Whether used in print or online, designing an ad is all about one thing: delivering a message that drives a prospect to become a customer.

Most companies change their ad designs over time to reach new and changing audiences. As your company's profile changes, your market matures, and your product offerings grow, your advertising and marketing efforts should evolve to suit your needs.

You know that your audience has a finite amount of attention, so you want to make it worth their while to give you some of it. To that end, it's important that your message be succinct and simple.

Here are four tips for keeping your ad on-target:

• Is it big enough? Keep in mind the size of your ad. The message you can communicate in a full-page ad is somewhat different from the message you communicate in a one-column filler ad. And determining content for that 100x160 pixel web ad calls for a different approach than designing a popup window with animation. Small ads can work well, so talk to your agency about ways to make less look like more.
• What do you want it to do? What business problem are you trying to solve with this ad? Answering that question drives the content for your design. If you're looking for more visits to your store, invite people to it. If you want people to remember the name of your new product, make it look and sound appealing. If you want to announce a new service you're offering, say that.
• How important is it? Not everything in your ad will be equally important, so keep that in mind when creating your ad. Think about what will sell your message and focus on that, then prioritize the rest of your info and plan accordingly. If you're selling web design services, you probably want to direct prospects to your own website, so make that part of your ad prominent.
• Does it look right? Keeping in mind the business problem you've just identified and the audience you want to reach, be sure your design concept demonstrates the right message. The point of advertising is to communicate a message, so don't fall in love with form over function. It's important to communicate both verbally and visually, so if you're talking about how your organizing system minimizes the chaos in a customer's life, don't use an image of a person with a messy house.

Work closely with your agency to learn more about how to create an ad that is appropriate to your audience and that causes your prospects to become customers.

Next month, we'll discuss ways to get the most from your radio and TV marketing.

The Ventura County Star is reporting that their local congresswoman is taking aim at women's mags. Capp's wrote an editorial on Friday, denouncing a number of women's magazines with young female readership for carrying ads (pictured here) for Camel No. 9, or more specifically, for ignoring her letter signed by 42 members of congress imploring them not to run the ads. But should we share her disappointment? Do women's mags like Vogue and Allure and Cosmo Girlreally "set trends for the country, and have [they] historically served as respected sources for articles on women's health and fitness"? Shockingly, she noted that "all of these publications seem to care more about their bottom lines than the health of their readers."

In response to two letters Capps sent to the publishers of 11 leading women's magazines (one in June and a follow-up in August) asking them to voluntarily stop accepting advertising for Camel No. 9, seven eventually wrote back. "None of them promised to drop the ads," notes the Star.

In his response, Vogue publishing director Thomas A. Florio lectured that Congress should focus on creating guidelines for the marketing, distribution and sale of tobacco products rather than trying to 'bring pressure' on a magazine to 'forgo its legal right to conduct business.'

'Any other pressure or coercion to alter the legal right of any citizen or company doing business in America is at odds with the basic fabric of our country's value system,' Florio wrote.

Camel's new, feminine cancer sticks are re-imagined for a female consumer (the box is pink!). Camel realized its brand was woefully skewed towards the male sex, so it created No. 9 to “focus on products that are ‘wow,’ ” Cressida Lozano, vice president for marketing of the Camel brand told the New York Times [link requires free registration]. Lozano noted that No. 9 adds “fun and excitement to the category. What we’re about is giving adult smokers a choice,” Ms. Lozano said, “with products we believe are more appealing than existing products.”

Stay-at-home-mom Angela Rewis, 26, approved of the new choices offered to her.  "They're a sweeter taste, and they don't stink like regular cigarettes. And I like the pack," she told NPR.  "It's more for females, instead of carrying around a nasty, ugly pack."

TheAssociated Press outlined the two main arguments in May. While cigarettes are deadly,they're also legal, and publications with a readership of teen girls have the legal right to accept advertising from them.  “I'm totally anti-smoking,but a marketer's job is to market and a customer's job is to decide what to buy,”  Marian Salzman, executive vice president at the J. Walter Thompsonad agency told the AP. “If the message breaks through, then the marketer has done a good job.”

What's growing faster than Internet ad spend (and way faster than tv, print andradio)?AdvertisingAge reports that Shopper Marketing has doubled since 2004 and is on pace foran annual growth rate of 21% through 2010, making it faster than even theInternet juggernaut (which is rising 15% annually). As usual,P&Gis leading the pack among consumer brand powerhouses, spending at least $500million annually on shopper marketing.

From decals on the aisle floor to ads on the shopping cart, brands arescrambling to get closer to the point of purchase, increasing the chances ofinfluencing the purchase decision. "Shopper marketing is a new medium asimportant as the internet, mobile or gaming," Starcom MediaVest Group NorthAmerica CEO Renetta McCann told AdAge. MassoGroup estimates 80% of all purchase decisions are made in a retailenvironment.

Shopper Marketing considers shopper identity rather than brand identityaccording toHubMagazine. In the calculated labyrinth of the local grocery store, marketersconsider where products are located and what route customers take to get tothere. For example, by the time customers arrive at the detergent aisle theyhave a full cart, and it is much more convenient to pick up ALL Small &Mighty.

Nielsen isgetting in on the action, having recently announced a new system for measuringthe effects of marketing to an in-store audience. Dubbed PRISM (PioneeringResearch for an In-Store Metric), the  project wasunveiledSeptember 27 at theIn-StoreMarketing Expo in Chicago.  According toIn-StoreMarketer, "the measurement model predicts consumer reach by category or areaof the store, by retail format, and by day of the week, delivering unprecedentedinsight into the store as a marketing channel."

As Brand New noted recently, the NFL is updating its logo. After more than 60 years, it’s probably about time.

According to USA Today, the NFL has developed a “leaner, meaner” version to launch next April. Why the change? The darker blue will increase contrast; fewer stars will make the logo easier to reproduce (apparently vendors had been altering the logo on their own to cut down on the inexplicably numerous stars); the football will look less like a “hamburger” and more like the ball on top of the Vince Lombardi Championship Trophy.

While the existing logo had been in use since about 1940, and so has some historic significance, the new design does a good job of trying to infuse the icon with meaning (the eight stars represent the AFC and NFC divisions) while allowing the image to “pop” better (in the words of NFL Marketing Director Lisa Baird) especially on the increasingly small viewing space (computer screens and cell phones) through which more and more fans are interacting with the brand.

How does Milwaukee feel about the proposed revamp? OnMilwaukee.com has some constructive criticism for the logo’s designers: “My review: it sucks.” Apparently, the commentator felt that the old logo said “Don't f--- with us! We're the NFL! Now, enjoy the game.”

As designers, this is the challenge we face when asked to update any corporate identity—even those for an organization with supporters less fanatical than football enthusiasts.

That blind loyalty doesn’t bode well for any NFL teams looking to update their own logos…