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Imperial Library
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Index
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
People who dislike advertising should do everything themselves.
A lot of people are like you, but just barely.
The product purchase path
Don’t start with the product; start with a need or want.
Any surface can be an advertising medium—but you shouldn’t necessarily use it.
The six elements of a print advertisement
An advertising agency doesn’t advertise.
An ad isn’t a one-off.
Art is the idea, not the image.
“Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture—and forget that merchandise must be sold.”
Brand or direct-response campaign?
Touchpoints
Emphasize reach when selling toilet paper. Emphasize frequency when Beyoncé is coming to town.
The biggest advertising decision most businesses make is location.
An advertising campaign helped end the world’s second-longest civil war.
Don’t judge; discern.
Demonstrate the context.
You’ll reach more by targeting fewer.
Subaru finds its core audience.
Find people who are gaga.
The more expensive the product, the more emotional the appeal that must be made.
If you want customers to forfeit their privacy, offer a proportional benefit.
Let digital audiences decide what works best for them.
You’ll be lucky to reach half your online audience.
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
Call out the audience only if it’s in trouble.
It’s advertising until it lands in the cart.
Why AM radio sounds lousy
Use duplication for radio frequency.
Advertise on broadcast TV by program. Advertise on cable TV by network.
Everyone can afford to advertise during the Super Bowl.
Don’t buy it if you can earn it.
Politicians pay the least.
The Fairness Doctrine
The federal ban on cigarette advertising increased smoking.
A priority does not include and.
More choices are paralyzing.
Most people pick medium.
Reactance
Aspiration isn’t always forward looking.
Charm them with pricing.
Give the throwaway an afterlife.
Guilt ’em.
Modeling the 1% is risky.
Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign
The advertorial
Don’t miniaturize the billboard. Don’t magnify the business card.
You can stage the truth, but you can’t lie.
The key ingredient in propaganda is truth.
“All propaganda…must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed…. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another.…The great majority of a nation…are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning.”
Intellectual property
Wearout
Sidestep the clutter.
Change the motivation.
Don’t use sex to sell unsexy things.
Meet young audiences on their turf.
How many ways can a junior high schooler make fun of it?
Research to discover, not to affirm.
Data
Randomer is accurater.
Data is singular enough.
Two views of big data
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Sometimes screwing around is screwing around. Sometimes it’s actual work.
Being creative by yourself doesn’t work.
You don’t have to defend one idea to the death.
Insight on insight
The truest truth
A tagline doesn’t have to tell the whole truth, but it should tell a believable truth.
If you’re being truthful, it will feel risky.
“Cut the marketing bullshit and get to the truth.”
Everyday words come from advertising.
Adapt emerging language.
Old saws still cut wood.
The campaign that helped shutter America’s oldest carmaker
Three is good company.
Write good.
Spell sensationally.
The more you talk, the less you will be trusted.
Clichés bog down creativity.
No padding.
Seven words on a billboard.
“I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.”
Font is tone of voice.
Sans serif fonts are grotesque.
Serif fonts don’t scale well.
Be better than the software.
Direct the flow of energy.
We “see” from top to bottom, left to right.
Make images right-handed.
Emote with color.
Include some black.
Fuzz it like a pro.
When preparing a presentation, prepare two presentations.
Don’t translate criticism literally.
You won’t have a healthy relationship if you do all the talking.
Admitting flaws elevates credibility.
Make the relationship outlast the purchase.
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
What you can do next matters more than what you’ve done.
Seeing your work in an ad is like being a little famous.
Notes
Index
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