Wizard of Ads Monday Morning Memo

It's as easy as A.B.C.You’re attracted to art1. when it stands for something you believe in,2. when it shows you a reflection of your own core values, or3. gives you a glimpse of your inner face.You're drawn to a brand for precisely the same reasons.A cultural icon is a contemporary archetype, mass-appeal public art, the symbol of a worldview. Cultural icons embody the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. They reveal the mind of the time.Learn to read the choices of your customers and you'll be able to better serve them.The cars your customers drive reflect choices they have made. Their clothing and accessories reflect additional choices. What do these choices tell you? They decorate their homes and offices with choices that virtually shout their innermost thoughts and feelings. Are you paying attention to any of this?“Show me what a people admire, and I will tell you everything about them that matters.” – Maggie Tufu, The Engines of God, page 398A well-served customer is not easily stolen.Bill Bernbach once said, “Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action, even though his language so often camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know these things about a man you can touch him at the core of his being.”We buy what we buy to remind ourselves – and tell the world around us – who we are.“I am irresistible, I say, as I put on my designer fragrance. I am a merchant banker, I say, as I climb out of my BMW. I am a juvenile lout, I say, as I down a glass of extra strong lager. I am handsome, I say, as I don my Levi's jeans.” – John KayDo you want to write persuasive ads, speeches and sermons? Use words and phrases that reflect your customer's core values. Connect to his or her worldview.A knowledge of trends among your customers inart (music, hairstyle, clothing, jewelry, etc.)brands (cars, bikes, computers, magazines, etc.) andheroes (the cultural icons they admire)will be the only clues you need.Your business has only 3 or 4 customers living at thousands of different addresses. Your marketing should be crafted to reflect the preferences of each of them.The concepts I've shared today will help you better understandpersona-based ad writing, an important element in Persuasion Architecture®, the marketing technique perfected by New York Times bestselling authors Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg.Captain Jeff Sexton is a master of persona-based ad writing. He'll be one of your instructors when you come to Austin to learn how to Write for Radio and the Internet.That class, August 26-27, is just 4 weeks away. Are you coming?Business isn't going to get better until you get better at attracting it.Come.Aroo.Roy H. Williams

Mom’s off-white Formica table with wobbly metal legs had a charred circle on top where I once set a pan that was way too hot. Mom couldn’t afford a tablecloth to cover it, but whenever she suspected a person might have nowhere to go for Thanksgiving dinner, she’d always invite them to our house and have another hungry mouth to feed.Thanksgiving, for me, meant a house jammed with people I’d never seen before and would never see again. But each year I saw a whole other America through the eyes of the misfits who gathered around my charred little circle. And the stories I heard were amazing. It was magical.I miss those days.I watched Mom deny herself necessities during the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Her emaciated paycheck couldn’t possibly feed a houseful of strangers, but she always did it anyway. And no guest ever had to worry they were taking more than their share. Mom’s opulence made us believe, at least for an hour, that we were royal.What I’ve written is the sort of thing a person usually writes when someone they love has died, but I’m delighted to report that Mom is alive and healthy and recently returned from a trip to China.I’m telling you about Sue Williams today because she taught me something else when I was young. She said we should give our roses to the living and not save them for the dead.“When a person dies, everyone who loved them will cancel their other obligations, send a big bouquet of flowers, jump on an airplane and fly across the country to look at their dead friend in a box.” Mom waited a moment for this to soak in. “If I’m going to cancel my plans, buy roses and travel because of friendship, I’m going to do it while my friend is alive to smell the flowers and enjoy the adventure with me. And if my friend passes before I do, I'll sit quietly at home and remember the trip we took together.”Once a year, Mom would treat a friend to a small adventure, a 3 or 4-day trip together to someplace interesting. Taos with Theresa. Santa Fe with Dee. A trip to Alaska to see Janice. West Virgina to see Velma. A trip to the Bahamas with Vicki. Spain with Cindy. These are the people my Mom cares about too much to attend their funerals.Stephen Levine poses a very interesting question: “If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?”I’ve borrowed Stephen’s question for our weekly e-Poll. Your answer, when approved, will appear at the bottom of today’s Memo in the archives at MondayMorningMemo.com. (Approval usually happens within a few hours.)So tell us, who would you call?Roy H. Williams

