New Wave Marketing 101: Most Ads Are Direct Response... and All About the Headline

Required reading

Arguably the best book on advertising is "Ogilvy on Advertising," from the 1970s. Back then he said something that has certainly come true: all advertising would one day become direct response advertising. 

What does that mean? Well, direct response, which agency types see as somehow 'dirty' (and they have some good reasons for this belief), aims at getting people to do something NOW: get up off the sofa, pick up the phone, give us a call (now it's visit our site or send us an email).

Most ads, unfortunately, try to be branding, which is agency talk for they didn't sell a thing but they look good. Ogilvy foresaw that advertising was getting expensive, consumers were jaded and there would not be enough ROI for those nice, pretty "we love the environment and we love our customers" ads.

If you have the courage to advertise, whether it's B2B or B2C, have the courage to ask for the sale.

So how does this relate to headlines? Very simple: anyone who has ever written a direct response ad knows that the headline is the single most important factor in an ad's success. As much as 70% of the response can be attributed to the head (in the same way that 70% of a cigar's flavor is in the wrapper... the filling, the bulk of the cigar plays a minor role). This is why it can take weeks to write a great 10 word headline, then two hours to write the rest of the ad.

So what makes a good headline? It's an art and a gut feeling. But there are a few 'rules' handed down from successful DR pros that you might consider.

1. Don't be too cute! How many B2B ads have you seen that work with a play on words? You know: "Columbus Widgets Can Help You Discover a New World of Savings." Mostly, these are terrible; although when a good one comes along, research shows that these play on words headlines are the MOST memorable of all. Just resist the tendency to be 'Don Draper' clever.

2. Questions work. The most successful cosmetics ad of the past decade asked a simple question: "Better Than Botox?" and women responded to the tune of half a billion USD. If you can ask a 'real' question, something your customers are asking themselves, you could be on to something.

3. FREE always works, always, always, always (but these days, not 'FREE with autoship program.' Nothing turns off customers faster... and nothing gets the government involved quicker than autoship... just ask 'Smiling Bob' and his people).

4. You've got to standout without screaming... make a point that your audience is worried about, curious about, struggling with and offer the promise of a solution or some information people don't already know.

Whatever you do, spend a lot more time on the headline and opening paragraph than you are used to spending. We all usually jump at the first cute headline that we think of (and if the headline seems cute, it probably is so forget it) or we listen to some engineer or 'scientist' whose solution is to "just say what it is."

C'mon who wants to listen to a lecture entitled "Ball Grid Arrays and Effective Soldering Techniques" when you can listen to one called...

"Solder Balls Aren't As Bad As You Think... They're Worse"?

New Wave Marketing 101: Keeping It Above the Fold and Other Stupid Ideas

Just read an article by some crack designer (http://iampaddy.com/lifebelow600/) telling me that it’s no longer  “de rigeur” to worry about keeping web content ‘above the fold.’ People will scroll without a problem; so longer web pages are fine… fine, I tell you.

I’m about to blow a gasket.

For years… years… every tin pot designer and web expert has been SCREAMING about keeping copy above the flippin’ fold. That line was Gospel. I think Jesus said as much at The Sermon on the Mount.

I ask any of you who write copy, how many times have you heard that admonition? How often have you been asked to cut a story or change a paragraph or ruin a good subhead or make the font smaller all so you could keep it above the fold?

Hundreds. Thousands.

And here’s the worst part: we were stupid enough and weak enough to do it… to let a CODER tell us what sells… to change our story to fit a nonsensical idea.

People read books and magazines… and they have no problem turning pages. Case closed. The Internet didn’t change that. Write a good story, something compelling, and people will scroll and turn pages and click mice to follow along.

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT… BUT STILL WE PUT UP WITH A DECADE OF ‘ABOVE THE FOLD’ IDIOCY. (Ooo, it’s so elegant, so intelligent.)

I guess what’s making me sore (aside from thinking of all the unnecessary things I had to do to make things fit) is that the executives (VPs of marketing, supposedly) we worked for were so damned quick to believe… and so eager to trust a CODER. (Excuse me… they had numbers! Unfortunately, marketing and selling can’t be fully quantified with spreadsheets and algorithms.)

