11th Jul 2008
Does any advertising work
Anyone involved in marketing will have come across the quote from John Wanamaker, founder of the Philadelphia store of the same name:
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted,
and the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
If you sometimes feel like this, then what I’m about to share will be an inspiration to you.
My good friend, Ed Rivis, knows the true power of advertising - when it is done properly. What do I mean by done properly? I mean it is…
- Targeted at the right audience like a master archer focusing his arrow on the bullseye
- Written in the most effective style* - as an advertorial (an advert that looks like an article) so your reader is engaged in your message
- Contains an offer that hits the reader’s hot-spot so they can’t help but respond
- Thoroughly tested as a smaller advert before investing in larger, more expensive advertising space
- Measurable - either through coding or by using a unique response mechanism. You cannot test if anything is working if you have no way of measuring it.
* Incidentally, David Ogilvy said…
“There is no need for advertisements to look like advertisements. If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract about 50% more readers.”
Would You Like 1,035 Responses To An Advert?
Pop over to Ed’s blog where he shares, in a video clip, the details of what he did to get 1,035 responses to his advert.
As I said it may inspire you to reconsider advertising if you’ve dismissed it as a “waste of money” in the past.
Have a good weekend,
~ Carol Bentley
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I believe the quote you attribute to David Ogilvy [money wasted on advertising] is actually from John Wanamaker, the founder of a department store in Philadelphia which bore his name.
One of David Ogilvy’s best known utterances is “Give the facts. The consumer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.”
I really enjoy your copywriting tips. Thanks for sharing!
Reply from Carol…
Oops! I remembered the quote, but not who said it so I checked the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and it showed it under Lord Leverhulme (1851 - 1925) with a reference to David Ogilvy Confessions of an Advertising Man so I must have misread the entry. And there’s no reference to John, although he does show on Wikipedia. Perhaps both can be attributed with the sentiment ;¬)
Thanks for the update - it’s great to get contributions like this - I’ll update the quote in the post above.
Carol
I love that quote above. I have several friends who are small business owners and I tell them that same thing regularly