(Uh oh, am I about to light an email fire I can't put out?)Traditional wisdom says, “Advertise in the newspaper. Everyone reads the newspaper. There are lots of radio stations but only one newspaper.”The problem with traditional wisdom is that it’s usually more tradition than wisdom.Take a look at the chart at the top of this page and you’ll see that the total, combined ad revenues for(1.) the internet with all its banners, pop-ups, co-registration schemes and Google Adwords accounts, plus(2.) the ad revenues from all the billboards sprinkled across the 3.54 million square miles of these United States, plus(3.) the combined revenues of all of America’s radio stationsis less than the combined ad revenues of America’s few hundred newspapers.I hid a big surprise for you in last week’s rabbit hole. Did you see it?Let me summarize for you what it said:If you(1.) make exactly the same offer on radio as in the newspaper, and(2.) spend exactly the same amount of money with each media,(3.) across precisely the same span of time,radio outperforms newspaper nearly14 to 1.As I explained in the detailed report, we fell into our discovery by accident. Our original plan was to buy newspaper ads since we assumed the newspaper would reach a larger percentage of our target than any other media.Our assumptions were based on a faulty perception. That’s traditional wisdom for you.When our test indicated that radio was outperforming newspaper nearly 14 to 1, I began to wonder, “With all the billions of dollars spent in media each year, why has no one ever comparison-tested the media in a series of controlled experiments?”There I go, assuming again. A bit of research led me to uncover a study conducted 37 years ago (1971) by the Research Committee of the National Advisory Council on Radio in Education. On page 155 I found, “For the test, the manufacturer of a shampoo selected territories in which his sales had been equal and satisfactory over a period of years. An advertising campaign with increased appropriations was prepared, and at the end of the test period, sales increases were used as the gauge of the merit of the medium. In territory No. 1, where newspaper advertising was used, the sales were increased by 3 percent; in territory No. 2, where radio only was used, they were increased 40 percent.”Gosh. 40 percent versus 3 percent is nearly 14 to 1, right?Why has there never been a scientifically controlled, nationwide test funded by the radio stations of America?Frankly, I was comforted to learn that my organization was the second, rather than the first entity to discover that radio outproduces newspaper nearly 14 to 1. If we had been the only people ever to discover that little nugget of information, I would have been plagued by doubt. I'm big enough to admit that my confidence was bolstered by the fact that another organization arrived at virtually the identical conclusion when I was just 13 years old.But the greater question remains,“Why has there been no scientifically controlled test?”I ask the advertising agencies spending all those billions,“Why has there been no scientifically controlled test?”I ask the major advertisers of America,“Why has there been no scientifically controlled test?”And I ask you the same question in this week’s e-Poll. We’re anxious to hear your theory.Philip Dusenberry once said, “I have always believed that writing advertisements is the second most profitable form of writing. The first, of course, is ransom notes.”If you want to write, but ransom notes is not your style, get yourself to Austin August 26-27 to learn how to Write for Radio and the Internet, (Yes, the two techniques are virtually identical.) This excellent class is taught by the incomparable Chris Maddock and Jeff Sexton. Tuscan Hall awaits you, friend.Also on the near horizon: The Wild Fiction Workshop will be remembered with fanfare by future generations. Every student who attends will be published in hardback before Christmas. Arooooooo!It's happening August 6th and David Freeman and me.And you?Yours,Roy H. Williams

The Monday Morning Memo for July 7, 2008I’ve known Richie Starkey since I was five. He turns 68 today.Richie said the only thing he wanted for his birthday was for you to pause today at noon, wherever you are in the world, make a peace sign with your fingers and say with a smile, “Peace and Love.”Will you do it?Yes, it’s ridiculous. But before you summarily dismiss his request, let me tell you a bit about Richie and why he might merit your cooperation.1.   People have made fun of his big nose his whole life.2.   He throws a great party.3.   He was dealt a bad hand as a kid.Richie’s dad was a dock worker who walked into a bakery one day to buy a donut and fell in love with the girl behind the counter.Richie was three years old when his parents divorced. At six, Richie was rushed to the hospital for a ruptured appendix which put him into a coma for 10 weeks. Then things went from bad to worse. Awakening from the coma, Richie was given 2 toys to play with in the hospital but the boy in the next bed didn’t have any. Richie leaned out of his bed to give his red bus to the other boy but lost his balance, hitting his head hard enough to throw him back into a coma.When Richie finally got out of the hospital, he’d missed more than a year of school so he was put into a class with much younger children. Richie struggled to get caught up in school but at 13 he caught a cold that turned into pleurisy. This put Richie back into the hospital for several months and threw him even further behind in his schoolwork. Finally, Richie said, “screw it” and dropped out. He could barely read and write.Richie went into business with three young partners and each of the others became incredibly successful. Richie was forever in their shadow.His lifelong dream, sadly, could never be realized. More than anything, Richie wanted to be in the audience during a Beatles concert.This is because the other toy they gave him was a drum. Richie taught himself to play it, began to wear a lot of Rings on his fingers, and dropped the “key” off the end of his name, “Starkey.”Do you have a moment to watch a short video of Richie asking for his birthday present?Peace and Love.Roy H. Williams

