There are several expert Yellow Page advisers on my list.
While I’m no expert per se, good Yellow Page advertising conforms to the same direct response principles which separate us from the blind fumbling around in the darknesses of image advertising.
I rejoiced when I found this quarter-page ad today since it’s the first Yellowpage ad I’ve ever seen — not an example in a DM book– which gets it right.
Great U.S.P (unique selling proposition) also. Fixed Right or It’s Free.
Tony Flores rang me up a few weeks ago and asked if I’d be willing to promote a new project he’s got cooking with Clayton Makepace.
I felt bad telling Tony no.
He’s Jesuit educated like me, a super sharp marketer and also one of my customers. But I’m as recalcitrant as they come where affiliate marketing is concerned.
However, a few days after our call, I downloaded the report Tony asked me to look at. When I got about half way through the 26 page PDF, I thought it was one of the most well crafted, informative and on target reports I’d read in a while. I recommend it…sans kickback.
If you download the PDF and are curious about the lead gen Clayton created, (and referenced to bring in over $20 million) you can find it here. The Great Dollar Panic of 2007-2008 (for Martin Weiss). A word of warning though. Clayton was a little too soft on our Central Bank. Perhaps, it’s forgivable considering how well the piece is written.
Finally, here’s one of Clayton’s pieces I really admire. The 23 Cent Life Saver Heart Surgeons Never Tell You About!
Full Scoop on Boardroom JV, launching Monday, January 10th, is here.
It amazes me.
Quite often, a subscriber will email to ask my opinion of the recently launched “XYZ course.” Inevitably, it’s some flavor of yesterday’s successful traffic tactic or a coaching program.
Now, I spring for a lot of these things myself. Besides being an easy mark, I find a routine diet of desire as a customer is one of the surest ways to bottle it for my own promotions as a marketer.
But what gets me is how so many keep chasing the dragon to discover the latest secret when all the while…
The secret is right in front of their noses
I know the secret.
You know the secret.
You do know it. Don’t you? [Read more…] about A Million Dollar “Marketing Course” for $100?
Here’s a lead generation ad Gary Halbert ran in the Wall Street Journal in 1990.
I counted several insertions so this little lead gen must have gotten the phone to ring and there were few as persuasive as Gary to handle the incoming calls. The fact the leads were coming from the Journal was qualifying in itself.
Gary just picked a half dozen of his most intriguing bullets, slapped a headline on top, a toll free number on bottom and presto.
Here’s a large image of: “Hot New Reports From Top Ad Expert Reveal 6 Amazing Secrets!”
“TheGaryHalbertLetter.com” The greatest copywriting newsletter archive on the planet!
Here’s a lead generation ad from the mid-80’s which ran strong for over ten years in major newspapers from coast to coast. It’s a proven template which can be modified for almost any type of seminar.
The man running the ad was Howard Shensen, “the consultant’s consultant,” who taught countless others how to do the business of consulting.
This is the ad Ted Nicholas wrote for Shensen’s book, “Consulting Success.”
Shensen not only made a fortune selling his how-to-consulting info to paid seminar attendees but also made a killing on the rental of his list. I knew someone who rented Howard’s list in the 90’s and discovered it was very dirty — lots of dead people were on it. It was just too profitable for Howard to take them off his list.
Nevertheless, no one has managed to replace Howard Shensen since moving on to that great consultancy in the sky. I predict we’ll be seeing a migration of real estate gurus to “how to be a consultant” gurus this year.
Here’s an ad Ted Nicholas wrote 20 years ago for Howard Shenson’s book, the “Complete Guide to Consulting Success.”
Ted has probably conducted more split run tests and knows more about space advertising than just about anyone in direct response marketing. For my part, I must’ve purchased just about everything he’s put out.
