Watch the video above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
All right, guys, we’re back. Stephen and I are here to talk about — I have no idea. I got to be honest with you. This one’s a little bit of a surprise. So what do you got for me, Steve?

Stephen Semple:
Well, we’re going to look at an ad. It was a really successful ad for the early days of revitalizing the Cadillac brand. So this was an ad that was run back in 2008.

Matthew Burns:
This is a sexy ad, isn’t it?

Stephen Semple:
It’s a sexy ad. Yeah, with Kate Walsh.

Matthew Burns:
Okay, keep going. Yes.

Stephen Semple:
And it uses one of my favorite techniques when you’re wanting to do really high-end glamorous stuff. And that’s the idea of address and dismiss. We’ll let everybody see the ad here and then we’ll talk about this whole idea of address and dismiss, which is just not used enough, man.

Ad:
In today’s luxury game, the question isn’t whether or not your car has available features like a 40 gig hard drive. It isn’t about sunroofs or Sapele wood accents, pop-up nav screens, or any of that. No, the real question is when you turn your car on, does it return the favor?

Matthew Burns:
Now, I know exactly what you mean by address and dismiss.

Stephen Semple:
So if you think about 2008, they lay out a bunch of features that are actually what everybody else is advertising. We got a sunroof. We got a pop-up display. Because remember, 2008 pop-up display, big deal. “Oh, we got this type of wood trim in our car. It’s so beautiful.” And she comes right on and says, “Ah, the luxury car game. You would think about these things,” but it’s not. So it’s a great way to sit there and say, “Yeah, we got that stuff too. Who cares?” No one.

Which all of a sudden takes everybody else’s advertisement where they go, “We got these things, this is what makes us special.” And go, “Eh, you know what? That’s just table.” Here’s what’s really important. Here’s the question you want to ask. “When you turn your car on, does it return the favor?” And you’re like, first of all, unexpected line. Talk about this crazy unexpected line. And then look, when you’re buying a luxury car or a sports car or anything like that, isn’t that really the question?

Matthew Burns:
This ad is selling sex appeal through the whole ad. I mean the entire campaign does. I mean really, you’ve got Kate Walsh speaking very confidently right at the camera over the steering wheel. A beautiful woman who’s very confident, which is just sexy on its own. And then she says sexy things like your car better turn you on. She doesn’t say the words, but that’s what she’s saying. Honestly, every high caliber gentleman who’s in the market for a luxury vehicle is looking at this very high caliber woman going like, “Yeah, I really want my car to turn me on because you do.”

Stephen Semple:
Well, and there’s another one she does about entering the boys club where she blows the doors. I mean, again, it’s this fabulous positioning. And here’s the interesting thing is, on its surface, it’s aimed at professional women, which was an overlooked market at the time. But you know what, you can’t tell me that didn’t appeal to guys as well. And we’ve used that technique. We’ve used that technique for clients. We’ve had situations where clients are selling really high-end stuff. Like we did it with a private jet company where we said, well, and I literally almost stole the line exactly where I said, you would think it’d be about this, this, this, this, this, and it’s not. Here’s what it’s about. I knew what I was stealing from when I did that steal.

Matthew Burns:
You’re talking about Kreos Aviation, right?

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, Kreos Aviation, back number of years ago, first iteration of the website. But it was that very technique. It’s a great way to list the things you want somebody to know you have, but you also know everybody else has. So it’s a great way to lit, address, dismiss.

Matthew Burns:
And the advertisers were really smart to know that if the line was delivered as written and well, at the very end of that ad, no more words need to get spoken because anybody who is triggered by the way that ad was done, they were going to follow through to the end because then it was just graphics on screen. There was no more words. They didn’t say the name, they didn’t tell you to go to the website, they told you nothing, no sales pitch. Just here’s who we are in words.

Stephen Semple:
When you do a mic drop-

Matthew Burns:
Yes.

