 105 of the November 2005 issue of Corporate Counsel magazine. Click the image to see a larger version.)
What makes this ad outstanding is the thinking and strategy behind it -- not the soft-focus photography, glitzy design or snappy layout. It's not because of the model in the photo, which ad rules would replace with someone "young" and "beautiful." And it's not the ad agency gloss.
It is outstanding because it shows a picture of a client - not the office building, but the human being! Plus the client heads a $3.8 billion company that sells really expensive things. There he is -- the president of a name brand company, saying he uses Thompson & Knight. And firm that Neiman Marcus has used the firm for 90 years! Now that's a long-term relationship.
It doesn't show any lawyers from the firm. It doesn't show the firm's office building. There are no courthouse columns, scales of justice or gavels. All these mistakes are omitted.
The first thing that you notice is the Neiman Marcus logo -- at first I thought it was an ad for the store! The second thing you notice is the word trust. For a five-letter word, that's a mighty big and powerful word. Neiman Marcus trusts Thompson & Knight, and has since 1915.
Plus the firm has given it's client what all clients want: lawyers who have personal chemistry with the executives and know their business. The ad even says, "They know our culture and our business." Clients don't want technical experts; they are a dime a dozen. They want someone who is going to help them make a buck.
Kudos to T&K Marketing Director Becky Jackson and her talented crew for this incredible coup. If I were in the fancy department store, apparel, jewelry or home furnishings industry, and saw that the top exec at a big company was willing to state in print how much he liked his law firm -- I would send them the first piece of new work that came along.
Hi.
I really enjoyed your post here. I hope you don't mind that I linked to it on my blog (with proper attribution, of course!). I couldn't agree more- this ad does much more than a typical law firm ad; it's one thing to hear a law firm say they're trustworthy. It's another to hear it from a high-profile client.