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.”
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.
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.
How to Get (and keep) Attention | Wizard’s Roundtable
I’m joined by Orlando Wood, Chief Innovation Officer at System 1 Group in London. His book Lemon and subsequent short film Achtung! outline how we’ve lost customer’s attention over the years, and how to get it back.
How to get everyone in the world to buy what you are selling.
You want all of ‘em. Every single customer in the world. It’s natural. You did not open your doors and take all that risk for nothing. OK, let’s do it.
Transactional vs. Relational Customers: Are You Attracting the Wrong People?
Given the disproportionate amounts of revenue and profit generated by Relational buyers, you might even expect an over-abundance of messaging aimed at Relationals. But that’s not what you find.
The Secret to Increasing Facebook Likes 560% in One Week
For about $11.43, I was able to jack up the followers. There are two things at play here: 1: Digital advertising is easy to buy. 2: Digital advertising is an overly complicated mess, for no good reason.
Bonding vs. Branding: What’s the Difference?
All bonding is branding. But most branding isn’t bonding. Bonding requires commitment and proper execution. But it's worth it. Bonding blows the doors off of regular branding.
It’s Mostly Invisible
Customers need to like you before they need you. And “like” is mostly invisible. The reasons we do the things we do sit deep in the limbic part of our brains. It’s waaayyy down there. One of the first parts of the brain to form.
Magical Ad Writing for Everything From Piccolos to Recruitment
You have to: 1: Not sound like everybody else 2: Get into somebody’s imagination and mess around.