Copywriters, how low our stock has sunk. This idea of short, above the fold copy is a big reason why people now think anyone can write. Why pay for long copy and a good story when you don’t need to? No one’s reading more than one screen. Anyone can throw together a couple of sentences!”

Ah, I can hear it now… the sound of CODERS tap dancing around this new information… “Sure, it was good advice at the time but people have changed, blah, blah, blah.”

No, they haven’t. That’s why a good story is still called a ‘page turner.’

(What next? Are you going to tell me that keywording isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?)

New Wave Marketing 101: Overpaying, Over Doing and Over Estimating the Value of Social Media

If you saw the recent article about The State Department paying over $600K to raise its likes from 60,000 to 2,000,000 you should have laughed and then paused to reflect.

Here’s the takeaway: Most companies are over doing social media, over paying for the results and over estimating the value.

Here it is… short and sweet:

1. SM is a given for the vast majority of companies, but the simple basics are all that most need… because it’s expected – like a listing in the Yellow Pages was expected by consumers, even though no one saw results commensurate with cost.
2. CEOs and internal marketing departments in B2C and B2B are enamored of SM and frightened to be left behind, so they let any pretty face come in and sell them on likes and Google+ and tweets and you name it. Like taking candy from a baby… fools chasing numbers that don’t translate into sales.
3. Results are so poor that in any other media we would all run screaming from the field. But Google has us convinced that .75% is a pretty darn good return. I was a magazine editor/publisher for 20 years. If I had to sell that number to advertisers I would have been laughed out of the room.
4. Only two types of products/companies really benefit from the all out SM campaign: small, disruptive companies/products and huge multinationals. That’s it. Why these two?
• The big, big and maybe only significant effect SM has had on marketing is that for the first time consumers are finding you (78% find companies/products, not the other way around) and when they do, they’ve already developed an idea of who you are. You need to affect these preconceptions and this has traditionally been the realm of advertising; and if you can afford it, big ads with frequency still beat SM.
  
  But if you don’t have the bucks, SM allows you to disrupt markets, attack big market leaders and build status and belief with ‘minimal’ cost. This idea works with both B2B companies and consumer products trying to break through or disrupt an established market.
  
  But once you've hit mid-sized, SM is a minor necessity. You’re not disruptive, you have some media budget, you only need a basic presence.

• Then, there are a few, just a few, huge companies that need to present a human face: Wal-Mart, General Electric, GM, etc. -- companies that most people see as cold and faceless. Intelligent SM works well for them as branding, not sales. 

But most companies are not this big and do not need to be humanized. I don't expect Big O tires to show me their human side -- I do expect or at least appreciate a bit of humanity from Blue Cross Blue Shield or Shell Oil, etc.

If you’re not in one of these two categories, then SM is a small part of your marketing efforts these days. The blush is off the rose. For you to expect big results (and for you to pay big bucks to the plethora of SM pundits and overblown, egotistical coders and SEO ‘liars’) from minuscule return rates is just silly.

Look, say hello and thanks to your customers, explain what you do, offer a sale, improve your customer service, attract good people to hire, then get the hell out of SM.

The rest is plain nuts!

The Big Lie: Software Is Eating Marketing

Software, testing and analytics cannot displace marketing... they are processes meant to enhance marketing, not direct it. Without the right message, product and positioning, analytics and measurements are useless.

Just like those of us who aren’t painters/artists will look at a painting by Braque (my favorite) or Picasso and say, “I can do that” or “that’s rubbish,” Web analytic and software guys are often clueless: they think they’re actually selling something... actually marketing when they're simply measuring parameters of their own making: clicks throughs, abandon rates, CPC and any number of spurious SEO calculations... all data that may or may not be relevant.

Recently, I had a 'guru' tell me that his company was developing "159 landing pages" for a client so his team could find the ideal message? I'd love to see that invoice!


That’s marketing, huh? Sure, like a stick figure is modern art.

Here’s a marketing message for you to populate throughout social channels: “I be a good marketer so send me sum money and I fix yer ad good.”

I don’t care if you fire up the latest software, lists, analytics, landing pages that are optimized with above the fold content, Adwords or affiliate programs… you have nothing.