Ted’s copy is timeless. Notice how Ted masterfully breaks down the consulting process into fast reading and captivating bullet lists. Pay heed here: for many informational offers, a bullet list often outpulls blocks of dense ad copy. Look to Mel Martin’s copy for Boardroom and Bud Weckesser’s for Green Tree Press for further examples.
Ted whets your appetite throughout the ad, rounds out the bulleted lists with a juicy quote from the L.A. Times, tosses in an irresistible bonus and then closes with an unprecedented money back guarantee.
As direct marketers, we all know what the mark of a great ad is — after reading it, you place an order. I found a few copies of it left on Amazon.com while Ted is replenishing his supply.
Nearly every promoter of real estate investment today owes his existence to a 47 year old, breakthrough ad.
However, unlike many of today’s promoters who are 95% pitchmen/5% real estate investors, Bill Nickerson was the real deal. He was as blue collar as it gets — a telephone company employee — who started off in his part time and built substantial wealth through real estate investing.
At the time this ad was published, real estate investing was not something the average wage earner got involved with. That’s hard to imagine today considering the deluge of late-night infomercials.
And that’s why this was such a breakthrough ad.
Take the title of this now out-of-print classic: “How I Turned $1,000 Into A Million.” It’s spot on specific…and infinitely stronger than…”How I Got Rich in Real Estate.”
It’s an evergreen headline that’s swiped successfully to this day.
Even forty seven years later, the copy is very strong in this ad. Look how the very first sentence sides with the skeptical reader and builds momentum from there.
Who ever heard of an ordinary wage earner like me amassing a fortune of half a million dollars in his spare time?
Yet that’s what happened to me. And the money making formula I used can be applied by almost anybody, almost anywhere.
Maybe you’ll make less than $500,000. Maybe you’ll make more (as I did later on.) In any case, I see no reason why you can’t accumulate enough to retire on a handsome income while you are still young enough to enjoy it to the fullest. Your chances for success in this field are far better than 400-to-1. In fact, 1600 times better than if you went into business according to actual US government statistics.
Notice too, the sophistication of this approach. Nickerson says: “the money making formula I used can be applied by almost anybody, almost anywhere.” This adds volumes of credibility to the claim because we all know there’s no way everyone, everywhere can make something work successfully. [Read more…] about Real Estate Advertising (William Nickerson: How I Turned $1,000 Into A Million)
What collection of space advertising is complete without a Claude Hopkins’ ad?
Here’s one of his efforts for Palmolive soap from 1929.
Here’s an interesting ad from my favorite supermarket reading, “The National Enquirer.”
This is a new ad for the weight loss product/diet pill called the Red Weight Loss Adjunct by Blackett Pharmacal. Time will tell how well it performs at its hefty $59.99 for 30 days price point.
I felt a scientific citation or two would bolster the product claim. Then again, passing the legal hurdle in the diet pill market is something I know nothing about. I do like this is a product for “losing body fat” verses a mere “weight loss” product.
(The following is a transcription of one of the last ads written by legendary copywriter, Robert Collier. Yours Free A Gift from the Richest Man in the World, the Late J. Paul Getty.)
My friend, I’m getting old and I don’t have much longer to live. Unless I do this now, when I go the secret goes with me.
What I’m about to give with knowledge, the knowledge that men have been searching for since time began.
I used to be an ordinary man, I spent the early part of my life stumbling in the dark, trying to find a way to make all the dreams that I had as a young man come true. I wanted like most young people to be wealthy, admired, respected, I wanted love and happiness, I also had many questions about life and I wanted some answers. Yet, no matter how hard I tried everything always seemed to be kept for me. As though it was all hidden in the very next room, a room whose door was impenetrable without the right key.
After years of being kept from those things that I wanted most in my world, my spirit could have easily broken. If I allowed myself to become consumed with failure and rejection. Little did I know then how lucky I was for this to have had happen to me. For something grew inside me that would not let me rest until I found the answers that we’re bring me all the things that I so desperately wanted.
