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THE 9 LAWS OF MARKETING: FROM OGILVY, BERNBACH, AND HALBERT
9 marketing laws that history's greatest marketers lived by...
Niall Ratcliffe
April 07, 2024
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Morning!
Did you notice the name change on the email today? It used to say “Niall from Growing Viral”.
I used to think that was much cooler than my name. But then I realised it was kinda stupid, so I finally switched it back to “Niall Ratcliffe”.
Anyway, marketers love to give advice like, “Break the rules” when it comes to good marketing.
So why did Ogilvy (AKA “The Father Of Advertising”) have 96 advertising rules that he lived by?
Clearly, there is some disconnect there.
So I took a deep dive into the marketing principles that history’s greatest marketers lived by (including Ogilvy, Bernbach, & Halbert)
Here are the 9 key laws I found:
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY
I always thought that to be a great marketer you had to break the rules.
“Do the thing that others aren’t doing”, I told myself.
Then a few weeks back I stumbled upon this passage while reading Ogilvy On Advertising:
Two years ago, I asked 4 of our people to try and identify factors which usually work [in advertising]. They came up with twelve. I was too polite to tell them that I had 96.
If Ogilvy was sticking to 96 factors, why am I out here trying to break the rules?
I mean it makes sense, right? After millions of campaigns, there data that shows certain stuff works 9 times out of 10.
So what are those things? What are those things that “Usually work?”
That’s exactly what I wanted to figure out this week.
So I sat down and scavenged through old books & interviews to find any law that my favourite marketers lived by.
Here are the best 9 I found (from Ogilvy, Bernbach, and Halbert) ↓
1/ David Ogilvy: Reverse type, Long copy, And News
Law 1: Never Use Reverse Type
Throughout his book - Ogilvy On Advertising - Ogilvy berates anyone who uses reverse type (which is when you use white text on a black background).
Ogilvy says that countless studies have shown that reverse type is much harder to read and performs worse on recall tests.
He adds:
Legibility, in practice, amounts to readability.
Ogilvy’s hate for reverse text makes it very clear to me that I should never place white text on a black background again.
Law 2: Long Copy Sells
I talked about this in my deep dive on Ogilvy (see it here), but I had to mention it again because these 5 words have been burnt into my mind ever since I read them:
“Only amateurs use short copy.”
Ouch! It still hurts every time I read it.
Ogilvy goes on to say:
Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money.
Which is probably why some of his best-performing ads ever have long copy like this:
But if you still aren’t convinced this beautiful little paragraph from Ogilvy is what truly brought it all home for me:
General advertisers use short copy, yet direct-response people invariably use long copy. Who do you suppose is more likely to be right?
It’s obvious, isn’t it?
The masters at getting people to buy, NEVER use short copy. There’s a very big lesson in that.
Law 3: Use Headlines That Include News
When I first read this, I was a tad confused… “Surely every headline can’t have news in it?”
But Ogilvy goes on to explain that your “News” doesn't have to be a new product - it just needs to be something new.
For example, you could use:
A product improvement.
A new way to use an old product.
A new take on your established product.
It was with these examples that it started to click for me.
Let’s say you run a PR firm for example, your headline could be:
“A PR campaign just ranked pink trousers number 1 on Google”
You can then advertise your PR service by explaining the case study.
Ogilvy says headlines with news in are, “recalled by 22% more than ads without news.”
2/ Bill Bernbach: Honesty, Real People, And A “Look”
Law 1: Include Truth
All of Bernbach’s most successful campaigns included some kind of self-depreciation - or at least it could be seen as that.
In reality, it was just him telling the truth.
For example, his infamous campaign for Avis included them admitting that they were the 2nd best car rental company:
And his infamous ads for Volkswagon regularly joked about how small the VW Beatle was
Bernbach believed that by admitting the truth consumers would believe the rest of the ad - the part where he was selling!
Due to his success, I think he was probably on to something.
Law 2: Always Use Real People
Bernbach was one of the first advertisers to use real people in ads.
His reasoning: Real people would create a genuine connection with the audience.
It’s pretty crazy that he was doing this in the 60s and 70s, while it took the rest of the industry until 2023-2024 to realise how powerful it is.
Law 3: Have A “Look”
Bernbach very much saw advertising as an art form, and one of his most interesting takes is that your ads should all have some sort of unique shape, colour, or design.
Bernbachs art director Helmut Crone said:
When I was working on Avis, I spent forever looking for a page style. That’s very important to me, a page style. I think you should be able to tell who’s running an ad at a distance of twenty feet.”
And when you look at Bernbachs’ VW ads, that is very clear.
3/ Halbert
Law 1: Always Customise & Personalise
Halbert loved customisation & personalisation. In fact, he credited a large part of his success to these two things.
But both are very different…
First: Personalising
Halbert believes that every piece of direct marketing should be personalised to the recipient.
A really simple way to do this = always collect first names, then add that name to all of your comms with that person.
Second: Customising
Halbert says that personalising alone isn’t enough, each piece of marketing should be customised to the receiver.
Some simple ways you can customise your direct marketing:
By industry
By situation
By age
By country
Here’s an example Halbert uses in ‘The Boron Letters’:
Everything about it is customised.
There’s no reason in the modern age that we can’t all customise our direct marketing to look like that.
Law 2: Use Curiosity
Halbert was the king of making people curious.
One of his most famous campaigns ever was his 1 dollar bill campaign where he literally attached a 1 dollar bill to every single letter he sent out.
The letter went on to explain that the offer would help you multiply this 1 dollar 100x.
The campaign was one of the most successful direct mail campaigns ever.
Yet it couldn’t have done it without people being curious as to why someone sent them a dollar.
The question is, how can you apply this law to all of your marketing?
Law 3: Give A Reason
One of my favourite lessons from Halbert was his thoughts on “reasoning”.
Throughout ‘The Boron Letters’ Halbert very passionately states that every campaign needs a reason.
He says, “A sale for the sake of it raises questions - you need to give a reason for the sale.”
Maybe it’s because you’re low on stock or that you’ve had a space on the roster open up.
Whatever the promotion is, give a reason for it.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
The 9 Laws Of Marketing:
Law 1/ Never Use Reverse Type
Law 2/ Long Copy Sells
Law 3/ Use Headlines That Include News
Law 4/ Include Truth
Law 5/ Always Use Real People
Law 6/ Have A “Look”
Law 7/ Always Customise & Personalise
Law 8/ Use Curiosity
Law 9/ Give A Reason
Wow.
Some real gems in those laws. Of course, you can’t stick to all of them, but there are some in there that I’m pretty sure will stick with me for life.
Which law resonated with you? Hit reply and let me know - I’m interested to see which hit home.
Anyway, that’s all from me for today.
Until next Sunday.
— Niall
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