Ira Glass On Advertising, Part 3
Ira’s third video on storytelling is by far the most popular. He’s describing the positive side of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I think this video speaks to: Linear, no-threshold thinking, Minimum Effective Dose, and Cumulative Effect.
Private airstrips, planeloads of money and Lamborghinis
Never would you guess the family’s leaders dine with Persian princes and European presidents all while driving their simple blue Fords. Remember, your customers and your employees are watching.
Hope is Not a Strategy for Greater Return on Advertising Investment.
The reality is that most of us fear that we aren’t turning our marketing dollars into profit. Not consistently. Not directly. Which is why we have advertising budgets. To limit risk.
THE WIZARD (bi)WEEKLY
Twice a month we’ll send our best advice, no strings attached.
Let’s grow your business.
No spam. No nonsense.
The media is NOT the message.
I remember a Marshall McLuhan quote of “The Media is the Message.” So I asked Roy, what about McLuhan? The skies darkened, the floors parted, and a fiery hell appeared as Roy screamed.
Ira Glass on Great Advertising, Part 2
“The amount of time finding the decent story is more than the amount of time it takes to produce the story… I think that, like, not enough gets said about the importance of abandoning crap.”
Tipping Point of Retail and the S-Curve
A dozen years from now 50% to 60% of transactions will be occurring online. And a surprising advantage will go to stores who sell online but advertise locally.
Partner Book of the Month
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Lotteries, Investments, Patience and Inversion
Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger made money by using a strategy that passed the test of time. At 97 years old, Munger attributes two things to his success: patience and inversion.
The Worth of a Dali
A picture is worth a thousand words. Confucius told us that. Or did he? Actually, Fred Barnard made up the saying to promote the use of images and called it “a Chinese proverb so that people would take it seriously.”
What Matters is What’s Remembered
When you advertise, you typically make bullet points of what you “want customers to know.” Giving a customer an education so he’ll have no choice but to pick you is as fanciful as it is arrogant.
If you can’t see, hire someone else to mow your lawn
For every IBM, there are 100 Blockbusters. For every General Motors, there are 100 Polaroids. You can bet the leaders in your category will one day be in trouble. You can catch and pass them.
Instant Gratification & Marketing
The chase for instant gratification in marketing often looks like “sales events.” Knowing when to use a sale and when to use other methods to get customers in the door makes all the difference.
Ira Glass on Great Advertising, Part 1
The first video covers Ira’s two basic building blocks of storytelling: the Anecdote and the Moment of Reflection. And in advertising terms, these are roughly analogous to Relevance and Credibility.
Your Competitors Are Bastards
Business is like writing. You have to find your own style and stick to it. Stop worrying about what the competition is doing. They’re all bastards. Get inspired by things they don’t understand.
The Marketing Funnel Cloud
I hate funnels. The thing we call a Marketing Funnel is really just a shorthand to remind us that no customer goes from “I don’t know who you are” to “here, take my money!”
The Subtle Persuasion of Groundhog Day
In many businesses, what most customers are really buying is transformation. Groundhog Day plays to three very powerful psychological dynamics you can use to captivate and convert.
Getting Social With The Kleinmeyers : Organic Reach > Paid Reach
You could create an ad on Facebook so compelling, interactive, and authentic that the algorithm rewards you by showing it to more people organically (free).
History rhymes with the ebbs and flows of time
Just like unions of the 1940s, there is a societal shift toward worker empowerment. If you’re first in your category to embrace this shift, you win. Resist, and you lose.
The Asymmetry of Trust
You’re thinking about buying something and an acquaintance says, “Don’t do it; I bought that / hired them and it was a total waste of money. I got screwed.” Generally speaking, we believe them.
3 tips for your video ads on social media
Since 83% of social media is consumed on mobile devices, and 85% browse without sound, you must tailor your content to be effective within that context. Here’s how…
How We Decide to Purchase
Amateur ad writers assume everyone makes decisions based upon the same criteria they use. This causes them to unconsciously frame their messages to reach people exactly like themselves.
Serving “Fields of Dreams”.
Simon Sinek writes about this in “Leaders Eat Last.” Before you can get what you want, you must first give them what they want. “They” is everyone but you. Let’s start with your employees.
