The world is full of shitty ads, but Sullivan and Boches tell you how to make a good one. (And they do it with a sense of humour, too.)
In the fifties, ads were mostly annoying.
But in the sixties? They got creative (see: classic VW ads).
However, in the seventies, although positioning became a thing, the ads mostly went back to being annoying. We’re still stuck with this legacy.
While Sullivan and Boches do say that positioning is worthwhile, they point out that even the very best positioning doesn’t guarantee that anybody’s going to listen:
“Good advertising, it has been said, builds sales. But great advertising builds factories. And in this writer's opinion, the "great" that was missing from the positioning paradigm was the original alchemy brewed by Bernbach. "You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen," said Bernbach (long before the advent of positioning). "But you've got to say it in such a way people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don't feel it, nothing will happen."” (Page 11)
“You are not writing a novel somebody pays money for. You're writing something most people try to avoid.” (Page 19)
When you’re working with a brand, you need to recognise that it’s an important task. Brands can be fragile; creative work done one way or another can be make or break.
“A brand is the sum total of all the emotions, thoughts, images, history, possibilities, and gossip that exist in the marketplace about a certain company,” they argue (pg20), and you will have an impact on this in one way or another.
In getting there, you’ve got to find your way through “the creative process” which the authors compare (I think correctly) to the act of “washing a pig.” It doesn’t really make any sense and it’s complete chaotic nonsense. But the pig gets clean in the end in somehow.
You should always remember that your goal in this entire process is to please the audience (who may be readers, listeners, or viewers all) and nobody else. Not the client, not your boss, not even yourself—just the audience.
The best way to do this is to tell the truth and speak to the problem.
“The best answers always arise out of the problem itself. Out of the product. Out of the realities of the buying situation. Those are the only paints you have to make your picture, but they are all you need. Any shtick you drag into the situation that's not organically part of the product or customer reality will not be authentic and will ring false.” (Page 25)
With that truth in mind, make your brand stand for one thing. Get things boiled down to one word. These could be nouns, verbs, adjectives. For example:
What would Volvo’s word be? You already know.
The aim here is simplicity, draconian simplicity. Don’t overcomplicate things. Just pick a word, and stick to it. Consistency is important (this is the positioning part).
You can absolutely choose to conduct research by looking in depth at competitors, talking to customers, learning everything you can about your client’s business. Or you can also choose to stay stupid! Both approaches work, but you can’t take a smart approach if you’ve got limited knowledge. Make sure to stay in your lane.
Ask yourself, though, what emotions does the customer feel? Tap into those, and you’re onto something.
A challenge for testing your ideas in two steps:
Step 1: what’s the truest thing you can write down about your brand? For example: Crocs = ugly.
Step 2: what’s the emotional centre of your product? Go there, explore it.
Step 3: identify conflict. Do this by searching for polarities relevant to your brand. E.g. rich vs poor, spending vs saving, right vs wrong, etc.
“As cool as visuals are, most of the business on the planet is conducted with language.” (Page 79)
Most copy in the world is bad. Don’t add to it. After all, it’s going to make up the majority of ad work that you do.
Start writing headlines, ideally around different themes. Then write on those themes. Then see if, in writing these themes, other possibilities present themselves.
Body copy: write it well, but remember that not everyone will read it. But those who do read it? Make it as smart and persuasive as possible.
Brand voice is incredibly important:
“This isn't done to create stylish writing. What you're doing is creating a brand personality, which is a big deal in a marketplace where the physical differences between products are getting smaller and smaller.” (Page 95)
“Write like you talk. Write with a smooth, easy rhythm that sounds natural. Obey the rules of grammar and go easy on the adjectives. Short sentences are best, especially online. One-word sentences? Fine. End with a preposition if you want to. And if it feels right, begin a sentence with "and." Just be clear. Through it all, remember, you are selling something. Easy to forget when you start slinging words.” (Page 97)
Other tips:
“IF YOU TAKE AWAY ONE THING from this book, let it be the advice in this section. Simpler is almost always better.” (Page 105)
If you can’t make it simple, you may have a problem with your argument.
