After many cocktail parties, I realized that most consumers see advertising and criticize it as if they knew what went into creating it. They never think about the process, only the end result.
When we look at an iceberg, we remark on its beauty without realizing that nine tenths of it are below water. While the part above the water may look shiny, it is the part below the water that gives buoyancy and lifts it above the waves. The hidden part is crucial.
It was not the pretty visible part above the water that sunk the Titanic.
Observing advertising without being involved in its development or investigating why it ended up the way it did is blind guessing. People at cocktail parties fit their theories on the visible part of the ad to see if their theories fit are not using a scientific method. They also select ads that better fit those theories to prove they are correct.
They might be right; but usually it is just amusing conjecture. Either way the scientific approach is not to find examples that fit your theory but to look at all the samples to try to understand what is going on. Otherwise, it is Garbage In Garbage Out.
At the urging of a few friends whom I had been entertaining over the years with tales from Madison Avenue, I undertook to explain the real process that happens within advertising agencies to create persuasive messages. This has to happen despite the interaction they have with their clients and the media that distributes the message. So there is a thought development, creative inspiration process, but it must comply with a business environment.
The book explains how the advertiser first determines the real benefit of the product or service. That benefit is not always obvious. Advertisers focus their time on developing that product. A restaurant may prepare food for customers; that is a complicated process from menu development, to ingredients, to purchasing, to staffing, to preparation, to serving, to pricing and more. All of that is invisible to customers who don’t really care.
That is a big lesson in the book: you have to see the product or service from the users point of view. You have to project empathy to understand the user and appeal to them.
Most consumers judge advertising on entertainment value. That doesn’t pay the bills. Effective ads need to create sales.
The most persuasive advertising strategies focus in on a single benefit. Why? Exposure to ad messages is superficial. People are hit by hundreds of messages every day. What sticks? What does the message need to be able to get noticed, be compelling, be persuasive and be remembered. That is needed to convert viewers to buyers.
I used many of my own experiences, successful and otherwise, because I knew their processes, their flaws and their successes. There are practises we use to keep focus on the sale of the product like writing out a strategy all advertising must comply with.
When writing ads, we use a lot of the techniques that behavioral economists have recently discovered. These are uses of semantics and context to add value to a proposition, like headlines of seven words or less, like twisting established ideas, or the use of rhyming and music to help the memory. If you ever wondered why alliteration or repetition works, ask an ad writer. There are also established formats that make ads work better, ways to boost credibility and many other techniques I reviewed.
And like the challenges to Ginger Rogers doing it in high heels backwards, ads are sorely limited by time and space. Why do messages have to be so brief? Cost and viewer attention levels.
The “elevator pitches” on Shark Tank last much longer than a 30 second spot or a big box ad in social media. The message must be condensed and clear.
I set out to explain this, plus point out all the obstacles that any business process has along the way. Each ad is usually a prototype. It has never been done before so it is fraught with all the unanticipated adversities along the road. The bumps usually occur, but there are ways to avoid some of the unknown unknowns with some amusing examples from my career.
I also included a long case study of the Bill Cosby Jell-O advertising that I had a hand in getting on the air. It was initially judged to be mediocre but passable based on the testing we did. We were forced to put it on air due to business circumstances but it proved to be hugely successful, lasting more than 20 years. Testing doesn’t always tell you when you are right.
All those unknowing viewers might be surprised to learn how the industry works. Superficial thinking can lead to a superficial assessment. The book takes the reader to the important part of the iceberg that supports the shiny bits the viewer sees.
If you want to learn more about the adversity we overcome in developing advertising and the thinking and creativity that goes into it, give the book a read. It is meant for those with more than passing knowledge of the process and gives some easy tips on how the psychology works. If you have to do some advertising, it might even improve your approach and effectiveness.
It can be ordered on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indigo, or directly from the publisher, Business Expert Press.