The Tale of Ted the Radio Tortoise and Harry the Anxious Hare
I spent a day with two HVAC company owners. Harry the Anxious Hare is closing barely 10% of his online leads. Ted the Radio Tortoise’s telephone team is closing more than 60%.
That’ll Do
Who is the “McDonald’s” in your category? The business you believe is getting an unfair amount of customers… in spite of their quality and competence. A few things are happening that you should find illuminating.
Building a team that wins
There’s no doubt that great businesses have equally great employees. But they also have their share of Bubba’s, Jim-Bob’s, and Tina-Marie’s. We never talk about those guys. If you ever lost sleep over a dumbass thing an employee did, you probably have a Bubba on your team.
Your First Year In Mass Media Branding: 12 Milestones and a Timeline
A roadmap for TV and Radio that works. If your ad campaign is conceived to get real traction, you’ll see these first four milestones within the first three to five months…
Getting Social With The Kleinmeyers : What Does Facebook Tell Us?
Why are you still paying your social media expert to create posts that look like TV commercials and “for sale” ads? We are telling you to “STOP!” And if you won’t listen to us, then listen to Facebook. Please.
Putting Funny Ads To Work For Your Boring-Ass Business – Parody
If the humor isn’t tied to the message; if you can’t talk about one without talking about the other, then any attempts at persuasion will be short-lived and not very memorable.
Are Your Ads Gossip Worthy?
You probably read this and thought: that’s an unrealistic expectation. Kind of like expecting an ad to “go viral.” Who gossips about ads, of all things? And why would anyone want people gossiping about their brand?
Avoid Scrapbooking Your Brand Visuals.
A “scrapbook company” doesn’t have the emotional connection to your brand that you do; so they give you a templated product that looks like everything else. Unremarkable.
Fat Cats and Happy Cachorros
Too many Shivers leaves a stink in the hearts of the customers. They are inattentive, self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me type of people. Calypsos make things better – for you and the customer.
Everyone You Know (is a liar)
“NOBODY reads the newspaper.” Beware of anybody who speaks in absolutes. Statisticians look for something called a “representative sample.” And you don’t have one (no offence, I’m sure you’re a lovely person).
How to Advertise “Caring” and “Craftsmanship”
The Coors campaign took market share from Bud and Miller while spending one-third as much money. They used a half-dozen smaller differentiators to build up “quality” and “caring” as what set their beer apart.
A Note to Jewelers Worldwide
I woke up with an astoundingly simple, big idea. The limiting factor in the engagement ring diamond is that it is “one-and-done.” But a woman can have a whole collection of Anniversary Diamonds.
Serving, Kingdoms, and Something to Believe in
Marketing in 2021 cannot be like 2019. Too much has happened. Society suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. To think everything will return to normal is to believe the last 16 months never happened.
Rainbow-Washing, How To Avoid It!
Producing and promoting rainbow products during June, Pride month, has become more common over the years, with many large companies leading the trend.
The 7 Trials of an Emerging Empire Builder
There are two types of business owners: (1) Those who just want to run a profitable, stable business that funds a quality lifestyle, and (2) Aspiring empire builders with visions or building something much, much bigger.
Unstoppable Talent, Greatness and Dynasties
Although Gretzky was undoubtedly the best player of his generation and arguably the best player of all time, he needed great players around him to win. Now look at your own business…
Getting Social With The Kleinmeyers : Algorithm
Kelsie and I can look at the posts on your social media and tell you exactly why reach and engagement are low. It is because we have studied, played with, succeeded, and failed with the Facebook Algorithm.
Traction, Rocket-Ship, or Earth Shaker? Does Your Branding Have One, Two, or Three Keys to Success?
Heck, even one out of three is enough to get traction. But a trifecta is the stuff of legends.
A lesson in advertising from Professional Wrestling
We remember the bold. We don’t remember them for what they said. We don’t remember them for what they did. We remember how they made us feel. Advertising is no different.
A Creative Technique to Make a Decent Offer Unforgettable
How do you get the attention of the public when your product or service is a grudge purchase at best? Every home services provider suffers from this.
