This document discusses effective advertising strategies and how to avoid common failures. It begins by outlining 12 common causes of advertising failure, such as attempting to reach too many people, assuming the business owner knows best, and confusing response with results. It then discusses how to write effective ads by understanding how the brain works and focusing on relevance and credibility. Specific techniques are provided, such as using emotion, metaphors, stories, and attention-getting elements like verbs, word flags, and rhythm. The key is to satisfy both the logical left brain and emotional right brain through benefits, credibility, and making the audience feel something.

1. Mike Slover
www.whatsthemeat.com
mikeslover@wizardofads.com
618-889-0674

2. 12 Causes Of Advertising
Failure
And How to Avoid Them

3. John Wanamaker once
said, "I know that half
of my advertising
doesn't work. The
problem is, I don't
know which half."

4. A Harvard Study on Brand Loyalty
Revealed Three Types of Customers:
• Type 1: Non-Switchable
There is essentially nothing you can do or say to cause these customers to switch
from the product/service they currently use.
• Type 2: Switchable
These customers may be won, but only if you say the right thing and keep on
saying it until the prospect is finally convinced.
• Type 3: Switchable for Reasons of Price Alone
The study strongly recommended that you NOT pursue these customers. If
you appeal to these customers, you will likely enjoy initial success, but your
position will never be a strong one, because these customers will switch from
you just as quickly as they switched to you, and for precisely the same reason.

5. 1: There is No Direct Correspondence
between Dollars Invested and Results Gained:
No mathematical formula can be devised to
answer the advertiser’s question, “If I spend
this much on advertising, what can I expect to
happen?”
“How Advertising Works”
Wharton School of Business: A 2500 page report monitoring the impact
of advertising on hundreds of small businesses over a period of 7 years. Only three
conclusions were reached:

6. 2: The Variable Which Prohibits a
Mathematical Formula is The Power of the
Message. Two advertisers can reach precisely
the same audience with exactly the same
repetition. One advertiser is successful, while
the other fails miserably. The difference? The
Message.
“How Advertising Works”
Wharton School of Business: A 2500 page report monitoring the impact
of advertising on hundreds of small businesses over a period of 7 years. Only
three conclusions were reached:

7. “How Advertising Works”
Wharton School of Business: A 2500 page report monitoring the impact
of advertising on hundreds of small businesses over a period of 7 years. Only three
conclusions were reached:
3: When a message has been uncovered that
generates a positive response, a mathematical
pattern does emerge. The benefit experience in
year two will be twice the benefit experienced
in year one, provided everything else remains
equal and the core message does not change.
The benefit in year three will be three times the
benefit in year one.

8. SO WHAT THE
HECK IS THE
RIGHT
MESSAGE?!?!

9. The Right Message is
Derived From:
• A good business.
• A good business owner.
• A strong selling strategy.
• The right combination of words.

11. Good advertising can’t fix a bad
business, a bad business owner or
a bad selling idea.
- Roy H. Williams

12. #1. The desire for instant
gratification.

13. Immediate response will be
immediately forgotten.

14. The frequent and consistent use of a
message that has salience will become
stored in long term procedural
memory, causing the customer to think of
you first when they need your product or
service but don’t expect too much too
soon, it takes a
lot of patients to become a household name.

15. The chickening out
period usually happens
around the 3rd or 4th
month of a campaign .

17. #2. Attempting to reach
more people than the budget will
allow.

18. • Will you reach 100% of
the people and convince
them 10% of the way?
• Or will you reach 10% of
the people and convince
them 100% of the way?
• Own what the budget
will allow with a
frequent & consistent
message.
"There is more money
wasted in advertising by
under spending than by
overspending. Under
spending in advertising is like
buying a ticket halfway to
Europe."
- Morris Hite
#2. Attempting to reach
more people than the budget will
allow.

19. #3. Assuming the
business owner knows best.

20. • “It’s hard to read the label
when you’re inside the
bottle.” - Mike Webb
• Too much product
knowledge causes the
business owner to answer
questions no one is asking.
This makes for extremely
ineffective advertising.
• What does the customer
care about?

21. #4. Unsubstantiated
claims such as “highest quality at
the lowest price”.

23. #5. Improper use of
passive media.

24. • All media works if done right.
• Which is the highest and best use of your
time and money?
• Print is a great 50 yard dash runner but
intrusive electronic media is the champion
marathon runner.
• With patience, the consistent use of intrusive
media (such as radio and television) will win
the heart of the customer before he is in the
market for the product.

25. #6. Creating ads instead
of campaigns.

28. • Good ads make one point, like a
rhinoceros.
• An advertiser with seventeen different
things to say should commit to a
campaign of at least seventeen
different ads.

29. #7. Obedience to
unwritten rules.

30. If You Put A Black Background
Behind A Black Background

32. You’ll Have A Black Background

33. For some insane
reason, advertis
ers want their ads to look
and sound like ads. Why
is this?

34. #8. Late week schedules.

35. •

36. #9. Overconfidence in
qualitative targeting.

