The 7 Most Common Ways to Fail When Making Your Ads “Creative”
Creativity is the second most important factor in advertising effectiveness, according to over 50 years of quantitative data.
Why The Road Runner’s Style Guide Kicks Your Style Guide’s A$$
When done right, THIS is the stuff that creates a distinct voice and personality. I’ve seen a few scores of them over the years, and 95% have been utterly worthless.
The Most Powerful Words Are Unspoken
When you say it in your ad, the audience is as likely to dismiss it as accept it. When you cause the audience to say it in their heads, it’s automatically, unquestionably accepted.
“Can You Hear Me Now” — How Verizon Grabbed Greater Market Share As Premium-Priced Provider
Verizon couldn’t afford to lower rates or compete on price. Instead, they had better advertising.
Brand Distinctiveness and Key Words at Key Times
If people do business with you because of your ads, then they’re expecting the buying experience to match the one promised in the ads.
Sizzle is a Sound Effect
"Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak” — or so says Elmer Wheeler. And if you’re in marketing or sales, either you like that phrase, or rather strenuously object to it. Those who object say things like "If you sell sizzle without the steak you’re a con artist."
Advertising Effectiveness: 50 Years of Research Distilled to Top 10 Most Important Elements
All the data including marketing spend, sales numbers, profit margins, etc.
Judging Ads: You’re (Probably) Doing It Wrong
I saw the following posted as a bit of humor online and thought it contained a powerful advertising lesson.
Story Appeal, Attitude, and Branding
Shared values and tribes are the life blood of bonding campaigns. And you can’t have attitude without a point of view.
Getting Human Nature to Work FOR (Rather Than Against) Your Business
The only emotions that reliably inspire action are those that affect self-image.
Creating Story Appeal On Demand (Part 2)
Attitude imbalances are the most useful for advertising — especially for branding — because they speak to and most directly reveal personality, character, and values.
Radio’s Missing Creative Revolution
Radio never teamed up copywriters with sound producers to create great ads that pushed Theatre of the Mind to full effect and that were more than the sum of their parts.
Story —> Attention —> Sale (Part 1)
If you try to buy attention without a story, you’ll strike out. This is what happens to most advertising and marketing efforts. People buy “exposure” via advertising and presume that they’ve also purchased attention...
Good Strategy, Bad Strategy — A Primer
Good strategy always contains three elements and bad strategy doesn’t. Let’s look at each of these three defining elements before presenting a streamlined version specific for Advertising Strategy.
Is Your Targeting Bass Ackwards?
For example, let’s say that, through targeted media, I could reach 10 of my ideal, target customers for $10 a piece. Or, I could reach 100 customers for $1 a piece, but only 20% of them would be my ideal customer.