Last week I came up with an idea for a small firm’s ad. Small firms have a disadvantage in that the larger firms are much more likely to have name recognition. So when a small firm is going to place a print ad in a publication, they are faced with an additional challenge. They need to answer this question:

Why should you choose us, a small and unfamiliar firm, over a mega-firm that you’ve heard of?

To answer that, small firms need to emphasize the advantages of a small law firm. Maybe they want to show that being small and focused can result in close interaction with the client. They could play up the “relationship angle”.

Conversely, a small firm could show the disadvantages of a larger firm. Either way, if a small firm can show reasons why a client should ignore the larger, better known firms, they’re doing something right.

Back to my ad idea. Explaining why I had a gorilla mask in my office is another story entirely, so I won’t get into that here. This is very rough, but I do like the idea:

Now, I am not delusional enough to believe that small firms would run an ad like this. It’s a little bit (okay a lot) too “out there” for most law firms. But I think the point is valid: just getting your name out there is not enough for small firms. You can’t just say why clients should come to you; you also need to address why clients should not go to the big guys.

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