A Thread on the book "Ogilvy on Advertising" by the advertising legend David Ogilvy. Things I noted/learned from the book (~40)

One Liner- A book where Ogilvy shares his experience and wisdom on what makes a good advertisement work.
Consumers buy products that promise them:

1. Value for money

2. Beauty

3. Nutrition and Health

4. Relief from suffering

5. Social status. https://twitter.com/naval/status/1029260677804830721
Understand your customer.

Find out how they think about your product, what language they use, what attributes are important to them.

Then craft your promise that would most likely make them buy your brand.
People associate a certain kind of image with a brand.

Image means personality.

People will find brands whose image aligns with their personalities.
The personality of a product is composed of its name, it's packaging, its price, and the nature of the product.
A creative man knows that his ideas don't truly belong to him.

Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in science, art, and advertising.

But, you need to inform the unconscious so that it can give you the relevant output.
If you and your competitors all make excellent products, don’t try to imply that your product is better.

Just say what’s good about your product – and do a clearer, more honest, more informative job of saying it.
A good advertiser should study his product like a scientist. He must know the ins and outs of the subject and his product.

He must become an astute student of copywriting, design, and human psychology.
Photographs with an element of a story will appeal more than one without it.

It has to hook the viewer to know the story behind the photograph.
On average, five times as many people read the headlines in comparison to the body copy.

It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.
Headlines that offer the reader helpful information, like HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, attract above-average readership.
Some copywriters write tricky headlines – double meanings, puns, and other obscurities.

This is counter-productive.

Readers travel fast through this jungle. Your headline should telegraph what you want to say.
Do not, however, address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium.

When people read your copy, they are alone.

Pretend you are writing each of them a letter on behalf of your client.
You cannot bore people into buying your product.

You can only interest them in buying it.

It pays to write short sentences and short paragraphs and to avoid difficult words.
Don’t write essays.

Tell your reader what your product will do for him or her, and tell it with specifics.
Write your copy in the form of a story, as in the advertisement which carried the headline, "The amazing story of a Zippo that worked after being taken from the belly of a fish".
Avoid analogies. They are widely misunderstood.
Stay away from superlatives like "Our product is the best in the world". It convinces nobody.
Testimonials from celebrities get high recall scores, but readers remember the celebrity and forget the product.

Testimonials from experts can be persuasive – like having an ex-burglar testify that he had never been able to crack a particular brand of a safe.
Always try to include the price of a product.

When the price of the product is left out, people have a way of turning the page.
Ogilvy's favorite layout:

A large photograph, a headline up to nine words, and 240 words of copy.

Recommended when your illustration is to carry the main load of selling.
Ogilvy's second favorite layout.

It gives a wide, shallow photograph, a headline up to 20 words, a subhead up to 28 words, four or five cross-heads, and 600 words of body copy.

Recommended when your copy is more important than your illustration.
Advertisements with long copy convey the impression that you have something important to say, whether people read the copy or not.

But, if you want your long copy to be read, you had better write it well. In particular, your first paragraph should be a grabber.
How to become a good copywriter:

Copy the best in the industry until you develop your own style.
When it comes to design and copy, remember the acronym KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid. https://twitter.com/david_perell/status/1251349400414089217
Readers look first at the illustration, then at the headline, then at the copy.

So keep these elements in that order – illustration at the top, headline under the illustration, copy under the headline.
Never use an illustration without putting a caption under it.

More people read the captions under illustrations than they read the body copy.

Your caption should include the brand name and the promise.
The best ads don't look like ads.

There is no law which says that advertisements have to look like advertisements.

If you make them look like editorial pages, you will attract more readers.
Use serif for your copy. Sanserif is hard to read.

We are accustomed to serifs in books, magazines, and newspapers.
Use typography that is simple and easy to read.

The more outlandish the typeface, the harder it is to read.

The drama belongs in what you say, not in the typeface.
You make your ads look like editorial pages, you will get more readers.

This is called "Native Advertising"

Native ads are one that looks like a "native" of its environment.

It doesn't stick out like an ad.
An ad on Twitter should look like a tweet.

An ad on Facebook should look like a Facebook update.

An ad on a Google search should look like a search result.
Long copy – more than 350 words – attracts more readers than short copy.
Captions should appear under all your photographs.

Twice as many people read them compared to the body copy.

Use your captions to sell.

The best captions are mini-advertisements in themselves.
Any commodity can be differentiated in the marketplace.

1. Differentiate based on price advantage.

2. Differentiate based on a reputation for quality or service.
Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money.
Keep your language short and simple.

The first job of an advertisement is to communicate effectively, not to be original or entertaining.

Winston Churchill said, "Short words are best, and the old words when short are best of all." https://twitter.com/Deepuasok/status/1283972698251628544
You can follow @Deepuasok.
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