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HOWARD GOSSAGE: NOBODY READS ADVERTISING
6 lessons on writing high-converting copy from Howard Gossage...
Niall Ratcliffe
August 25, 2024
In partnership with
Morning!
I’m in the Outer Banks this weekend at another American wedding. This is my 6th one in the last 2 years. A sad sign of me getting older.
There’s something about Americans and getting married young - thank god I was brought up in England.
Anyway, onto today’s breakdown.
Here’s what you’re going to learn:
Who the “Socrates of San Fransisco” was.
The reason so many advertisers admire him.
6 key lessons he can teach us on copywriting.
I’m on a copywriting kick and this is a good one.
Should take under 4 mins to read!
P.S. Don’t forget you can listen to the audio version HERE.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY
"Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them, and sometimes it's an ad."
I heard this quote very early on in my marketing career. It stuck, it resonated, and most of all it made a hell of a lot of sense.
But it’s not just me that this quote stuck with, in fact, it’s probably had more impact on the marketing industry than any other quote.
Back when it was first said, advertising was very much like sales.
It was all about saying what you’re selling and how much it costs, nobody thought of it as entertainment.
Then Howard Gossage said that quote.
Today, ads are nearly all entertaining. Whether it’s a TV commercial or a social media ad - there is nearly always some entertainment factor.
Because as Gossage said, people read what interests them.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Gossage singlehandedly revolutionised advertising - but it’s safe to say he played his part.
He’s known as the ‘Socrates of San Fransisco’ and is up there with the greatest writers and advertisers to ever live.
So, I spent the last few hours studying his work…
Here are 6 lessons he taught me about writing high-converting copy:
Lesson 1: Say What The Consumer Thinks
The biggest issue with most marketing campaigns is that the marketing team fails to put themselves in the customer’s shoes.
They think they do, but they look at things like marketers.
This toilet paper ad is a prime example:
Do you know what people aren’t thinking about when buying toilet paper? How inclusive the company is.
This is a classic example of marketers overthinking marketing and underthinking how the consumer thinks.
Gossage hated this.
He knew that to create an ad that resonates with your customers, you have to show them that you understand them.
And that’s exactly what Gossage did with his infamous Fina gas station ad:
When you first read it, it’s a tad confusing.
It feels like it’s convincing you not to go to the Fina gas station, but that’s exactly what makes it so great.
At the time, petrol stations like Esso and Shell were advertising that they had some octane hyperbole in an attempt to show they were better.
But Gossage knew that people didn’t pull into your petrol station because you had some different formula of petrol - they pull in because it’s convenient. So that’s exactly what he wrote in his ad.
He let consumers know that Fina knows exactly who they are and why you use them.
The ad is honest, empathetic and appealing. But most of all, while everyone zigged Gossage helped Fina zag, and as always in marketing… being different wins.
Lesson 2: Just Start A Conversation
Let’s get back to that infamous Gossage quote:
"Nobody reads advertising. People read what interests them; and sometimes it's an ad."
Earlier I talked about how this related to entertaining ads. But advertising does not need to be entertaining to be interesting.
If your ad is able to start a conversation around a topic that people are interested in - it does its job.
And this ad he made for this brewing company is a prime example:
The headline doesn’t:
Share their USP.
Include some clever outcome.
Talk about the benefits of the product.
It simply starts a conversation around a topic their consumer are interested in.
This is an underrated way to get your target audience’s attention. It’s almost like a “Bait & switch” method.
Very tough to get from the bait to have them buy your product, but very effective in getting people’s attention.
Lesson 3: Always Add Contrast
I will die on the hill that contrast is the most effective tool you can use in marketing.
It gets attention, it drives action, and it’s gold dust in any campaign.
But Gossage was a master at using this in headlines.
My favourite example of this is the headline he wrote for The Rover Motor Co:
It starts with the positive: “Splendid design”.
Ends with the problem: It’s unsafe.
This works beautifully because giving both sides makes consumers trust what you say.
Advertising is naturally one-sided (you’re convincing people to buy your product). So the second you make it two-sided, when you give a little before taking - that’s when you differentiate and build that trust.
Magically done by Gossage here.
Lesson 4: Summarise The Problem In 1 Line
There are many ways to write headlines.
Some copywriters tell you to write a clear outcome, others say to show a key benefit, and a lot recommend highlighting your USP.
But very few copywriters talk about summarising the problem you solve.
Yet that’s the exact framework Gossage used to make this campaign a huge hit:
In under 50 words, they highlight the exact problem they solve in a way that anyone can understand.
And sometimes all you need when buying is to understand what problem your purchase will solve.
When researching I saw an article that said “If Just Stop Oil activists were more like Gossage they’d be 100x more successful” - and I couldn’t agree more.
I still don’t know what Just Stop Oil are trying to solve, all they do is sit on roads and glue themselves to poles.
Imagine if they just communicated what they were trying to solve rather than just focusing on getting attention.
Lesson 5: Take A Different Perspective
“We don’t know who it was that discovered water, but we’re pretty sure it wasn’t a fish.”
Not a quote I thought I’d be relating to marketing anytime soon, but it heavily applies here.
Too often marketers are stuck in a marketing bubble.
They study marketing campaigns.
Talk with other marketers constantly.
Are surrounded by marketers 24/7.
Which means when they go to create their marketing campaigns, well… they kinda look like everyone else’s.
It’s boring. It’s bland. But worst of all, it blends in.
If you want to create successful marketing campaigns, you have to make yourself somewhat of an outsider.
Gossage did this by building his agency on the opposite coast from where all the other advertising agencies were based at the time.
They were in New York, he was in San Fransisco.
Seems like an insignificant difference, but I’d argue it allowed him to differentiate his ads from what everyone else was putting out on the East Coast.
I don’t think ads like this one would’ve existed without that difference.
(This ad was one of Gossage’s most successful of his career.)
Again, if you want to create successful ad campaigns, you have to find a way to look at the campaign from a different perspective.
Lesson 6: Don’t Spend For The Sake Of It
Okay, this isn’t a copywriting lesson, but it’s one of the most interesting things that Gossage talks about.
Today, we live in a world where it’s become normal to advertise 24/7.
Taking a break from advertising would be seen as a sin by most marketing directors - yet Gossage completely disagrees with this.
He says:
“… when you say something interesting you can’t say it all that often, and this means that you will just have to spend less money on your advertising, hard though it may be. It’s a tough thing to decide to stop spending money when you’ve been flinging it around like a drunken account executive all these years.”
Gossage was anti-advertising for the sake of it.
Instead, he saved the budget until they had ads that would turn heads.
Again, quite a controversial take nowadays, but it felt quite refreshing to hear a marketer who prided themselves on only putting out great campaigns.
Definitely something more marketers need to hear.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
1/ Say what the consumer thinks
2/ Just start a conversation
3/ Always add contrast
4/ Summarise the problem in 1 line
5/ Take a different perspective
6/ Don’t spend for the sake of it
I love copywriting. There’s just something so cool about being able to have 1000s of people take a desired action through writing a few written words.
And Gossage was an absolute master at it.
It’s time more people learned about it, but thankfully now you have it!
Hopefully, you learned something from this, if you did - why not forward this to a friend?
Until next Sunday.
— Niall
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