CEOs with limited budgets are so happy to hear they can have impact through software and analytics alone that they eagerly buy a snake oil sales pitch. (To be fair, you can have impact with minimum budget if you direct GOOD ads and INFORMATIVE information to the right channels.That’s marketing 101.)

And let’s be honest: most 'executives' and Internet numbers guys really don’t like creatives: "You know, these people sit around all day in jeans, thinking… not getting anything done!”

In contrast: “The Internet guys are adding SEO words and creating back links and buying lists and fiddling with knobs, they’re really working. Here, look at this report!” (BTW, you just paid $1,000 for numbers that Google generated for FREE and $5 software added your logo to the top for 'personalization'.)


So these poor souls cut checks for $20,000 a month for social media and web analytics and 159 landing pages, but moan if they have to pay $2,000 for an ad that changes their company… like the Samsung Galaxy ad restructured the smartphone market in a heartbeat.

Again, let me use polysyllabic words for the net number gurus:

If you don’t have a good pro duct with a good stor y and good grap hics, YOU HAVE GOT NO THING! NO THING!

Run that through you’re analytics… and make sure your response is ‘above the fold’.

New Wave Marketing and Advertising 101: What Marketers Should Learn from the Last Election

(If you’re old enough to remember the Doors, you know that Morrison usually opened his concerts by shouting WAKE UP!
)

Here are a few takeaways for those souls interested in marketing and advertising and politics.

1. Attack ads work as does frequency (which is how Romney got so close)… but they have to be bolstered with some sort of positive vision. You can’t win/sell anything simply by defining what it’s not: ‘Vote Romney because you hate Obama’ is not enough.
 


The same for marketing. When it comes to attracting consumers, a product has to stand for something with a positive, inspiring long-term vision. Pepsi used to advertise that it’s not Coke. So what? Then they did taste tests… still, so what? Then they began their Pepsi generation theme and things took off.

 
2. It’s nauseating how pundits keep saying that republicans need to change their message. That is duplicitous at best and downright evil at the core. Change the philosophy and adapt your ideas to the 21st century, THEN change the message to match the new soul of the party. 



Putting out a new message while your beliefs don’t change is the worst kind of cheap direct response. Change the product then change the message... not the other way around.

3. Let me repeat for the umpteenth time: after September, 2008 everything has changed: consumer expectations, middle class incomes, trust in banking, the role of  government, belief in technology, levels of consumption, demographics and YES, THE AMERICAN NARRATIVE ITSELF.


4. You’ve heard all about the demographics, but let me add one more: each month, 50,000 Hispanics turn 18 and are eligible to vote. Do the math for 2016.



5. The American belief in self-reliance, perfectly defined by Emerson’s famous essay of the same name, has changed...  only angry white guys have missed this watershed moment.

Want proof? 

The republican mantra is built on individual hard work, an independent, entrepreneurial spirit and a refusal to take handouts from the government.  

Think for a second: this philosophy is strongest in Asian and Hispanic communities. These folks work and work and work (more than most white communities), so they should be prime republicans, but they’re not.

Over 70% of Asians and Hispanics voted democratic.



Why? 

Because the republican, classic American belief that small government is best for the individual is not shared by immigrants.  Most don’t see government as the villain; rather, they see big, greedy business as the obstacle to their success, as it tilts the playing field against them, barely pays a living wage and sends jobs overseas.



Bottom line: marketing and politics are both about telling a story with vision, one that corresponds with consumer/electorate desires and is in step with their core beliefs. Anything else, and you’ll spend billions for frequency and market share and still lose to a smarter, more passionate, more in-tune competitor.

And... when you try to sell anything with a story that runs counter to the prevailing meta-narrative (core, unquestioned beliefs) you will fail, just as the republicans did… and you will continue to fail until you change more than your marketing message. 

A new tag line won't do it... you have to change your heart.

New Wave Marketing 101: Why Are Most Experts Bad Marketers?

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No offense intended, but working with Ph.Ds, MDs, ‘scientists’ and attorneys can be infuriating. These are smart people, very smart, so it shouldn’t be such a chore explaining marketing to them. But it is.

Their idea of marketing always centers on logic, statistics and specs… three things that aren’t primary when it comes to changing consumer perceptions.