37. • Saying The Wrong Thing has killed far more ad
campaigns than Reaching The Wrong People.
It is amazing how many people become “the
right people”, when you are saying the right
thing.

38. #10. Event driven
Marketing.

39. • If one percent of the people
who hear your ad for a special
event actually choose to
come, you will be in desperate
need of a traffic cop.
• Yet your real investment will
be in the 99% who did not
come to the event.

40. #11. Great production
without great copy.

41. • Too many ads today are creative without being
persuasive. “Slick, clever, funny, creative and
different” are poor substitutes for
“informative, authentic, humanistic, believable, me
morable and persuasive”.

42. #12. Confusing “response”
with “results”.

43. • The goal of advertising is to
create a clear awareness of
your company and its Unique
Selling Proposition. When we
confuse “Response” with
“Results” we create
“attention getting ads” which
say absolutely nothing.

44. "If you have a good selling idea, your
secretary can write your ad for you."
- Morris Hite
“Concentration is the key to
economical success” - Peter
Drucker
Avoid The 12 Causes

45. You’ll Know Which Half IS Working
John Wanamaker once said, "I know
that half of my advertising doesn't
work. The problem is, I don't know
which half."

47. Question &
Break Time

48. How to Write Ads That Work

49. How The Brain Works

50. Left Hemisphere
• Analytical.
• Logical.
• Judgmental.
• Can only see
the small
picture.
• Searches for
credibility.

51. Right Hemisphere
• Emotion.
• Art.
• Wakes when you
sleep.
• Looks for
connections.
• Can see the big
picture.
• Subconscious.
• Searches for
relevance.

52. Broca’s Area
• Broca is the gatekeeper to the mind.
• Anything predictable is rejected by Broca.
• Surprise is the delight of Broca.
• Predictability is the enemy of advertising and
broca.
• You’ll need a different angle of approach.
• Replace common phrases with unexpected
colorful ones.

53. Relevance & Credibility
• Relevance speaks to a felt need (right brain).
• Do I care?
• Credibility speaks to a belief (left brain).
• Do I believe?
• When you create ads that sound like ads you
loose credibility.
• Ads need credibility and relevance to satisfy
the mind.

55. Working Memory
• The thought you’re
having now..
• Your imagination.
• Your conscious
awareness.
• Without new
information you can
not have a new
decision.

56. Declarative Memory
• The stuff that
survives the
night.
• Episodic.
• You remember
an episode if any
emotion is
involved.

57. Procedural Memory
• Long term memory.
• Relevance X’s repetition
produces long term
procedural memory. The
impact of a message will
determine how long it
takes for long term
memory.
• Branding occurs in
procedural memory.
• Only if you say
something that matters.

58. You Detest Advertising

59. I Detest Advertising

60. But We Love

61. Your ads should be an ongoing
story, novel or sitcom that the
listener/view can’t wait to see or hear
next.

62. Credibility – Left Brain Language

63. Facts?
• When the facts
are on your side
swing the facts at
your competitor
like a baseball
bat.
• Slice the
competition
with a razor
when the facts
are on your side.

64. Authenticity
• Be what you say you are.
• The human voice is natural
and uncontrived.

65. Transparency
• Show your dirty laundry.
• Admit a downside.

66. Clarity
• Can your product be differentiated?
• Can you point out that difference quickly?
• Can you explain why the difference matters?

67. 1. See it though the eyes of the public.
(Insiders have too much knowledge.)
2. Ignore everything that doesn’t matter.
3. Focus on what the public actually cares
about.
4. Say it in the fewest possible words.
5. Close the loopholes by anticipating the
customer’s unspoken questions.

68. Clichés
• Whack all clichés.
• For all your blankety
blank needs, great
customer service, 100
years of combined
service, service and
selection second to
none..etc.
• Kill anything in the ad
that sounds like an ad.

69. Close The Loopholes
• Substantiate every claim.
• Leave out any hype.
• Example; “prices so low we can’t say them on
the air”.
• If it can’t be substantiated in the ad don’t say
it.

70. Relevance – Right Brain Language

71. Always Start With The Benefit
• Talk to people about what they already care
about.
• Get to the benefit early and often
• Most people bury the benefit 2/3rds down the
page.
• Offer the public what the public already wants
or prepare to be disappointed with the
results.
• When you can drown your ad with benefits.

72. Emotion
• Use words to describe mood; dark, heavy cold.
• Never molest an emotional ad by entering ad
speak. If you want to talk about zero percent
financing do it in a different ad.
• Make sure the ad matches up with how you
want the customer to feel.
• Win the heart and the mind will follow.

74. Your customers won’t remember
everything you said in your ads.
But they will remember how your ad
made them feel.
They’ll remember how your business
made them feel.
Heck, they will even remember how
your employees made them feel.

75. How are you making your customers
feel?

76. Metaphors
• Metaphors relate the unknown to the known.
• When you choose a metaphor stick with the
metaphor throughout the ad.
• Don’t let the mental image of the metaphor
swallow the clarity of the message.