Baseball and Advertising
As General Manager of the Oakland A’s, Bill’s payroll costs were one-third of the New York Yankees. He couldn’t compete with them. He hired Paul DePodesta, a Harvard grad in Economics. Together, they changed the game.
Learning from the Legends — Tootsie Pop’s Fairy Tale Magic
I’m not talking about a campaign that has run for 50 years, I’m talking about a single ad that still runs to this day and still drives results. So what’s behind the magic?
Social Media, A Marketing Channel
The truth is that social media allows you to see how each piece of content performs before you ever invest money in it! You don’t get the opportunity to do that with billboards, radio, TV, or print media.
Exposure, Woo-ing Bucks and impenetrable castles.
“Bill, why did you buy a highway billboard”? “It gives my company great exposure for getting more clients” Here’s the reality. Exposure doesn’t pay the bills.
The Extreme Branding Of Recruiting Ads
We can use the recruiting spot to sneak messages into the minds of eavesdroppers that might have “bounced off” of skepticism had they appeared in a “regular” ad.
The Anatomy of an Offer
Vagaries and loopholes are the enemy. Specifics and clarity are your best friends. If you’re putting a special offer out there, do the things that make offers work.
Putting Funny Ads To Work For Your Boring-Ass Business – Juxtaposition
Is your business in a boring industry? Then I’m PB&Jelly of you. Jealous because you have a YUGE opportunity to stand out.
Three Wise Men Appeared on My Path
Karen Post gave me the first definition of a brand that did not include colours, style guides, and logos. Brain Tattoos said, “A brand is the STORY embedded in the mind of the market”.
7 Reasons NOT to Hire a Local Advertising Agency
The only people who care about adequate frequency are people who are actually measuring, tracking, and being paid for the effectiveness of their work.
Getting Social With The Kleinmeyers : Swimming or Fishing?
Before you run advertisements on Facebook, make certain that your Facebook presence is truly alive. Here are four indicators to know your Facebook presence is alive and well.
Pixie Dust, Beliefs and Employees
One of the biggest challenges in today’s business world is finding and keeping employees. I’m told it’s catastrophic and there’s more demand than there is a supply of good people. This is not a new problem.
Tying Creativity to Strategy
If you’re new to mass media advertising, THE question you’re likely asking yourself is: “Does this stuff really work? Does it really drive huge success, in a reliable repeatable way?”
Getting Social With The Kleinmeyers: Social Media?
54% of customers will research products and a business on social media before making a purchase.
Time slips into the future
There is no right time when connecting the message with customers. The right time was six years ago. The second best time was yesterday.
Philanthropy: You’re Doing it Weird
“How about we make an ad that says, ‘we’ll give 10% of our profits this weekend to Save the Bunnies?’” Wait a second. Let’s pick that apart…
A Secret Path to Branding Ads that Actually Work
“Like McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. ads showed a big, nicely stacked burger on TV. Unlike McDonald’s, however, Carl’s Jr. would then deliver a charbroiled product that looked like a sloppy, drippy mess.”
Say Cheese Now Smile
When you set a course to entertain, persuasion can still be a destination. The limerick can be your vehicle. It’s persuasion with the top down. The clown car body encases a Honda engine (colorful, but reliable).
When is it time to hire an ad agency?
Your intuition has already spoken up. She whispers, “No one is excited about you”. The ledger says sales have slipped. You are not hitting goals. Margins are down. Morale is off. Everything is just blah.
Emotional, Rational, or Aspirational? Yes, Please!
How exactly did appealing to the whole person fall out of fashion in advertising? Somewhere along the lines, people began to separate out Reason-Why or logic-driven ads from emotionally galvanizing ads.
Happiness is a fish YOU can catch.
Stop worrying about the colour of your logo, the size of your ad, or the shares on Facebook. When it comes to business, your job is to sell happiness. And the best happiness that is long lasting and unbreakable is through the use of Oxytocin.
Six Ways to Differentiate Your Company and Win Over Your Competition.
These are product, service, channels of distribution, relationships, reputation/image, and price. However, not all differentiation strategies are equally effective.
How to 3X the Memorability and Impact of Your Ads
Give people a list of random words to read, take the list away, then ask how many words each person can recall. On average they’ll recall three words. But this technique increases it to nine.