But you can’t convince them: if the facts say A performs twice as well as B, then A should outsell B… it’s a matter of logic. But marketing, although logical in many ways, isn’t about THAT kind of reasoning. Marketing is about people, and people are often illogical and irrational… they lead with their hearts not their heads (and that’s why you love them).

But ‘experts’ aren’t happy with this reality. It’s sloppy and it’s not theirs; rather, they posit a world where the best always wins. (Again, not to be offensive, but Ph.Ds and the like always seem to operate from one egotistical premise: If I can learn how to be a doctor [lawyer, engineer, etc.] then I can learn anything – including how to do YOUR job as well as you in a matter of weeks.)

“How hard is it to write an ad, I’m a trained scientist?” (A question directed to me many years ago by an MD.)

A recent post from Seth Godin put this in perspective… I reprint it here:

Beauty vs. specs

There are two kinds of users/creators/customers/pundits.

Some can't understand why a product or service doesn't catch on. They can prove that it's better. They can quote specs and performance and utility. It's obvious.

The other might be willing to look at the specs, but he really doesn't understand them enough to care. All he knows is that the other choice is beautiful--it makes him feel good. He wants to use it.

Acura vs. Lexus, Dell vs. Apple, New Jersey vs. Bali...

PS: At dinner last night, a friend and I were talking facts versus emotions. He’s an attorney, who was, for a time in the 1980s, a Federal prosecutor in the office of anti-trust and tried the largest case of the decade. I’ll summarize his account:

“They (a large multinational) had dozens of expert witnesses from around the world testifying on the company’s behalf. I had no way of hiring that many counter-experts; but I could sense the jury was overwhelmed with facts. In my summary, I said something like, ‘That was sure a lot of facts and a lot of experts; they’re so much smarter than me that half the time I didn’t really understand what they were saying.’ In a flash, that simple statement dismissed weeks of expert testimony… I won the case and the opposing attorneys were shocked at how simply I countered their mountain of facts. It was all I had… what else could I do? But I fully realized at that moment that emotions played a larger role than I suspected in the courtroom. Sure, passions are key in a murder trial – but I learned that even in a dull case of anti-trust, emotion is paramount and far beyond any Ph.D, MD, you name it, expert testimony.”

Facebook’s New Ad: Why 99% of Companies and Agencies Would Have Said ‘NO’

If you haven’t yet seen Facebook’s ad ‘about’ its one billionth user you should. Pure genius. (Go to http://bit.ly/PZPh3d)

Once you’ve seen it, ask yourself these questions: Would your company have gone with such an approach? Would your agency have suggested the idea? Would any of your clients have accepted such an ad?

I’m cynical for sure, but I guess that 99% of the time the answers would be NO, NO, NO.

How can you have an ad that doesn’t mention the one billion mark? Doesn’t say how great Facebook is?

The new ad is 100% emotional… no mention of Facebook’s server power or its world class customer service. There’s no mention of a breakthrough technology… no pictures of Zuckerberg saying, “we care.”

The message is not about FB at all, so it’s even more powerfully about FB. (Please revisit an earlier post “If I Say I’m Cool… I’m Not Cool” http://bit.ly/PZQffM)

Yet… 99% of agencies and clients would have passed on the ad, preferring, instead, some sort of derivative piece with messaging like this: strong, forceful, macho… you get it… dig me.

THEME: One Billion People Can’t Be Wrong

VOICEOVER: When we started Facebook, we knew it was a communications breakthrough … but even we didn’t envision that it would revolutionize the way people get connected and stay connected.

Today, we’re one billion strong… and let’s face it, that many people can’t be wrong.

From Timbuktu to Toronto, Beijing to Boston, San Francisco to Sydney, our growing infrastructure brings friends together, lets us share our feelings and makes any business instantly international.

Join the Facebook family album and find out what you’ve been missing.

The world is waiting to hear from you… don’t be left out.

There it is – the ‘perfect’ ad for the 99%. It’s strong. It tells the world who we are.  It brings a little fear to the consumer. And this ad will pass muster with the Board, the CEO, the SEO guys. Lots of keywords (Facebook, communications, connected, breakthrough, billion, users, international, business) and text chunks we can tweet, too.

