Agencies which frequently work nights and weekends are more stimulating, more successful – and more profitable.
Nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.
The consumer isn’t a moron; she is your wife. You insult her intelligence if you assume that a mere slogan and a few vapid adjectives will persuade her to buy anything. She wants all the information you can give her.
I avoid clients for whom advertising is only a marginal factor in their marketing mix. They have an awkward tendency to raid their advertising appropriations whenever they need cash for other purposes.
I never tell one client that I cannot attend his sales convention because I have a previous engagement with another client; successful polygamy depends upon pretending to each spouse that she is the only pebble on your beach.
In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.
The psychiatrists say that everybody should have a hobby. The hobby I recommend is advertising.
Set exorbitant standards, and give your people hell when they don’t live up to them. There is nothing so demoralizing as a boss who tolerates second rate work.
Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.
You have only 30 seconds in a TV commercial. If you grab attention in the first frame with a visual surprise, you stand a better chance of holding the viewer. People screen out a lot of commercials because they open with something dull. When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.
I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.
I never write fewer than sixteen headlines for a single advertisement.
Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on behalf of your client.
If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.
The trouble with many copywriters in general agencies are that they don’t really think in terms of selling. They have never written direct-response; they have never tasted blood.
Compete with the immortals.
Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.
To advertisers: “Do not compete with your agency in the creative area. Why keep a dog and bark yourself?”
First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.
Develop your eccentricities while you are young. That way, when you get old, people won’t think you’re going gaga.