The Poet and the Engineer
I was an engineer for most of my life. Engineers think logically and rationally but they can't stir desire like a poet. Are your ads written by the poet, or the engineer?
Winning the War for Talent – An Advertising Strategy for Service Companies
This is why character and story-driven advertising not only accelerates branding success, but recruiting success as well.
Putting Funny Ads To Work For Your Boring-Ass Business – Ordinary to Extraordinary
None of these products were inherently interesting, yet their ads have been enjoyed hundreds of millions of times.
How to Steal Your Competitor’s Customers. Part 2 of 3
Is this a good ad? Does it make you want to buy a can of John’s Tomato Juice? A good ad would.
Eyeballs, hope and steaming piles of crap
I get asked a lot about the effectiveness of advertising and which ones are the most effective. The buzz for entrepreneurs these days is social media.
Vulnerability is the power tool for storytelling
If you can’t make the audience feel, it’s documenting. No 5-year-old ever asked their mom to read them a documentary before bedtime. Storytelling pulls out an emotion in the audience or customer.
How Does One Educate a Customer? Part 1 of 3
“Everyone needs our product,” said Bob. “All we need to do is to tell them about it.” He thinks advertising problems in the water supply is an excellent way to attract potential customers to his business.
The Most Bizarre Brand Mascot (That Worked) In the Last Twenty Years — And Why You Should Care!
It permanently impressed itself on the tender psyches of millennials and they still whine about it decades later.
Learning From the Legends: The Ronseal Phrase
Don’t be deceived by the apparently artless, “just tell it like it is” nature of the ad. The slogan even made it into the Oxford Dictionary of Idioms and was repeatedly used by then-Prime Minister David Cameron.
The Long And Short Of Persuasion
The wrong question is “Which sells better? Long copy or short copy?" I’m a long copy proponent. That is, I’m opposed to the “nobody will read more than 300 words” school of advertising.
SEO-ing the Search Engine in the Customer’s Mind — Association Design for Fun & Profit
You must create and cultivate a rich network of mental associations linked to your brand. It starts with three elements...
Want your Facebook post to go viral? Start with 4 pivotal ingredients.
Lots of folks say there is no way to go viral. But the reality is you see viral posts all the time. It does happen, and it can happen to you as well.
Iron Chef Branding — 2 Practical Steps that Work in the Real World
Whip up that gourmet message, not from scratch, and not by following a predetermined recipe, but by making use of whatever ingredients are already on hand.
Empire Builders #003: Trump Decoded
It doesn't matter if you love him or hate him. Learn the 7 communication strategies he used to create his tribe and how you can use this to build yours.
Ad Templates
According to the published research, 89% of award-winning ads could be classified into 6 basic templates. And the use of these templates boosted subjects' abilities to positively affect audience perception by 55%.