This was the beginning of a search that would become an obsession, to find the knowledge that I so desperately longed for and knew must of existed somewhere. The inspiration of the great men in the past took much of the torment away. The multi-millionaire and recluse billionaires that seem to have the world at their beck and call. The men that were able to control the very destiny’s of nations. How they respect and admiration, how they were rich and powerful, but not me, never me. When did all these these great men have that I don’t? I knew there must be an answer and I dedicated my life to finding it; because I knew there could be no true life for me until I did.
I started to read, To Do Research Into The Past. I spoke with and studied of the richest, the most powerful, as well as the wisest men of my time. I read every possible piece of literature that I thought would hold a clue. I delved into the oldest recorded writings of the ancient civilizations. Trying almost insanely to put all the pieces of this great puzzle together. I kept asking myself, what did these men have? What did they have that I didn’t, and how could I get it?
I involved myself in all sorts of situations, trying to put into practice what I had learned. I traveled with the hope that the answers might somehow lie beyond the horizon, and though I didn’t find them there, I know now that the proverb, seek and ye shall find, couldn’t be more true. For one, the answers were finally revealed to me. They came in a way that I could not directly attribute to any place I had been or any individual effort. I had made define them. It was as though my mind had crossed into a new frontier, a frontier I was certain relatively few men had ever gone into before. Suddenly, I saw the whole world differently, what seemed confusing before I could easily understand, what was unobtainable before suddenly became easy to get. The things that people saw one way, I saw differently, as though I could detect more aspects of the same thing, and thereby see it more clearly, or as it truly was. I had an undefined power that gave me an advantage over everything I did. After awhile, I realized that I was very different from before, I was at last the way I wanted to be, I had learned what I wanted to learn, and I was at long last able to live the way I had dreamed and knew it was possible for a man to live.
It is written, “Once in a thousand years, a man lives a dream.” For the last third of my life, that is exactly what I have done. I have lived with more wealth and power than any man could ever want. I have done almost everything that I have set out to do. I doubt if there has been a man who has lived a more fulfilled life than I, but now I have only memories. This, in my opinion, next to life itself, was the greatest gift that a man could be given. But, not have come to realize that if I don’t share this knowledge now, I may never get another chance to do so. I now know that I am obligated to share it, and in the end this was the way that fate had destined it to be.
I would like you to have my secret, but you will have to realize that this ad will be read by many people, many whom I do not know, but a few will be chosen to carry on for me after I am gone. I have written what I have learned and published in a special limited edition book that contains only 344 pages. I have titled it “The Secret of The Ages.” I want you to own a copy of this book that is specially bound in library-type binding, but I want you to pay for it. I want you to send me a check for $20 that you may even post date up to 30 days to eliminate any doubt as to its value, and to give it a chance to prove its worth to you.
The reason that I am asking you to pay $20 is that I want to make sure that you read it, and I feel that if you pay $20 for it, then it will be read.
With my book, I will also send you a book written by the man who was renowned as the richest man in the world, a man whom I have had great respect and admiration for, the late J. Paul Getty . His book is “The Golden Age.” I have bought, at great expense, the rights to publish this great book after John Paul’s recent and sad departure from this world. I have also printed it in very limited quantities. The book is bound in special library-type binding that should allow it to last for many generations to come. I feel that it is essential you read, along with my book, the message that John Paul wanted you to learn, and acquire the truth that took the richest man in the world his entire lifetime to learn.
Therefore, I am making you the following offer. If you feel that, after reading my book, it is not worth many times more than the mere $20 you paid for it, then send it back to me and I will return your uncashed check immediately. Not only that, you can keep J. Paul Getty’s book, the Golden Age, for your trouble. You can lose only if you do nothing. If you want to own these two books, write on a blank piece of paper, send me the books, along with your name and address. Mail it along with your check, that may be post-dated up to 30 days, to me:
Robert G. Collier,
In care of: Collier Book Corporation, Department B
531 Wyckoff Avenue
Ramsey, New Jersey 07446
P.S. – If you have any questions, my number is 201-744-3777. If busy, call 744-3815 or 744-3784. New Jersey residents, add 5% sales tax.