Before anyone suggests that the new ‘humble’ ad is OK for Facebook but not for other companies, let me remind you: FB is no longer the darling it once was. Check the stock price. It is beginning to look old, feel old. Billions of users or not, the bloom is off the rose. After seeing the new ad, I had a feeling that FB was somehow ‘redefined.’ I was reminded of what I loved about it years ago. (I use it less these days because it seems too business-oriented and thus kinda cold.) This ad made me think about what FB was once and could be again.

Simply put – as direct response this ad works because people like me, and I am everyman, will be moved to start thinking about FB again… start using FB more frequently and with renewed enthusiasm. More numbers=more sales=more money for FB and that’s the bottom line for any marketing piece.

Still, I can hear the marketing department's reservations: “Shouldn’t we at least mention one billion in the headline?"

(At this moment I finally understand why my wife won't let me have a gun in the house.) 

New Wave Marketing 101: What's the big idea?

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Recently, I posted what must have seemed like an enigmatic Zen koan: ‘A big idea is always small; an idea that’s too big usually makes a bad story.’

I apologize. I hate things like that… when someone parses his or her words in a way that makes one seem smart, clever and in the know. Pompous narcissists in my book; then I did the same ignorant thing.

Why not just say what I mean? I did want to be concise but mostly this was a ‘dig me’ moment: ain’t I just a deep thinker? Mea culpa.

Let me explain what I was getting at with a very typical example from my college writing class.

But first, here’s a true statement: every paper, speech, PPT presentation must have a ‘big idea,’ a central focus for the narrative.

Think of it this way. If you can recall the 1950s Superman show (George Reeves, poor soul), you’ll remember there’s always a scene in the Chief’s office where Lois says something like, “I want to cover the dock workers’ strike,” and the blustering Perry White inevitably asks, “What’s your angle?”

That’s the big idea.

So, I ask students to write a 5-page paper – which to me seems like an easy task; to them five pages is a brick wall. I tell them to focus on a controversial subject. Check with me first, I warn.

OK. Here are some typical topics they’ll profer:

Civil rights

Abortion

Legalizing drugs

Creationism v. evolution

Equal pay for equal work

How in God’s name can you cover the entire civil rights movement in five pages? Or Dr. King’s Birmingham march or his assassination or his famous Washington speech? You can’t, of course; and if you try the result will be a 1/64 of an inch thick analysis that will be scattered, trite and meaningless. The big idea is too big.

Instead, focus on, say, the mood of your hometown when the news came about Dr. King’s untimely death; how your grandparents reacted; how some were so callous while others in tears. You see? Small but excellent big ideas.

When we write ads or present products we almost always say too much… include too much, try to cram it all in and down the throats of an intimidated or uncaring audience. And by doing so we are having our own ‘dig me’ moment: look how smart I am, I know so much more than you.

So my Zen koan boils down to simply this: when writing any marketing piece, any presentation (and life is a presentation, right?) lower your ambitions and shrink your ego. The results are much more interesting when you dig deeper in a small area. When you have more to say about less you have a very, very BIG IDEA.

New Wave Marketing 101: Stop Whinging and Sell Something!

I was getting ready to post about a recent conversation with a potential client: a B-list reality star who wants her own cosmetic brand.

But why moan about the same old story?

It’s the nature of the business to speak with people who KNOW all there is to KNOW about marketing even though they have never marketed a thing. This inane conversation (where the ultimate price point she wanted minus the 55% discount to distributors, minus formula costs, production, airless pump and ‘glamorous’ packaging left a whopping $9 gross without a cent spent for marketing) followed an earlier one in which a client didn’t need help identifying social media opportunities or developing an online persona because, “I went to a seminar last month.”

Wow! Three whole hours of marketing wisdom.

I'll just move on and keep my chin up… while being ever more convinced that if we marketers are good at what we do, we should sell our own products so we finally have complete control, on one hand, and no more excuses (as the existentialists say) on the other.

Our success will prove the validity of our creativity and strategy and become a model/template for those rare clients who recognize what they’re good at and where they need help.

God bless ‘em. Now get out there, get your hands dirty, pony up your time and money, and sell something.

