THE WEEK: THE BEST TUBE AD OF ALL TIME

Morning!

Today is my last day in England, again. Yep, my whole life has been packed up into 2 suitcases and today I'm off to Porto to my new apartment. 

But while I sit and reminisce on the last month or so in England. I want to share a breakdown of an advert that I saw whilst in London a few weeks back. 

This may be my favourite tube ad of all time...

Was this email forwarded to you?

Breaking Down The Strategy

I'm not sure about you, but I am an absolute sucker for a bit of OOH marketing. It just feels so real, like real-life marketing. 

I think that's why billboards perform so well when posted on socials because they are so much more real than anything else on there. 

• There are no algorithms at play. 

• No engagement pods.

• No paying for attention. 

You place your OOH marketing in a position and it's fully up to you to: A) Catch someone's eye and B) Get them to do what you want them to. 

Bad marketers can create good social campaigns. But good OOH campaigns can only be made by great marketers. 

Anyway, now you've heard me profess my strong love for OOH marketing, let's get back to the story. 

So I'm in London, with my Mrs and we're obviously having a great time looking around and being classic tourists. 

I'm fully out of work mode, just purely living in the moment (god, that didn't come out right).

But as I stood there at Tottenham Court Road station something peaked my eye. 

Among all the ads filled with flashy images and big bold headlines, there was one that was just a long piece of copy. 

It stuck out, so I read the headline. It intrigued me, so I read on...

Next minute, I'm on their website scrolling through their "About" section. 

They got me. 

They got me good. 

And here is exactly how they did it:

1) They stood out

None of the copy matters if they can't get my eyes on the ad in the first place. Ironically, they did that by making the ad look less exciting than the others. The plain copy stands out in a bunch of bright photos. 

(It also seems like a written notice, so maybe that plays a part too?)

2) Directed headline that addresses a problem

The easiest way to improve your copy is to direct it to one person. In fact, I've done it throughout the whole of this email.

Notice how I never say "Hi guys" or "You all", instead I always say "You" to make it feel like you're directly communicating with me. They do the same thing here with this ad. 

They also point out a problem -> Your news-life balance is off. 

This has more of a curiosity element than a relatable problem, so you have to read on to find out what a "news-life" balance is. 

3) They instantly clear up the problem

Notice how my initial thought was "What is a news-life balance?" then they address that confusion straight away in the next line and make me question myself with "... How do you..."

Now, at this point, I know the problem and I know I have it - so I read on to see their solution. 

4) "Welcome to THE WEEK"

Boom.

So simple, but so nicely done. 

They set up the problem, show me I need to solve it and then introduce themselves as the solution. 

5) Explains who they are

When it comes to the main section of the copy 99% of readers have already committed to reading. So they can now focus less on getting you to keep reading and instead bring clarity around who they are and what you gain from reading their work. 

This is particularly great copy because they do such a good job of pushing the problem deeper into you and throwing shade at their competitors"E.g.

"Keeping up to date ... shouldn't feel like a full time job""Without any angle or agenda" <- Highlighting the problem 

6) A no-brainer offer (+ some social proof)

Then boom. Right at the end they hit you with a no-brainer offer "Try 6 free issues today". 

They create a situation where there is nothing for you to lose - so why not try it out? 

Then you add in the the social proof "Join over 300,000 readers". Because if that many people read it, it must be pretty good right?

And voila! You have a great no-brainer offer that converts.

*BONUS POINTS I LOVE*

• They do an amazing job at differentiating themselves from other news outlets

• Fantastically expose the enemy (other news outlets)

• Plus, my favourite - their CTA

Rather than having their website URL there they instead tell you to search for "The Week Free". 

When you do that you're hit with:A) A PPC campaign from them

B) Their website (no.1 ranked site)

It's genius because it seems like so much less effort to quickly search in Google than to type in a long URL.

Plus, they get all the added benefits of a huge amount of search demand which allows them to actually track the success of the campaign. 

All in all, it's just some amazing copywriting that has turned into a very impressive ad. 

The best tube ad of all time? I'll let you decide on that one. 

For me, it's one of the best I've ever seen. 

I won't bore you with how you can do it yourself, instead here's a quick summary of everything I just went over, to think about when you're next writing a copy-focused ad:1) Stand out2) Use a direct headline (address a problem with it)3) Instantly clear up that problem4) Position yourself as the solution 5) Explain who you are + how you solve it6) Add a no-brainer offer as your CTA

And there you have it. 

Oh, before you go, if you loved this email why not share it with a friend? It would help me a bunch and you'd make my day :) 

Right, that's all for today, go enjoy your weekend - I'll see you next week!

— Niall 

What did you think of this week's breakdown?

I can't build the biggest marketing newsletter in the world without feedback. Click on a link to vote:

• 👍 That helped me. Thanks

• 😐 Meh - was ok.

• 👎 Not interesting to me.

This has been a breakdown of The Week's marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

Don’t forget to subscribe to get next week’s breakdown straight to your inbox!