Last week, while walking the streets of Los Angeles, I did what I normally do while visiting a big city, I wandered into a newspaper and magazine shop.
But instead of diving into my usual foreign language fare, my eye caught a glimpse of “Small Business Opportunities” magazine.
“No, I couldn’t” I thought. “I haven’t picked up that magazine since the 90’s.”
But since I was in town for a marketing conference, I thought what the heck. Besides, I wanted to know if the voluptuous blond, Laura Johnson and her ad, “Use Me To Get Rich,” were still to be found in the pages within.
Since I have a reputation to uphold, I couldn’t just walk up to the Urdu speaking cashier with a copy of Small Business Opportunities, could I?
So, just like an adolescent boy who bundles Playboy with Time Magazine and National Geographic, I sandwiched the biz-op mag between the Financial Times and Barron’s. My “ploy” worked, the cashier hardly seemed to notice SBO!
Ten minutes later, I’m back in my hotel room flipping through SBO. No Laura Johnson…and no Ken Roberts. And worse, the copy in almost every ad felt like it was written by Torquemada and his torturers. I had to remind myself that the respondents to these offers were hyper-responsive for a brief few weeks, then usually never heard from again.
So, since none of the ads inspired me to fire up my scanner, here’s an old Dean F.V. Du Vall ad from the mid-80’s.
See Dean straddle his Silver Shadow.
Listen as Dean tells you how to make “big bux.”
Just don’t respond. This is an ad from the 80’s.
It’s brand new!
It’s enormous!
It’s a Boardroom infomercial?
Yes. Believe it or not.
Guess I oughta watch more television because this infomercial with top copywriter Arthur Johnson and television warhorse, Hugh Downs, has been out for a year or two.
This ad has the potency you’d expect in a Boardroom print ad…plus all the over-the-top applause of a late night infomercial.
Ogilvy & Mather unleashed a series of “house ads” in the late 60’s to early 70’s, which dazzled readers with its depth, and hooked more whale-sized clients than any house ads before or since. Many tens of millions were spent on these insertions in major publications worldwide.
If you could pass through a time machine and transport to any agency of your choice, the direct response division of O&M, during the late 60’s-early 70’s, is where you’d want to be. Drayton Bird, Gary Bencivenga and David Deutch are all O&M alumni from around this time.
“How To Create Advertising That Sells” is a remarkable 1,909 words long and draws on the direct response foundation laid by Claude Hopkins, John Caples and the statistical polling methodology David Ogilvy learned at Gallup.
You can find Ogilvy’s commentary on this series of ads on page 65 of “Ogilvy On Advertising.” What…you don’t have “Ogilvy On Advertising?” I’m barring your IP address from this site until you get it…especially since you’re one of the few who possesses this ad word-for-word. And in case you haven’t looked at the book in a while, a sharpshooter assisted by an electron microscope would be challenged to make out the body copy in the ad.
It seems the O&M series saw fewer and fewer insertions as Ogilvy’s influence over the agency weakened with time. However, these ads certainly left their mark.
You can find a list of the other ads in the series here.
Besides clients, other agencies were inspired by these bold space ads. Several agencies spun off their own versions, in the spirit of the house of Ogilvy. One series that comes to mind was a 1980’s advertising partnership between The Wall Street Journal and a rotation of Madison Avenue agencies under the slogan, “The Wall Street Journal. It works.”
So, while it’s true a freelancer could never handle the corporate giants these ads were designed to attract, far bigger and better paying clients await those with the guts and know-how to put this kind of ad together today. And with the 24/7 research power of the Internet, it’s possible to assemble the kind of data which once took whole departments, mere decades ago.
