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THE MOST OVERLOOKED ASPECT OF MARKETING
4 Lessons On Mastering Ad Creatives From History's Greatest Marketers...
Niall Ratcliffe
March 17, 2024
Morning!
In this world, nothing is certain except death, taxes, and me sending this newsletter on a Sunday.
This week is number 139! What a ride.
If you enjoy reading this, I’d really appreciate you forwarding it to a friend - will take 2 seconds, but will make me very happy :)
Anyway, this week I’ve been mixing up the graphics/images I use with my LinkedIn content and I realised just how little I’ve researched about the visual imagery to go with content/ads/etc.
So I spent 5 hours this week studying exactly how history’s greatest marketers attack the “Creative”.
Here are 4 lessons on mastering the creative from the greatest marketers to ever live.
(Including tips from Ogilvy, Bernbach, Burnett and more.)
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY
I’m currently halfway through the book ‘Ogilvy On Advertising’.
In one of the early chapters, he makes a mockery out of agencies that run ads that have white text on a black background.
He says, “I recently found 49 ads set in reverse (white type on black background), years after research demonstrated that reverse made it more difficult to read”.
As a man who runs a marketing agency where every single graphic is white text on a black background… I felt pretty stupid reading this.
But it’s something no one ever really talks about.
People see the visual elements of ads or marketing as a place to show your creativity - but Ogilvy reminded me there is a science behind it.
So, I spent 5 hours studying the science behind the creative.
Here are the 4 key lessons I learned (that every marketer should know) ↓
Lesson 1: Ogilvy’s 15 Essential Ad Illustrations (David Ogilvy)
Most people see Ogilvy as the greatest advertiser to ever live - and rightly so.
One of the most interesting things I read in his book was his 15 essential aspects of a successful illustration.
I can’t lie, I wasn’t a fan of all 15… So I picked out the best 4:
Give It “Story Appeal” - People should glance at your photo and say “What goes on here?”. If he doesn’t, he won’t read the copy either.
Use Before & After Pics - Ogilvy says, “In a study of 70 campaigns whose sales results were known, he did not find a single before-and-after campaign that did not increase sales.”
Photos > Drawings - Ogilvy claims that the ads he ran with photos had triple the readership compared to when he ran them with drawings.
Use Colour - In his print ads, Ogilvy said that it would cost him 50% more to use colours, but it would increase how memorable they were by 100%.
Lesson 2: Be Polar Opposite (Bill Bernbach)
Bernbach is known as the “Father of Creative Advertising”, and is well known for his infamous VW ad campaigns.
His biggest tip for the creative?
Do the polar opposite of what everyone else in your industry is doing.
Bill says,
The memorable never emerged from a formula.
Almost the opposite stance to Ogilvy, yet ironically, there was a formula to Bernbachs success - not following the norm.
Example:
Car ads were always complicated and fancy.
↳ So Bernbach created plain ads with a car on a white background.
Clothing brands always show off their clothes in ads.
↳ So Bernbach ran an ad with a boy with little clothes.
Why does it work?
Because our brains are trained to block out advertising.
When we see a fancy car zooming down a countryside road → We clock out knowing it’s a car ad.
See a car on a plain white background → It’s a pattern interrupt and we stop to take notice.
Lesson 3: Focus On Visual Outcomes (Leo Burnett)
The Marlboro Man. The Green Giant. Tony The Tiger.
These are all characters created by the great Leo Burnett. But what most people probably overlook is the undercurrent behind these characters.
Because every single one is a visual outcome.
Jolly Green Giant → You’ll be strong & healthy
Tony the Tiger → You’ll be strong & fueled
Marlboro Man → You’ll be cool & sexy
Too many people use visuals that simply support their ad/marketing copy.
In Burnett’s eyes, the visual should give the outcome just as much as the copy does.
Lesson 4: Put Your Face On It (Mr Beast)
In years to come people will look back on Mr. Beast as one of the greatest marketers of our age.
Unfortunately, this tip technically isn’t on show in ad campaigns, but there are definitely lessons we can apply from Mr Beast to ad campaigns - especially when it comes to his thumbnails.
The aim of his thumbnails: Get people to click.
The aim of ad campaigns: Get people to click.
And here are 2 things Mr Beast claims are essential for success when it comes to thumbnails:
A) Show Your Face - When I was studying Mr Beast a few weeks back he claimed that out of the 100,000s of A/B tests they run for video thumbnails 99% of the time the one with his face on wins.
Why that works best? Who knows, but the numbers don’t lie!
B) Be Expressive - On top of that, Mr Beast said that the more exaggerated his expression is the more likely the thumbnail is to be clicked.
This is a tad more obvious. More emotions = more at stake. But still an interesting note.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
1/ Ogilvy’s 15 Essential Ad Illustrations
2/ Be Polar Opposite
3/ Focus On Visual Outcomes
4/ Put Your Face On It
This was a little bit shorter than usual, but I’m brutally cutting sections that I don’t think are interesting or actionable - so hopefully it saves you some more time.
Have a think about these lessons this week while you’re working on campaigns. It’s all well and good reading it, but now it’s time to action it.
Until next Sunday.
— Niall
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