What’s the “speed of the gut” with an idea? That is, how fast—or slow—does it get into someone’s gut what it’s all about? If it’s too fast it’s probably too obvious and not interesting enough, but if it’s too slow… they’ve probably already moved on.
Simple is bigger, easier to remember, and breaks through clutter. Keep paring away until you have the extreme of something.
Can you make something interesting enough that the news would cover it? The key question to ask is:
Will people talk about this idea?
To make something interesting, always find ways to question your assumptions. Always be questioning or asking why: the brief, the media you’re using and how you’re using it, you name it.
“Virgin Atlantic wanted to tell business travelers about the nice new seats in their transatlantic flights, and how they went allllll the way back. The team figured-cynically and correctly-that a day in the life of a traveling businessman might include a quick visit to the in-room adult channel. So that's where they placed their commercial, smartly labeling it "Free Movie." When you pressed "PLAY" you saw a 12-minute video that looked and sounded like porn but was really just a long, raunchy infomercial full of double entendres about the pleasures of flying across the Atlantic in a seat that goes all the way back. The idea was so naughty, its very existence drew tons of free media coverage” (Page 127)
There is no such thing as a “creative process” here (ignore that section above…). Also, it’s worth remembering that relevance is always the most important thing to consider:
“You're never going to get so far out there that you can dare not to be relevant to your audience. No matter how creative you think an idea is, if it has no meaning to your audience, you don't have an ad. You may have art. But you don't have an ad.” (Page 137)
After that, make sure you know your customer and how they think:
“Concepts can sometimes be all execution without the traditional sales message. To have such an execution succeed, you're going to need to know your customers better than the competition. You're going to need to know what they like, how they think, and how they move through their world. If your idea reflects these inner realities, you'll succeed, because your viewer's going to get a feeling ‘this company knows me.’” (Page 139)
It’s all stories, and a good story has tension. Otherwise, who cares? When everything is fine and happy, it’s not interesting. Imagine Lord of the Rings if Frodo says “actually, I’d rather not” then just sits around in The Shire for six hours of film.
Which is better:
Being without something is usually more interesting than being with something.
A solution instead of a problem is like a filled-in crossword puzzle: nobody gives a shit.
Sources of tension include:
“If you don't have conflict, you don't have a story. All drama is conflict. Every story you've ever heard, read, or seen has had conflict at its core. ... The problem when there's no bad guy is that we short-circuit the structure of story ... I don't know about you, but life in Pleasantville is boring. Conflict is what makes things interesting. Tension makes us lean in to see what's goin' on.” (Page 144)
A simple exercise for finding tension can be done by drawing a rectangle, drawing a line through it, then fill it out by pitching one thing against another again and again.
Truth + conflict = platform, an idea upon which you can riff again and again:
“The problem with the purchase funnel today is that the buying process is no longer linear. Paid advertising isn’t necessarily the first thing someone sees. The side view of the funnel leads you to assume that it’s a smooth slide down from top to bottom. But if we could somehow look over the top of the funnel and see all the forces in play, we might see something more like an M.C Escher labyrinth. Up is down, down is up, and there are entries and exits all over the place.” (Page 234)
It’s not linear. It’s incredibly messy. Imagine it in 3D. You need to be able to make good content for every part of this journey, to move people downwards.
Make sure your concept is good first before you try to tell it visually. Then, write the script while thinking in terms of story. If you can, try to make one image stand out the most above all the rest. Make every frame entertaining and compelling.
Try to make every frame entertaining and compelling, down to the very last second. Like this:
There were a handful of sections of this book that I glazed over, skimmed, or didn’t take notes on because it wasn’t entirely relevant for my purposes. This included sections on the following topics:
I send updates to a few hundred people anytime I've got something worth sharing. New articles, new book notes, new commentary.