Moreover, aren’t we all getting a little fatigued reading the same type of customer acquisition sales letters, promising the six secrets of psychological persuasion (and the like), some writer has labored months over.
Here’s the O&M masterpiece, “How To Create Advertising That Sells,” in its original format.
By David Ogilvy
Ogilvy & Mather has created over $1,480,000,000 worth of advertising. Here, with all the dogmatism of brevity are 38 of the things we have learned.
1. The most important decision. We have learned that the effect of your advertising on your sales depends more on this decision than on any other: how should you position your product? Should you position Schweppes as a soft drink – or as a mixer? Should you position Dove as a product for dry skin or as a product which gets hands really clean? The results of your campaign depend less on how we write your advertising than how your product is positioned. It follows that positioning should be decided before the advertising is created. Research can help. Look before you leap.
2. Large promise. The second most important decision is this: what should you promise the customer? A promise is not a claim, or a theme, or a slogan. It is a benefit for the consumer. It pays to promise a benefit which is unique and competitive, and the product must deliver the benefit your promise. Most advertising promises nothing. It is doomed to fail in the marketplace. “Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement” – said Samuel Johnson.
3. Brand image. Every advertisement should contribute to the complex symbol which is the brand image. 95% of all advertising is created ad hoc. Most products lack any consistent image from one year to another. The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined personality for his brand gets the largest share of the market.
4. Big ideas. Unless your advertising is built on a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. It takes a big idea to jolt the consumer out of his indifference – to make him notice your advertising, remember it and take action. Big ideas are usually simple ideas. Said Charles Kettering, the great General Motors inventor: “this problem, when solved, will be simple.” Big, simple ideas are not easy to come by. They require genius – and midnight oil. A truly big one can be continued for 20 years – like our eye patch for Hathaway shirts.
5. A first-class ticket. It pays to give most products an image of quality – a first-class ticket. Ogilvy & Mather has been conspicuously successful in doing this – for Pepperidge, Hathaway, Mercedes Benz, Schweppes, Dove and others. If your advertising looks ugly, consumers will conclude that your product is shoddy and they will be less likely to buy it.
6. Don’t be a bore. Nobody was ever bored into buying a product. Yet most advertising is impersonal, detached, cold – and dull. It pays to involve the customer. Talk to her like a human being. Charm her. Make her hungry. Get her to participate.
7. Innovate. Start trends – instead of following them. Advertising which follows a fashionable fad or is imitative, is seldom successful. It pays to innovate, to blaze new trails. But innovation is risky unless you pre-test your innovation with consumers. Look before you leap.
8. Be suspicious of awards. The pursuit of creative awards seduces creative people from the pursuit of sales. We have been unable to establish any correlation whatever between awards and sales. At Ogilvy and Mather, we now give an annual award for the campaign which contributes the most to sales. Successful advertising sells the product without drawing attention to itself, it rivets the consumer’s attention on the product. Make the product the hero of your advertising.
9. Psychological Segmentation. Any good agency knows how to position products for demographic segments of the market – for men, for young children, for farmers in the south, etc. But Ogilvy and Mather has learned that it often pays to position for psychological segments of the market. Our Mercedes-Benz advertising is positioned to fit non-conformists who scoff at “status symbols” and reject flim-flam appeals to snobbery.
10. Don’t bury news. It is easier to interest the consumer in a product when it is new than at any other point in its life. Many copywriters have a fatal instinct for burying news. That is why most advertising for new products fails to exploit the opportunity that genuine news provides. It pays to launch your new product with a loud boom-boom.
11. Go the whole hog. Most advertising campaigns are too complicated. They reflect a long list of marketing objectives. They embrace the divergent views of too many executives. By attempting too many things, they achieve nothing. It pays to boil down your strategy to one simple promise – and go the whole hog in delivering that promise.