Most People Don’t Know Most Businesses
I haven’t met you and I already know you have an awareness problem. A sloppy ad-slinger will gloss over awareness. It’s treated as a “given.”
Cubicalls: Press Pause
“Is this that transactional-relational thing?” “I think so. Her business should be relational.” “Why?” “We’ve been taking Buffy to our groomer for 10 years. You ever bathed and brushed a Bichon? Our groomer isn’t the cheapest. But I never miss an appointment.”
Making and Breaking Patterns For Fun & Profit
Before the launch of the campaign, Absolut sold just 20,000 cases annually in the U.S. By 2008, they were selling 11.8 million cases per year.
Can You Concisely Define “Marketing” Please? – Garry W
Garry, when it comes to marketing everyone has an opinion and everyone is an expert. After 18 years as a marketing consultant this is what I believe.
5 Things Your AdWords Person Should Be Doing
Google didn’t tell anybody when they started feeding everybody’s business ads over onto their video game platforms. So the impression count went up, the clicks went up. But they’re all useless.
7 Rules for Amazing, True-to-Life Ad Campaigns
These rules will help you create a custom-fit, true-to-life ad campaign to attract customers who naturally gravitate to your values and way of doing business.
The Real Way To Build Your Business
You need 4 things… (1) A good steady flow of new customers. (2) A good steady flow of repeat customers. (3) Referrals. (4) Positive Word of Mouth (and this includes social media)
The Exaggerations that Tell the Truth
The more we treasure something, the higher our emotions run in relation to it. Tell a mother how ugly her baby really is and you’ll see what I mean. And this is a very useful phenomenon for the ad writer.
Three Lessons From A GOOD Comcast Service Story
Squeaky wheels demand grease, and when they don’t get greased, they squeak louder and louder and louder. Social media has provided them an amplifier of unprecedented volume and duration.
Hands Up…Who’s Hiring?
“Mike, look, the post office is hiring,” Bob tipped his head at the encased poster, “but you’re past the age limit.”
“Hey Bob. Yeah, you wouldn’t get away with a recruitment ad like that these days.” Mike smiled.
10 Basic Truths of Advertising, Part Deux
The things we are hardwired to find unignorable and “fascinating” involve the (mostly social) triggers first discussed and popularized by Sally Hogshead.
Grow Your Business With a Courageous Offer
Yes a few customers will take advantage. Get over it. A Courageous Offer opens up the customer floodgates. The money of the many will wash away the bad taste of a few.
10 Basic Truths of Advertising, Part 1
America has always sorted its mail over a trashcan, and now just as ruthlessly sorts, filters, and dismisses every other incoming stimuli. Modern life demands it.
Are Your Ads Missing Hope? | Wizard’s Roundtable
You need all four… (1) A Big Idea (2) Nuts and Bolts (3) Entertainment (4) Hope. The last is the easiest to overlook… but it’s the most important.
Cubicalls: The Cancellation
“Yeah, they were on for 6 months. But they don’t want to renew. Some employees bought the business. She said they’d think about it in the spring.”
“What business?”
“That HVAC outfit. We had some great ads.”
A Shockingly Accurate Way To Calculate Your Market Share
I’m guessing you don’t know how much your competitors are doing each year? I bet you’re wiser than you think.
No Parking on the Dance Floor of Your Mind
Are your ads letting the imagery and the story-logic do the persuading and selling? Or are they relying on whacky creative that’s actually counter-productive?
9 Things to Remember When Scheduling Media for Business Growth
1. Allow the same listener to hear the same ad at least 3 times every 7 nights sleep (sleep erases advertising)
“How do we modernize our marketing?” [AMA]
There’s a real danger in the word “modernizing” your marketing because we tend to immediately leap towards thoughts like, “Well, I need to be on Snapchat.”
Naming the Disease
Nobody knew bad breath was a destructive social ill until Gerard Lambert pointed the blinding spotlight of his ads at the dangers of halitosis as a means of selling Listerine.
Good Advertising Can’t Solve Every Business Problem
Many years ago a business owner wanted me to fill his nightclub on the slow nights of the week. The club already ran cheap drinks and promotions on these nights… and the club was empty.
