Russians Learn what we Already Knew

The esteemed Powerline asks, Did Russia Waste its Money in the 2016 Election?:

There’s an old joke that half of all advertising spending is wasted; the problem for the marketing department is determining which half. The Madison Avenue ad agencies depend on no one ever being able to figure this puzzle out because their business model would collapse.

Indeed. Our own grandfather was an ad-man for 50 years, we're talking real Don Draper stuff here, folks. He told us the exact same thing noted above.

We've discussed advertising here before.

With the release of ANZACs we've run the experiment mentioned in the old post. That is, we've bought absolutely no advertising whatsoever. The result? Sales of ANZACs were exactly the same as the other books in the WW1990 series. In fact, ANZACs had a great run.

That run is now over.

Here comes The Austrian Painter. Kindle edition will be out this week.

Russia! Russia! Russia!

These reports about Russia buying a hundred $100,000 worth of FB ads are interesting.

Others have noted that in the many billions spent on FB ads a hundred K doesn't amount to much.

Quite right.

Still others have pointed out that the Russian expenditure seems like an experiment, a test to see what their rubles can do.

We agree with this assessment. Why? Because when we're looking to crack a new market we make a small ad buy in a magazine.

One and done is our rule.

[Also your wife's ha!-Ed]

A few years ago we did some ads in Europe, buying one ad in a European military history magazine in Spain, France and Germany. The results? Not good in Spain or France, but we broke even in Germany.

Breaking even on an ad is a great start.

Looks like the Russians think the same.

Friended?