Look through any consumer magazine, from cars to fashion, lifestyle to home interiors, and you'll see page after page of high quality, inspiring and creative adverts; adverts that play a powerful role in building brand and product identity and in generating genuine off-the-page responses.

By comparison, turn the pages of most trade magazines and, with a few notable exceptions, you'll see a parade of mediocre, uninspiring and lifeless adverts that do next to nothing to build the values or strengths of the products that they are supposed to promote.

It's almost as if companies are afraid to shout too loudly about their products or services, or maybe they have simply lost sight of the fact that just like their counterparts in the consumer sector they too are selling not to other companies but to individuals; individuals who share common aspirations and goals, who are intelligent, perceptive and imaginative, and who are attracted to powerfully designed, creative advertising.

In essence, although the message and tone may be unique, B2B advertising is no different to B2C advertising and the same basic tenets apply. In particular, it should be remembered that most advertising is designed to begin the sales process, not close it, and that one of the fundamentals of selling is to empathise with your prospect, showing that you care about them and understand the desires or challenges that they face.

A common error is to treat technical adverts as if they were data sheets and cram the available space with product pictures, text and bullet points, with copy that may list features but rarely highlights real benefits.

In addition, it is often forgotten that just because the advertiser is rightly enthusiastic about their product it does not necessarily follow that other people will feel the same way. Testing the tone and content of each advertisement is therefore important to make sure that inherent prejudices do not become dominant.

Buying advertising space in any media is almost always expensive so it makes it even more important to maximise the impact of every advertisement through innovative thinking and fresh ideas. Ultimately, if all around you are wallowing in mediocrity then now is the time to break the mould.

If you feel that your advertising needs a new approach then call our Creative Director, Nick Orme, today on +44(0)1296 660080.