DON’T READ THIS POST!
Great ad copy grabs your attention and holds it there long enough to get your message across. By the time your customer’s mentally adjust to the advertisement it’s over. The entertainment value enough will cause readers to re-read it.
Advertising has been around since before the written word and those that command the attention command the big paydays. From yours truly in modern times all the way back to Ogg, the fire-stick toting caveman. Once Ogg figured out that keeping his fire burning keep the overbrowed cavewomen interested, he advertised with cave drawings of a group of cave-people holding bones around a fire…which is roughly translated to, “party tonight, bring your own bone.” Quite a simple slogan but it worked.
Now, moving forward just a bit…
You can’t mention guerrilla advertising without remembering the first such ad from the Pony Express. “Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry fellows. Not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.” This advertisement was wildly successful although the telegraph eventually killed the horse, so-to-speak.
Moving up to modern times my first crack at guerrilla advertising came when I a kid selling lemonade and sodas in my friend’s back yard, (it was adjacent to the golf course). I put a sign out for lemonade but it wasn’t selling even under the hot Southern California sun in the middle of summer. So, after selling about $1 worth of lemonade in an hour I thought there has to be something wrong. My sister wouldn’t drink it because she said it looked like pee. I added a sign bigger than the first that said, “It’s not pee!” By the end of the afternoon I had about $30 and no more lemonade. My weekly allowance was 50 cents so $30 was way more than I needed for my ticket to Disneyland even after I split it with my friend, (day passes were new at Disneyland and only $8 for a child).
If I had known then what I know now I would incorporated and copywritten the slogan. But, I didn’t learn a damn thing but I did have a gift. When eBay first launched I had just gotten out of the Army and started working for my Dad at his store, The Coin Exchange. I know it sounds like a check-cashing place but it’s not. He sells gold, silver, rare coins, etc. One day he bought this very detailed set of silver baby spoons. The spoons had busts of some random people I have no idea who they are. He was going to melt them down like he does all the “crap” he buys. He bought them for the silver weight, (which was practically nothing). I grabbed them and said, “I’m going to throw them up on eBay.” My advertisement was, “7 Silver Baby Spoons with Busts of Dead People.” I uploaded some real nice scans of the spoons and they ended up selling for $200 more than my Dad would have made just by melting them down. I guess the ad got in front of the right people at the right time.
My last example was almost a direct ripoff of the Pony Express ad. I was working as the marketing manager for a mortgage company and we needed a programmer. I posted an ad that would grab the attention of the right candidates only. I had only a few responses but only ONE from a local candidate. When I say local I mean in this country. The ad spoke of working long, thankless hours with a lot of stress and low pay. The humor of the ad grabbed the attention of the BEST programmer I have EVER had the privledge to know. He’s off making big money nowadays.
The moral of the story is this: Get out of the soft-boiled copywriting routine and get your audience’s attention. Below are a few examples of copy I would change:
Craigslist ads:
…looking for data entry person:
actual headline: data entry
my headline: Need money for brain transplant? Data entry $300/wk
…a moving sale
actual headline: moving sale
my headline: fleeing prosecution sale (everything must stay!)
…selling a bunch of watches
actual headline: 55 SETS OF WOMEN DIAMOND WATCH SET
my headline: 55 STOLEN WATCHES – CHEAP!!!
My headlines grab attention and can be explained in the body description. Some things it helps to be annonymous…like in the Army when they’re looking for volunteers for ‘special assignments’, (picking up cigarette butts). But in advertising you have to stand up to get noticed.
Ok, that’s the idea, good luck!
David