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MARKETING GREATS DECODED: STEALING FRAMES FROM DAVID OGILVY & GEORGE MACK
5 marketing frames I stole from some of history's greatest marketers...
Niall Ratcliffe
December 29, 2024
Morning!
Today is the last breakdown of 2024. A year where we’ve covered everything from David Ogilvy’s greatest marketing lessons to how to create viral memes on the internet.
But through all the great marketers we’ve studied this year and all of the great campaigns we’ve broken down, there has been one major lesson I’ve taken away from them…
That frames are more valuable than any clever marketing tactic.
The greatest marketers of all time didn’t have 1,000,000 marketing tactics up their sleeves. They had 3-4 great frames to look through - and it’s those frames that made them so great.
So today, that’s exactly what I’m going to go through.
5 marketing frames every marketer needs to know going into 2025 ↓
Listen to the audio version HERE.
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY
When I started this newsletter nearly 3.5 years ago, I did so in search of tricks and tactics. I was becoming obsessed with history’s greatest marketers and I felt like they all knew something I didn’t.
So, I went searching for it… expecting to come across an array of different tactics and strategies.
I thought I might find some marketing tricks I could rely on, simple ways I could get people’s attention or make them want to buy. But the more I researched, the more I started to realise that what they had (that I didn’t) were simple frames through which they looked at problems.
If you haven’t heard of “Frames” before, it’s a pretty simple concept.
It’s a specific way or lens to look at problems through, rather than being a specific tactic or tool, a frame is a guiding principle that shapes how you think and make decisions.
For example:
Tactic: Use memes to go viral.
Frame: Always optimise marketing content to be shared in the group chat.
Over the last few months, I’ve been collecting these frames like rich people collect fancy watches.
They’ve been:
Helping me get more creative with campaigns.
See different solutions to marketing problems.
And be an all-round better marketer.
So to wrap up the year, I want to share 5 of the most useful frames I’ve come across this year ↓
(All of these are stolen from amazing marketers.)
Frame 1: How Would A Clever Chimp Act? (Rory Sutherland)
Most marketers waste half of their budget trying to sell something that nobody wants - without even knowing that they don’t want it. Rory Sutherland talks about this a lot in his book ‘Alchemy’.
When I first heard him talking about it I brushed it off a little bit as fluffy marketing talk, but when he explained this Eurostar example everything clicked.
He explained that when a Eurostar train is delayed there’s always an uproar from the disgruntled customers. For years, the company associated X with Y.
X (there’s a delay) = Y (People are angry)
So they spent billions of euros attempting to build faster trains and reduce delays as much as they could. But what they didn’t realise is that humans are just clever chimps and delayed trains are not the root cause of the anger in most situations.
For example:
Let’s say you are in the airport waiting on a plane to Paris when you hear the following announcement over the tannoy:
“The plane to Paris has been delayed.”
You’d be angry, stressed, and infuriated. You’re not sure if you’re going to miss a day of your holiday, or if the plane will be cancelled, or what is happening next.
But if the announcement said…
“The plane to Paris has been delayed by 15 minutes.”
No one cares. It might even be a positive announcement for those who are late.
Delays are frustrating, but it’s the unknown that causes the most stress.
This is why as a marketer you have to always ask yourself: “How would a clever chimp act?”
When you optimise your marketing around foundational human psychology, you’ll start to understand just how effective your marketing can be.
Frame 2: What’s The Meme? (George Mack)
Marketing gurus love to tell you that you need to optimise your content for likes, comments, or reach. The reality is, you need to optimise your content for the group chat.
This is a frame I learned from George Mack earlier in the year and it’s made me completely rethink how I create viral content.
Before thinking about it this way, I used to look at creating “Shareable” content too literally. As in, “How can I get more people to share this content”. But how I should have been approaching it is starting with the question, “What types of content get shared in the group chat?”
Off the top of my head, I instantly think:
Memes.
Short videos.
Funny clips.
So how does a massive B2B SaaS company like Hubspot create viral content that reaches millions of people?
They use memes.
Because a meme isn’t just a funny relatable picture, it’s how you condense a complex idea into one simple, sharable image.
