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?"
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."
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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...”
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.
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.
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.”