Promoting check card usage.

• Author: Wachtel, George
• Position: THE LETTER DOCTOR

THIS FOUR-COLOR POSTCARD does a good job of introducing Synovus' "Cash Back Check Card" and its consumer benefits. But who is "Rob"?

1 Headline: Married with the smiling guy holding their card, the headline tells us he is "Rob." I think this technique of giving a name to an anonymous face works in intriguing the reader. Do you? But I would have given him a name that might not have stopped the reader with its double entendre (Rob / Bank!).

2 Headline Layout: This is a nice, neat-looking layout, but falls into the "designer trap." Frequently the copywriter's words are laid out by the designer so that they fit neatly on the page; but without real concern that they read smoothly. Here, I would have broken it to read: "Tom never pitched a shutout/or had a hit song./ But he still gets paid/ to just sign his name."

3 Product Name: Usually banks over-promote their product's name. But in this case, the layout should have been altered to give more emphasis to the name "Cash Back Check Card," which would have lent more support to the headline above.

4 Mailing Side Headline: For the flip side of the postcard, they could have dropped "Rob" and changed the headline to speak directly to the reader: "Earn 10 cents every time/ you sign for/ your check card purchases."

5 Consumer Benefit: In the body copy, they do a good job of differentiating their program, with "no tricky formulas, no points to track." It is a...