Stephen Semple:
… you walk off the stage, you don’t say anything more. You drop the mic, you make eye contact, and then you walk off. That’s it baby.

Matthew Burns:
And that’s literally what it does. It goes away so that it’s just enough details so those people who are still hanging onto that emotion are willing to then write it down or go look for it.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Okay, here’s what came to mind when we did this. So what you’re talking about is. What she did is she said the facts, but in an interesting way because she’s dismissing them. She’s addressing the facts, this is real, this happens, but it’s kind of table stakes. And then she gets to the punch line, which is awesome. And then it’s that zoom, zoom Mazda moment. It’s that feeling of emotion. This is what you want to feel. Who does that today when they sell their vehicles? Have you ever test-driven a Tesla?

Stephen Semple:
I have not, but I’ve heard about there’s this one experience you have to have happen when you test drive a Tesla, and they all know that’s the moment the car’s bought.

Matthew Burns:
Spoiler alert. If you’re thinking about buying a Tesla, I’m going to do this and whether you like it or not. But you get in and you drive around to do your test drive. And you’re talking about the eco-friendliness of it and the batteries and the cost savings and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They don’t talk about is the horsepower really? I mean, they talk about that it’s good and blah blah blah. And then all of a sudden they take you to some side street that they’ve already scoped out, no cops. They know that you can do this thing, and they tell you stop the car in the middle of the road. And then all they say to you is, “Hammer it.”

If you’ve ever been in an electric vehicle, when you do that, you feel every ounce of that thing pulling off like easy torque. And that feeling is what they want to leave you with. That’s the last thing they do. And then you drive back to the thing. It’s like, “All right, here’s the dotted line. How much am I paying again?” And you just sign it. But that’s the same thing. They addressed and dismissed all the facts of the vehicle and left you with the emotion. And that’s now a live version of this.

Stephen Semple:
Yeah, you know what’s going to be interesting for Tesla going forward? Is because that was not really a Tesla feature, that was an electric car feature.

Matthew Burns:
Oh, a hundred percent.

Stephen Semple:
And now you can do it. You can do it in a Mustang. You can do it in a Porsche. There’s lots of cars now that can do that, but it is that point. That’s just because the world of electric cars has changed. It was absolutely the right strategy, but it’s that whole making you feel it. And so I loved the Cadillac, Kate Walsh ads. I love the technique of address and dismiss anytime you’re selling something. But there’s a vulnerability and honesty to it because you’re really proud of all of these things you’re including. And you got to kind of look around and go, “Yeah, really at the end you’re not that special,” and sort of say, “Yeah, they’re really not that special.” It takes a degree of vulnerability and bravery to run it, which is the reason why it’s not done that often.

Matthew Burns:
You know what I just thought of too is what ends up happening with that is they’re saying, “Hey listen, you can get,” literally, they’re not saying the words, but this is what’s happening is they’re saying, “Anybody can give you these things.”

Stephen Semple:
Yes.

Matthew Burns:
But the car has to turn you on. Which means I now have to test drive that car to know whether or not when I get into it, is it going to make me feel good? It means it’s more about just get your butt into our office and that was a really smart move.

Stephen Semple:
Yes, great technique. Lots of businesses can use it.

Matthew Burns:
Oh yeah, absolutely.

Stephen Semple:
When you do the address and dismiss, it’s not address and dismiss and you’re done. It’s address, dismiss, and replace it with something, but replace it with something that is a little bit profound. It’s not about that. You think it’s about this, but it isn’t. It’s about this.

Matthew Burns:
Right, exactly.

Stephen Semple:
In other words, what is it about? If it’s not about those things, what is it about? And make it something that’s really got that mic dropper found, make you think a little bit moment. So that’s the only thing I want to add. That’s the template, address, dismiss, replace.

Matthew Burns:
And the replacement is the thing that actually makes you stand out versus your competitors.

Stephen Semple:
Yes, yes.

Matthew Burns:
100 percent. We appreciate you. Leave some comments, and we’ll see you guys next time.

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