What Works Best In Television
12. Testimonials. Avoid irrelevant celebrities. Testimonial commercials are almost always successful – if you make them credible. Either celebrities or real people can be effective. But avoid irrelevant celebrities whose fame has no natural connection with your product or your customers. Irrelevant celebrities steal attention from your product.
13. Problem-solution (don’t cheat!) You set up a problem that the consumer recognizes. And you show how your product can solve that problem. And you prove the solution. This technique has always been above average in sales results, and it still is. But don’t use it unless you can do so without cheating: the consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.
14. Visual demonstrations. If they are honest, visual demonstrations are generally effective in the marketplace. It pays to visualize your promise. It saves time. It drives the promise home. It is memorable.
15. Slice of life. These playlets are corny, and most copywriters detect them. But they have sold a lot of merchandise, and are still selling.
16. Avoid logorrhea. Make your pictures tell the story. What you show is more important than what you say. Many commercials drown the viewer in a torrent of words. We call that logorrhea, (rhymes with diarrhea.) We have created some great commercials without words.
17. On-camera voice. Commercials using on-camera voice do significantly better than commercials using voice over.
18. Musical Backgrounds. Most commercials use musical backgrounds. However, on the average, musical backgrounds reduce recall of your commercial. Very few creative people accept this. But we never heard of an agency using musical background under a new business presentation.
19. Stand-ups. The stand-up pitch can be effective, if it is delivered with straightforward honesty.
20. Burr of singularity. The average consumer now sees 20,000 commercials a year; poor dear. Most of them slide off her memory like water off a duck’s back. Give your commercials a flourish of singularity, a burr that will stick in the consumer’s mind. One such burr is the mnemonic device or relevant symbol – like the crowns in our commercials for Imperial Magazine.
21. Animation and cartoons. Less than 5% of television commercials use cartoons or animation. They are less persuasive than live commercials. The consumer can not identify herself with the character in the cartoon and cartoon’s do not invite belief. However, Carson-Roberts, our partners in Los Angeles, tell us that animation can be helpful when you are talking to children. They should know, they have addressed more than 600 commercials to children.
22. Salvage commercials. Many commercials which test poorly can be salvaged. The faults revealed by the test can be corrected. We have doubled the effectiveness of a commercial simply be re-editing it.
23. Factual versus emotional. Factual commercials tend to be more effective than than emotional commercials. However, Ogilvy & Mather has made some emotional commercials, which have been successful in the marketplace. Among these are our campaigns for Maxwell House Coffee and Hershey’s Milk Chocolate.
24. Grabbers. We have found that commercials with an exciting opening hold their audience at a higher level than commercials which begin quietly.
What Works Best In Print?
25. Headline. On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. It follows that, if you don’t sell the product in your headline, you have wasted 80% of your money. That is why most Ogilvy and Mather headlines include the brand name and the promise.
26. Benefited headline. Headlines that promise to benefit sell more than those that don’t.
27. News and headlines. Time after time we have found that it pays to inject genuine news into headlines. The consumer is always on the lookout for new products or new improvements in an old product, or new ways to use an old product. Economists – even Russian economists – approve of this. They call it “informative” advertising. So do consumers.
28. Simple headlines. Your headline should telegraph what you want to say – in simple language. Readers do not stop to decipher the meanings of obscure headlines.
29. How many words in a headline? In headline tests conducted with cooperation from a big department store, it was found that headlines of 10 words or longer sold more goods than short headlines. In terms of recall, headlines between 8-and-10 words are most effective. In mail order advertising, headlines between 6-and-12 words get the must coupon returns. On the average, long headlines sell more merchandise than short ones – headlines like our “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”
30. Localize headlines. In local advertising, it pays to include the name of the city in your headline.
31. Select your prospects. When you advertise your product which is consumed by a special group, it pays to flag that group in your headline – mothers, bedwetters, going to Europe?
