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Not Every Award Is Helpful In Your Advertising

The discipline of marketing and advertising is hardly new. The classic text on direct response marketing, “Scientific Advertising” was published as long ago as 1923. So it is something of a puzzle as to why large companies, who spend large sums on their marketing, often make what appear to be elementary blunders. A recent case [...]

Not Happy With Prospects? Reinvent Your Advertising…

Pretty much every business needs a continual inflow of new prospects and potential customers to remain healthy in the long term. But not all prospects are of equal value and some may actually be damaging to your business.  Advertising is one of the primary ways to attract new leads so it’s important to get that [...]

No Such Thing As Poor Publicity For Jack Wills

This story caught my eye and demonstrates, among other things, the enduring power of (1) controversy and (2) sex… “Jack Wills censured for ‘overtly sexual’ catalogue” There’s also a “Royal” connection (apparently Prince Harry is a fan of the label) which always adds spice to stories like this. And to support my argument about the [...]

Emotional Direct Response Meerkating?!?

The great Drayton Bird, direct response marketing and copywriting maven par excellence, recently held a free webinar for his subscribers. The topic was the “10 Best Ads Of The Last 10 Years”.  The ads were selected primarily on the basis of how effective they were and the results they produced. One of the ads (campaign, [...]

Ogilvy On Advertising…Australia As A Tourist Destination

Tourism Australia has just launched a new advertising campaign and the style reverts to a more traditional format after the somewhat arthouse style of the previous Baz Luhrmann created ads. Unsurprisingly, there’s been a chorus of complaints from sections of the intelligentsia bewailing the “unsophisticated” image the ad presents. Here’s the ad “There’s Nothing Like [...]

What Copywriters And Marketers Need To Know About New FTC Guidelines

Unless you’ve been completely cut off from the online world the last few months… …you’re most likely aware that there has been a fair amount of discussion and not a little concern about new guidelines issued by the US Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) relating to online marketers. Specifically, as how they relate to bloggers, affiliates [...]

Could Direct Response Marketing Save The Newspaper Business?

The old-style newspaper business is struggling in many countries around the world. Falling circulations, shrinking ad revenues because of difficult economic conditions and an ineffective response to the disruptive change of the internet mean that traditional media groups are in danger of going out of business. So no great surprise when media baron Rupert Murdoch [...]

A Really Clueless Bank Ad

Every now and again, I come across a piece of advertising copy… …usually a headline or tagline of some sort… …that is absolutely breathtaking in its utter inanity and stupidity. Bear in mind, that as a direct response copywriter I read a lot of ads and see a lot of mediocre advertising.  So I’m not [...]

Russian Roulette For Business Owners…

…who don’t use direct response marketing and copywriting. In the UK “Daily Telegraph” is this article… “Marketing Spend Falls At Sharpest Rate For Nine Years”. A recent survey found that…

Sex, Controversy And Classic Direct Response Copywriting

Had to bring this item to your attention, partly because of the “controversy” but also because the ad is actually a good example of direct response copywriting. In London, there has been a storm of outrage over billboards carrying the following headline…

“Scientific Advertising In The 21st Century” – Part 18 “Negative Advertising”

“Negative Advertising” is the subject of Chapter 18 of the copywriting classic “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins. In this short chapter, Hopkins discusses two types of negative advertising. The first is what is usually called “knocking copy” or directly criticising the competition. Hopkins strongly discourages this…

“Scientific Advertising In The 21st Century” – Part 17 “Individuality”

Chapter 17 of the copywriting classic “Scientific Advertising” by Claude Hopkins deals with the topic of individuality. Why is this important? Here’s what Hopkins had to say…