"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."
Now, I don’t subscribe to the notion that “hey, they remembered you…and that’s all that matters.” It’s very easy to be outrageous and “get remembered.” The job of your ad is to “get remembered” and sell some stuff.
Without a consistent theme, you probably don't even have a campaign. And then at that point, what are you doing? You're not branding. You're not bonding.
Shared values and tribes are the life blood of bonding campaigns. And you can’t have attitude without a point of view.
Howard McMann once said of his partner, “He’s slippery, he lies beautifully, and he has a great head of hair.” Legend has it, Tate once told a subordinate “If the client loves it, I love it! If the client hates it, I hate it!”
The only emotions that reliably inspire action are those that affect self-image.
How long should each ad stay on? How many ads do you run at a time? And as we look into the second half of 2020, is there less clutter out there?
Makers of ads push their chairs back and say “yeahhh…now that’s smooooooth.” …while your customer sliiiides right off.
Attitude imbalances are the most useful for advertising — especially for branding — because they speak to and most directly reveal personality, character, and values.
Sheep are best known for their strong flocking (herding) and following instinct. They will run from what frightens them and band together in large groups for protection. This is the only protection they have from predators.
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 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.
What if you broadcast a flaming, un-ignorable ad that hits people between the eyes?
This substantive style of advertising (started by Ally & Gargano and continued by Scali, McCabe, Sloves) tripled US sales of Volvos.
Every ad has style and substance, cheese and meat. Most ads are cheese because ad writers are rarely given meat. Style cheese includes layout, angle, tone of voice and hyperbole. Substance meat is provable fact and concrete detail.