77. Stories
• Tell stories in your ads.
• Plunge headfirst into the story.
• Twelve hours a week at five dollars an hour for
a hunk of metal and four wheels. My heart
buzzed like a bee when I handed over twenty
six Benjamin’s and a year of my life.
• We lowered the flag at half staff. There wasn’t
a plane in the sky.

78. Bluff With Fluff
• When the facts aren’t on your side bluff with
fluff.
• One sip of this coffee and you’re a better
dancer.
• You’ll need to go so far to the right your left
side will know you’re just kidding.

80. The Message:

81. FMI

82. LMI
• Cause the listener to imagine
taking the action you want them
to take.
• Close Big: Words at the end of a
list are easier to remember.

83. Full Circle
• Connect the FMI to the LMI
• When you go full circle make
sure the FMI and the LMI are
relevant.

84. Attention Getting Techniques

85. Verbs
• Verbs kick the door open to Broca.
• Open your ad with a verb.
• Drop the cat in the punchbowl.
• Fill your ads with verbs.

86. Word Flags
• Make customers mention your ad by planting
a word flag.
• An unusual word or phrase that is likely to be
commented on by the customer.
• The only reason a customer will mention your
word flag is to make themselves look clever.
• Saying “mention this ad” is not a word flag.

87. Crazy Ivan
• Gives your ad a 3rd dimension.
• Never make your Crazy Ivan predictable.
• Don’t let the listener know it’s coming.
• The voiceover shouldn't anticipate it.
• The listener will have anxiety waiting for
your Crazy Ivan.

88. Car Dealer With A Story To Tell…..And
A Crazy Ivan

89. Chaotic Ad Writing
• Predictability is the enemy of effective
writing.
• Open with a crazy line that would make
someone say “huh?”
• Everything in the world is connected.
• Close by looping back to the opening
line.

90. Seussing
• Creating words
that do not exist
but fit.
• Surprise Broca

91. Specifics are more believable
than generalities.
• Specifics are easier to see in the
mind.
• Example; countless steer isn’t as
vivid as seven steer.

92. Description Stack
• Used to deepen
perception.
• Example;
(Age), old, twilight, winter
, dying, tired, cold, hang,
crack, bones.
• Images that reinforce
images.

93. Alliteration & Meter
• If you use a word that starts with “A” that ends a
sentence or starts use another word that starts
with an “A” in the same spot.
• Example: See a Sold Sign Sooner
• Another Example: Get it, Got it Good.
• The magic of alliteration and meter is recall.
• Positioning statements/taglines should have
meter.
• DO NOT RHYME.

94. Rhythm
• You step foot on the forest floor. It’s just
you, camera and the world around you. You’re no
Mickey Mouse toting, thumb sucking, pee
shooting wannabe cameraman carrying a
small, miniscule, girly handycam. You’re the elite.
You’re the Jedi of your craft. You’re able to
capture eyeball exploding, adrenaline
convulsing, 1080i HD footage. You’re an outdoor
producer. Your camera, the Canon XHA1S. You
can find yours at Campbellcameras.com

95. Did You Notice The Verbs?
• You step foot on the forest floor. It’s just you,
camera and the world around you. You’re no
Mickey Mouse toting, thumb sucking, pee
shooting wannabe cameraman carrying a small,
miniscule, girly handycam. You’re the elite. You’re
the Jedi of your craft. You’re able to capture
eyeball exploding, adrenaline convulsing, 1080i
HD footage. You’re an outdoor producer. Your
camera, the Canon XHA1S. You can find yours at
Campbellcameras.com

96. What about the word YOU?
• You step foot on the forest floor. It’s just
you, camera and the world around you. You’re no
Mickey Mouse toting, thumb sucking, pee
shooting wannabe cameraman carrying a
small, miniscule, girly handycam. You’re the elite.
You’re the Jedi of your craft. You’re able to
capture eyeball exploding, adrenaline
convulsing, 1080i HD footage. You’re an outdoor
producer. Your camera, the Canon XHA1S. You
can find yours at Campbellcameras.com

97. Headlines
• Speak to the felt need in the headline.

98. Active vs Passive
• Use action words.
• Example; “You can be” becomes “You’ll be”.
• Throw the person into the scene.
• Always involve the listener as an active
participant.

99. Black Words
• “The most valuable of all talents is that of
never using two words when one will do.” —
Thomas Jefferson
• Black Words - Words not needed to get your
point across.
• Remove black words, but, and, that, therefore,
etc.

100. One Point, One Ad
• One message per ad.
• If you have more than one benefit write more
than one ad.
• Remember, you’re ads are an ongoing sitcom.

101. Consistency
• Keep the same style of the ad.
• Don’t change spokespersons.
• Never use the station DJ.
• Use the owner, this person voice never
changes.

102. The 3 Things
• Make them want it.
• Make them believe you.
• Surprise Broca.

103. Mike Slover
www.whatsthemeat.com
mikeslover@wizardofads.com
618-889-0674