Marketing Veterans Don’t Get It: I’m 100% Certain

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I ran across a blog/article written by some older guy (I’m of the approximate same age so I can say that with no disrespect) that demonstrates why so many marketing ‘veterans’ just don’t get it.

He’s on about eliminating weak words in marketing pieces… like ‘I think” or “We believe” or “Perhaps,” etc.

He wants us to replace conditional words with meaningful ones. “Be forceful… Use assertive language… As (someone) attempting to persuade an audience, your job is to provide them with as much certainty as you can. The way to get from doubt to certainty is to switch from the conditional to the declarative mood by eliminating the offending words.”

[Note: Your job is not to provide certainty. It's impossible.]

That’s writing 101 – I should know because I taught Comp & Rhetoric 101 at an Atlanta college for more than a decade. And yes, in student essays and some academic dissertations you want to eliminate (most) conditional phrases.

But ‘Mr. So-Last-Century' is big time wrong when it comes to advertising and marketing to today’s well-informed and sceptical consumers.

Here’s part of my response to the gentleman:

"Perhaps writing has more rules and exceptions than any other human activity."

That's my opening sentence and I stand by it. If I remove 'Perhaps,' what seems an equivocation to you, the sentence is weaker, not stronger... at least from an advertising/marketing perspective. The tone has changed from friendly and open-minded to dogmatic. Who am I to say definitively what rules writing has or does not have? If writing/marketing is about opening a conversation, and it is, the use of absolutes is often wrong. Absolutes stop discussion rather than encourage dialog.

I understand the ideological tenets from whence the old writer comes: show strength, say you're the best, be definitive… all of the old direct response rules right out of New York City circa 1960 or Sham-Wow. What goes unsaid is an inherent belief that  "people are ignorant sheep and need to be told what to do." That's the mantra of all the old school writers I've ever known (and I’ve known a few).

Look, physicians can't agree on the value of aspirin; yet this guy wants you to stand up and speak in absolutes: "Joe’s Widgets are the best ever, the only ones that really work; we are the #1 company for innovative, world class customer care; next year will be a record breaker for Joe's Widgets."

I don't believe any of it. And I don't like Joe... don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

Alternatively, "Our widgets can be found in many of the world’s most sophisticated designs. Next year could be a record breaker with a bit of luck, some hard work and the support of our customers" sounds truer to me and shows Joe is a reasonable, professional fellow with the same hopes and concerns and work ethic we all have.

I like that Joe. I trust him.

The earlier tell-me-what-to-do Joe seems shallow, as if he has no respect for me and, quite frankly, he seems to be just one more narcissistic prat with whom I don’t want to do business.

Pride is one thing; macho, egotistical advertising/PR is another.

Hercule Poirot had a great line: “A doctor who is 100% certain is an assassin.”

The same idea applies to old school marketers. Their blowhard ads are so ‘sure’ of the truth and so convinced that consumers can’t or won’t verify the facts, they’re murdering your campaign and, what’s worse, killing your relationship with customers… dead!

New Wave Marketing 101: Hemingway, Cezanne and What To Leave Out

This is deep: so much so that at first glance it seems easy. It’s not. It sits at the heart of artistic and creative endeavors, not the least of which is the marketing narrative.

Hemingway claims that he developed his terse, poetic style by looking at Cezanne’s work. That sounds a bit romantic and perhaps apocryphal. [We all realize that great artists often give enigmatic answers because they don’t like the idea of talking about art.]

Later, Hemingway said that the key to good writing is understanding what to leave out. An expert can leave things out because he knows them… the less knowledgeable and less talented leave out important things and include the obvious and the unnecessary.

These ideas mesh if you think long and hard.

As an impressionist/post-impressionist, Cezanne was obviously not trying to be realistic. Not every detail had to be exact or included. He painted only those colors and strokes and images that were needed to create the physical effect on the optic nerves and the emotional impact he was seeking. Not one stroke more or less.

You already know that Hemingway was the same. Read “Hills Like White Elephants” and notice how little description it takes to convey the emotional tension between the man and woman. At first glance, it appears that Hemingway has told you nothing of importance. The dialog is like eavesdropping on a couple at dinner. “Would you like a drink?” “No, I’m not thirsty.” “Hungry?” “Perhaps a little.” “It’s a simple thing, really.” “Yes, it’s always so simple.”