32. Yes, people read long copy. Readership falls off rapidly up to 50 words, but drops very little between 50 and 500 words (this page contains 1,909 words, and you are reading it). Ogilvy & Mather has used long copy – with notable success – from Mercedes Benz, Cessna Citation, Merrill Lynch, and Shell Gasoline. “The more you tell, the more sell.”
33. Story appeal and picture. Ogilvy & Mather has gotten noticeable results with photographs, which suggest the story. The reader glances at the photograph and asks himself, “what goes on here?” Then he reads the copy to find out. Harold Rudolph called this magic element “story appeal.” The more of it you inject into your photograph, the more people look at your advertisements. It is easier said than done.
34. Before and after. Before and after advertisements are somewhat above average in attention value. Any form of visualized contrast seems to work well.
35. Photographs versus art work. Ogilvy & Mather has found that photographs work better than drawing – almost invariably. They attract more readers, generate more appetite appeal, are more believable, are better remembered, pull more coupons, and sell more merchandise.
36. Use captions to sell. On the average, twice as many people read the captions under photographs as read the body copies. It follows that you should never use a photograph without putting a caption under it; and each caption should be a miniature advertisement for the product – complete with the brand name and promise.
Number 37: Editorial layout. Ogilvy & Mather has had more success with editorial layouts, than with addy Layouts. Editorial layouts get higher readership than conventional advertisements.
Number 38: Repeat your winners. Scores of great advertisements have been discarded before they have begun to pay off. Readership can actually increase with repetition – up to five repetitions.
Is this all we know?
These findings apply for most categories of products. But, not to all. Ogilvy & Mather has developed a separate and specialized body of knowledge on what makes for success in advertising food products, tourist destinations, proprietary medicines, children’s products – and other classifications. But, this special information is revealed only to the clients of Ogilvy & Mather.
Copywriter, David Yale, has a terrific site called Control Beaters, where you’ll find 24 control packages for everything from costume jewelry to collectibles to investment newsletters…and clients ranging from Publishers Clearing House to Suarez Industries to AT&T.
While these packages are from the 1990’s, what makes the site so valuable is that David shares the results of the mailings and identifies what element/s made them successful. Like this most interesting envelope for a costume jewelry offering which at first glance appears to have been mailed from Russia. It fetched a 9.38% response rate.
I especially like his comments on the lift note, “How to Avoid IPO Monsters,” which he claims doubled response in an A/B split test.
This is the first page from a recent spread in The National Enquirer for the stem cell containing beauty creams, Amatokin and Strivectin.
The controversial ingredient of this product was once the constant subject of front page debate in the United States a few years ago. Happily for the advertiser, this paved the road for the $190 price for a 30-day supply, which is far higher than even the most expensive beauty creams not containing stem cells.
Notice how the “beauty editor” in this ad “gives the edge” to the higher priced product in her review, while at the same time, taking a potshot at a competitor’s product.
The parentheses laden sentence beneath is pretty good “reason why advertising,” though the first part has a cooked up feel to marketers like us. I wonder if the company has tested elaborating on the connection between burn research and anti-aging.
Developed in Russia at the “super-secret” Research and Production Center for Medical Biotechnology (a high security medical lab located 62 miles north of St. Petersburg, surrounded by razor wire and machine-gun-toting armed guards…no kidding), the Amatokin peptide (known in official circles as polypeptide #153) was developed as part of ongoing research to help burn victims (interestingly, today’s most important “anti-aging compounds are derived from burn related research).
Coincidentally, I linked up with one of the great direct marketing pioneers two weeks ago, who’s involved in a similar project and he’ll be writing the copy for the forthcoming space ad. I hope to be able to provide you with the full details sometime soon.
Ron Hoff was the creative director thirty years ago at Foote, Cone & Belding and this ad was one in a series in which the Wall Street Journal partnered with several leading Madison Avenue agencies.
The ad mixes elements of the Ogilvy & Mather house ads and Max Sackheim’s Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes.
Not your mainstream direct response material but valuable for freelancers delving into the corporate jungle.
