Doritos, Brand Codes, and that Super Bowl Ad
Why would Doritos pay $12 million to waste, like, 55 seconds NOT showing the product? The answer is Brand Codes.
The Best Blog Post Ever Written
I drove past a place called “Best China Restaurant” hundreds of times and instinctively knew that this was not, in fact, the best out there.
The Only “Brand Attribute” You MUST Own
This is why IBM could famously charge more for less capable systems than upstart, hi-tech competitors.
The secret sauce of persuasion: storyselling
Stories live between what is real and what the consumer wishes were real.
Faster, Bigger Ad Results Through Social Engineering
Check out this recent McDonald’s ad directed by the legendary Edgar Wright to understand how it works.
Creating authentic conversational radio ads step-by-step
Conversation is, unfortunately, incredibly difficult to write — especially when you write by the rules of good grammar.
A Powerful Secret to Great Ads
Powerful ads are the few that stand out in your mind because they made an impression. Here's how that happens.
Brand Codes in a World of Continuous Partial Attention
We are all, as T.S. Eliot wrote, “distracted from distraction by distraction.” So how can you craft ads capable of working?
Persuasion, Pre-Suasion, and the “Privileged Moment”
Changing prospects’ state of mind prior to asking more than doubled the success rate.
Fables are Better than Facts
If all you do is list facts, you've created a documentary... not an advertisement. Advertisements are made to persuade.
Brand Codes: Lessons from a $65 Million Re-Branding Disaster
First, what the hell are brand codes? And how do they strengthen memory structures while increasing profits?
Do Your Ads Romanticize What Your Customers Actually Want to Buy?
“The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it's selling him.” — Business Management Legend, Peter Drucker
Be Who You Are — A KFC Case Study
The Colonel was seen as old, outdated, and associated with the old south. Tragically unhip for a newer, younger audience.
Don’t Mess with Texas – Don’t do it.
How Texas got cleaner highways through an anti-littering campaign that never used the word litter.
But What About the Rest of Us?
The direct response ad industry, which includes most of what you see online, is built upon hyper-targeting to those scant percentages of people shopping today.