(Which is why they so often end up in group chats.)
Now, when I am trying to clearly communicate the message behind a campaign or an idea I’m trying to share I always ask myself, “What’s the meme?”
Because when I know the meme behind my idea, I know how to communicate what I am trying to say in its simplest, stickiest format. And get it into the group chats.
Frame 3: What’s The Story? (David Ogilvy)
One of the biggest lessons I took from reading Ogilvy’s work was the importance of story appeal.
His infamous Hathaway ad is the perfect example of this in action:
And if you’ve been staring at it for a second, there is something very peculiar about it isn’t there? The man… he has an eye patch on?
Why does he have an eye patch?
Does he have no eye?
Is he a pirate?
That is what Ogilvy calls “Story appeal”.
Over the last decade, brands have opted to use perfect models or images in their marketing.
Ogilvy would claim this is an example of agencies turning their back on proven research. Because it has been shown that photographs with an element of story appeal attract far more attention.
So Ogilvy would find ways to add story appeal to every ad he ran.
Like the Hathaway example, the model had 2 perfectly working eyes, Ogilvy just added the eyepatch - and in doing so added a story.
(Don’t pretend it didn’t catch your attention too.)
The next time you feel like a campaign is just a little bit too boring, ask yourself, “What’s the story here?”
Frame 4: What’s The Most Interesting Fact? (David Abbott)
Today, I think of Sainsbury’s as somewhat of a luxury supermarket. Not quite as posh as Waitrose, but with better and slightly more expensive food than Asda.
(And I think most people would agree with me on that.)
But in the 1980s Sainsbury’s was a very different brand.
For years, they had been pushing the tagline “Good food costs less at Sainsbury’s”, but their ads were much more “costs less” than “good food”.
And that “costs less” marketing had left them in a brutal price war with their supermarket arch rivals - Tesco.
That’s when Sainsbury’s reached out to David Abbott and his agency.
They needed a campaign that showed Sainsbury’s food to be better than Tesco’s.
At this stage, most copywriters would:
Write some lavish words.
Use a bunch of adjectives.
Tell you how good the food is.
What did Abbott do?
He simply showed Sainsbury’s food was great with the most interesting fact.
This ad headline doesn’t:
Describe the mince.
Tell you about its quality.
Use any adjectives at all.
Instead, it tells you a fact that SHOWS you that their mince is high quality.
Now, when I write content or am mind mapping a new campaign I always ask myself, “What’s the most interesting fact I can use here?”
Frame 5: Who Is Ignored But Valuable? (Albert Lasker)
The easiest people to sell to are the ones who no one talks to. This is something I learned from Albert Lasker.
One of Lasker’s best traits was his ability to identify untargeted parts of the market. The people who were getting ignored - yet were still valuable.
His campaigns for Lucky Strike cigarettes were a prime example of this.
In the 1920s, smoking was seen as a men’s game. It was massively inappropriate for women to smoke. But when Lasker was given the Lucky Strike cigarette account, he saw this as a huge opportunity. A market that was completely ignored.
So, he began rolling out campaigns targeted directly at women.
These ads repositioned smoking as a symbol of women's liberation and independence.
And it worked magically.
When Lasker took on the account, Lucky Strike had 5% of the market share. By the time the campaign finished, they were the leading brand in America with a 38% market share.
(Talk about impact.)
How many people are ignored that you could be targeting? Something to think about in 2025.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
Frame 1: How Would A Clever Chimp Act?
Frame 2: What’s The Meme?
Frame 3: What’s The Story?
Frame 4: What’s The Most Interesting Fact?
Frame 5: Who Is Ignored But Valuable?
Wow, what a year 2024 has been. So many great breakdowns, so many lessons learned, and so many words typed.
I wanted to wrap this breakdown up by just saying thank you to you for reading all of my breakdowns over the last year. These things take hours and hours to write, but it makes my day that people actually want to read them.
If you have any suggestions for how I can improve these in 2025 OR you have certain things you’d like me to break down - please do just reply to this email and let me know.
Hopefully, you’ve learned something reading these this year and I’ll see you in the New Year!
Until next Sunday.
— Niall
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