The Best Tool For the Job
That day, my dad gave me the tool I needed to successfully check the pressure of tires. On the same day, he also gave me the greatest tool for customer service. “Aaron, the best way to make better tips is to stop thinking about them.”
Money Follows Talent, and Talent Follows…
“Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products…”
How to create your first, “No Fail” Advertising Plan
First timer’s take courage! You must have Faith. Many have succeeded doing this and you can. Just be ready for the challenges.
What’s On Your To-Don’t List?
As part of a recent self-exploration of how we’re measuring success, my friend and mentor Michele Miller suggested coming up with a to-don’t list.
“In your experience what would be the most effective kind of advertising?” – Zoe H. Australia
Variables: (1) The population of your market. (2) The size of your ad budget.
7 Elements of Successfully Selling Services Online
Products have product pages, but what do services have? Leaving these elements out of your copy is a fatal mistake.
Alsofocuson
A key element of any strategy is choosing what gets focus. When I present a focused strategy, sometimes I get presented with a made-up word: Alsofocuson. As in, “I like the focus, but can we also-focus-on this other focus?”
Logo Change? Consider This First
She walked right up to the wall with all of the options and pointed right to the logos with the red and blue waterdrops on them. My 80-year-old grandma knew the Moen brand because of the red and blue drops in their logo.
Learning from the Legends — MacManus and The Penalty of Leadership
Too often inexperienced copywriters and advertising clients want to persuade with copy points — with information being pushed at the reader.
How to Spot and Eliminate Digital Ad Fraud
This conversation started on Facebook in our private group discussing an article in Forbes. The headline said, “When big brands stopped spending on digital ads, nothing happened. Why?”
Chick-fil-A Let Me Down!
We hold the places we adore to higher standards. Chick-fil-A’s the most beloved fast-food restaurant in America. The Cathy family developed a lengthy list of systems, policies, and procedures – observable behaviors…
90% of Local Advertising Summed Up In 2 Slogans
Optimizing a purchase demands more time, energy, and attention than anyone can spare for 99% of purchases. Instead, people simply want their needs filled and hoped-for benefits granted at a reasonably fair price. “Satisficing.”
Attention Retention
As children we were told bedtime stories. In elementary school, we found books that we could read over and over.
As adults, we still seek a good story. The familiarity of stories has been with us from before you and I could even remember.
Four Winning Retail Strategies for 2021
There is no doubt that the economy and Coronavirus has had a major impact on retail businesses. Here are four things that I am seeing retailers do across the board.
Discounted Media Opportunities, Should You Buy Them?
You’re having a good day at work. Then the phone rings. It’s the local magazine rep with a once in a lifetime discount offer. Now you’re under pressure.
What Advertising Can’t Do
Creativity worshippers tend to feel that while nothing works for sure, anything might work, so long as it’s rilly, rilly creative and the lightning strikes in their favor.
The Growth Plan for HVAC Companies Stuck Between $3-5M (and your biz, too)
We discuss the ways we’ve helped stuck companies break through that barrier (even if you’re not in the HVAC industry).
Sowing Rhetoric, HARVesting Attention
In another post, I lauded Paul Harvey’s “So God made a farmer” speech for its message. Mining it for rhetorical ore in this post feels a little sacrilegious…almost like making an ad out of it. Wait. I didn’t mean that.
Building a Legacy Business Isn’t Normal
The further down this path you go — by building a business empire and a legacy — the more you’ll find that the normal ways of thinking and acting simply won’t do.
Not a Farmer? Check Your Heart!
Dear Intrepid Entrepreneur, if you have the heart of a farmer, you’re already a success. What? Explain! On Super Sunday, February 3, 2013, Dodge aired this legendary ad. Take two minutes and listen.
Show Me the Future
You’ve seen this commercial before. A hand reaches for a Corona from behind an umbrella, a logo appears, and it all fades to black. If you can show me a version of me in the future, you’ve tapped into something powerful.
The Eternal Sunrise of Market Dominating Companies
When you’re searching for ways to level up your company, where are you looking hardest? Too many leaders strain and stare at the horizon for what’s going to change, hoping to leverage those changes.