There’s seemingly nothing there, yet we’re emotional wrecks by the end of the story. That’s art.

We know that good marketing is both factual and emotional and I believe more emotional than facts because these days consumers hear so many contradictory facts that we’ve lost all scientific certainty.

So let’s say we’re trying to build an emotional connection with our audience by describing a scene… a couple on a park bench. Think – there are thousands of words and pictures we can use to describe the park, the sky, the couple, the bench, their clothing down to the color of their socks… skin texture, grass, birds, squirrels, etc. It’s endless.

You’re getting it. The artist takes a long hard look and chooses to describe only those things that best convey the emotion he or she is seeking… let’s say one close-up photo of the couple’s feet barely touching and short descriptions of their posture, the rickety bench seat and a child that goes running past. That’s it! From all the limitless possibilities (again, the weather, the sky, their complexions, the sounds, the smells, virtually millions of things) the artist has chosen the three or four essentials that few others have noticed, and has left out all the rest. That’s Cezanne; that’s Hemingway; that’s great marketing storytelling and design.

Most of us include too much of the obvious… and ironically we still manage to leave out the essential bits that someone like Hemingway picks up on. Why? Because he ‘knows’ about couples the way Cezanne knows how two colors placed side by side make a third. All the rest is just so much unnecessary bull that clouds the mind and kills emotion.

Plus, Hemingway and Cezanne took the time to really see; and they never describe the obvious things we all grasp at first glance. To do so is to be trite and tired.

Marketing is the same. You need to be an expert in humanity and emotions and have a keen eye for subtleties that contain the whole truth (all of this takes years); you don’t really need to be an expert on the product because you’re selling emotion more than facts – and consumers can easily find any fact they like.

Tell and show the consumer only those few, simple things to best convey emotion – and little else (facts here and there are fine, depending upon the product, if it’s B2B or B2C).

Be more like Cezanne and Hemingway and less like the directions you get in a box of IKEA furniture.

NOTE: This has nothing to do with length! It might take you 1,000 words and 10 pictures to convey a simple emotional truth. Rather, this has to do with your ability to get to the core of a product or a service or a cause with as few unnecessary words and obvious images as possible.

No one said this would be easy.

New Wave Marketing 101: Dear Mr. Ogilvy... Where's the Enthusiasm?

If you read Ogilvy's book on advertising (and you should), you might remember his original ad seeking creative directors, which he called Trumpeter Swans.

Ogilvy was looking for personal genius, he said, and inspiring leadership. I like the imagery -- marketers as trumpeter swans: they want to stand out, and as I interpret it, they are enthusiastically creative and not afraid to flaunt it.

So, where are these swans? I sit in meeting after meeting with marketers, designers, B2B and B2C marketing managers,  CEOs, web guys, the lot, and it's like spending an afternoon in the morgue: no excitement, no buzz, nothing. It's as if these men and women are going to the gallows later in the day.

Marketing is 90% enthusiasm about your product, your service, your company. This excitement is essentially what we impart through ads and pr, etc. Passion goes a long, long way in marketing and in life. Why then is it in such short supply these days?

Marketing is meant to be creative, thought provoking and entertaining. How can it be any of these things when both clients and agency types are so low key, so ho hum, so boring?

If you don't have enthusiasm for what you do, stop doing it and try something else.

If I'm a company looking for an agency, I want to see three things: intelligence, creativity and enthusiasm. Two out of three ain't good enough. All three or nothing. 

From the agency side, I want to see the same traits in potential clients. Those who come to us with no excitement or enthusiasm, dragging their feet to the meetings, acting as if they're being forced to market and with no passion in their product offering or company... well, these clients will fail no matter what we do or try to do for them. Why get started and, as an agency, why get tarred by the brush of boredom these clients will surely bring? 

Two rules about marketing that have not changed since day one: frequency works no matter how mediocre the marketing; and, enthusiasm is the most important ingredient to a successful campaign or ad. 

OK, here's the third: start with a quality product or a superior service... quality breeds enthusiasm.