One competitor in the heady days of the Madmen frightened David Ogilvy.
His name was Leo Burnett – and the agency he founded in 1935 is still thriving.
I worked for him in 1961/2 and met some of his colleagues.
I made a list of 17 of his wisest observations - one is below, just click play.
I'll be amazed if you don't find them helpful.
Oh, and if you're interested enough to learn from them, I also tell you why he put the wind up Ogilvy.
If this one struck a chord with you, why not join my merry little membership club here, and get the others?
But don't mull it over too long. Last few days of launch price.
Best
Drayton
Inside this merry little membership club is Drayton’s priceless wisdom.
Hi Drayton,
Thanks for great info so far only reason I have not joined is a member of so many groups , sites etc hardly have time to breath 🙂 doing some work on copy any chance you would critique for me – willing to pay you as long as reasonable or can you do as part of membership service enjoying your engaging and great advise
there is no substitute for experience that is clearly evident in your knowledge
kind regards Simon
Send me the copy and I will give you a quote, Simon.
It shouldn’t be all that much – unless what you’ve written in utter hogwash.
I can’t wait to join. Mightn’t be for a while yet though. Bummed, especially because it’s such a good price right now!
Slightly misleading, Drayton.
In what respect?
I think, though I could be wrong – it has happened – Jesse is referring to the fact that your headline promised 17 Leo Burnett quotes, and the video gave us one. It may have left Jesse feeling a little swindled, as it did me. Still love your stuff, though!
What the message promised was a video about one out of 17 I had noted. Buggered if I know which the others were – though I can assure you if I said 17, there were 17.
The “fine print” says one but the headlines are screaming 17.
Drayton, thanks for your daily posts- they make me laugh and rub my brain at the same time.
How in the world would you market a mediocre commodity? Not the kind that stinks and is a rip-off… just one that is dull and frightfully un-standout-able.
?
That is such a vague question, Yoch. If anything sells then it must appeal to someone. Our job is to find out what that appeal is. Therefore we start by asking existing buyers why they buy. If there are no buyers then you must look at buyers of competitive products and how they are sold to.
“There is no such thing as a dull product; only dull copywriters” – don’t know who said that. It could even have been me. But it’s true. If something sells then it it interests somebody somehow.
If it’s a new product, it must exist because it does something better than an existing product. What? And how? And for whom?
Drayton. For the record, your quoted text, “There’s no such thing as a dull product…” is one more adaptation of the quote first used by (as far as anyone can ascertain) the English poet and author Richard Le Gallienne who wrote in a New York Times book review, April, 1921, that “the first duty of a book, however serious its theme, is to be entertaining. Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is entertaining—otherwise it would long since have been forgotten. There are really no dull subjects. There are only dull writers.”
The quote has been attributed to many others since, including the great American journalist and acerbic social critic, H.L. Mencken. Interestingly, though, I find the original astonishingly appropriate to your line of work, don’t you agree.
I have signed up for my first month with ask Drayton. And I’m curious to know how much one should spend for awareness to get leads and the other to convert them.
Thanks in advance
Luke
That is, I’m afraid, something nobody can answer for many reasons.
These are:
1. What percentage of your likely prospects do you want to be aware?
2. Do you even know how many prospects you have. I don’t.
3. And what precisely do you mean by awareness? Can you define, please.
4. How much anything – awareness, conversion, repeat sale – costs depends on a) what you are selling b) how much it costs c) How large your prospect universe is.
5. Plus one or two other things like how good your product or service is, whether it is unique in some way or not, how much competition you have, how rich your prospects are, how much they care about your product or service category, what previous results you have had, and so on.
I love your emails – the ones in writing. But when I have to watch a video, it all dries up for me. That’s why I didn’t stay subscribed.
You are extremely unusual (thank goodness). All available research, my experience and results/sales show that people respond more to videos than anything else.
Love your work, but I’ m not native english speaker and sometimes have problems to understand everything 😔.
Would it be possible to put subtitles in your video?
Thank very much
Petra from Prague
I do subtitle a lot of the newer stuff, Petra – but it’s quite a challenging business