Beauty is impossibly thin.The thinnest human hair is half a million angstroms thick. Typing paper is a million angstroms. Yet the layer of quicksilver that turns plate glass into a mirror is only 700 angstroms thick. It would take 714 such layers to equal the thickness of a hair, yet it’s this impossibly thin layer that reflects a woman’s beauty.Beauty may only be skin deep, but the reflection of that beauty is one seven-hundredth of a hair.Spray a coat of varnish onto a globe of the earth and the thickness of that layer will accurately represent the blanket of air that surrounds our planet. Yet most of the beauty of life on earth is contained in that thin, outer skin.Likewise, the nutrition in most vegetables is contained in the outer surface. So don’t scrape your carrots. Don’t peel your potatoes or apples. The outer skin is where the vitamins hide.The outer layer of the brain, the cortex, is only a fraction of a centimeter thick. Yet all the higher functions happen there.Are you beginning to see a pattern? I’m not yet certain what this pattern might mean or how deep and wide it may go, but I’m certainly going to investigate it. What will I discover? Does value always ride close to the surface, or is that an oversimplification?Let the journey begin. Do you want to come along? If you can think of another example of how “value rides the surface,” respond to this week’s e-Poll through the hyperlink at the bottom of the page.Are you, like me, drawn to recurrent patterns? They seem to whisper, saying, “When a thing is true, it’s always true. What is true in marriage will also be true in agriculture and chemistry and architecture and banking. You’ll see it in the Bible and you’ll see it in the sky.”The purpose of Wizard Academy is to discover and document these reliable phenomena, to map their depths and chart their patterns so that we might harness their power to do good.Sigmund Freud, that early investigator of the human psyche, once said, “Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me.” I think I know how he felt. As I ponder this question of whether value always rides the surface of its carrier, I suddenly recall what Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in 1905: “All our arts and occupations lie wholly on the surface; it is on the surface that we perceive their beauty, fitness, and significance; and to pry below is to be appalled by their emptiness and shocked by the coarseness of the strings and pulleys.”You were right, Sigmund. Robert Louis Stevenson already discovered that particular treasure on the island. He was the poet who got here before me.Is any of what I’ve written today useful or valuable? I don’t know. I haven’t finished pondering it. So for the moment I think I’ll quit talking and go back inside.Aroo.Roy H. Williams

“The fundamental shortcoming of most mission statements is that everyone expects them to be highfalutin and all-encompassing. The result is a long, boring, commonplace and pointless joke. Companies are all writing the same mediocre stuff.”– Guy KawasakiMost organizations try to define themselves by telling us what they believe in, what they stand for. But self-definition isn’t believable until you tell us what you stand against.Ever read the Declaration of Independence? Now there’s a mission statement.It says we believe “all men are created equal” and that God gave each of us the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But this famous statement is prefaced by our admission that these things are so obvious that we hold them to be “self evident.”In other words, “It goes without saying.” Who doesn't believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiess? Likewise, most mission statements proclaim things that every company believes in.Do you want your mission statement to be read, quoted, cussed and discussed? If so, don't tell us what your corporate culture includes. Tell us what it excludes. Tell us what you’re fighting against.After it lists the 4 things we feel to be self evident, America’s Declaration of Independence goes on to name 28 things we were against. The point of the document is that we felt strongly enough about these 28 things that we were willing to part company with England over them.Two weeks ago I revealed a bit of self-definition when I said that I didn’t agree with Marshall McLuhan’s statement, “The medium is the message.” In the interest of fairness, I linked my comment to the official, detailed explanation of McLuhan’s statement made by the Chief Strategist
of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. But alas, this was not enough. My staff tells me that dozens of people sent emails of complaint and debate.God Bless America.We're definitely the Land of the Free. But are we still the Home of the Brave?Most mission statements are pointless for the same reason most ads are pointless:1. They're not written to provide focus or clarity.2. They're not written to separate you from the pack.3. They're not written to persuade.They're written not to offend.My first book, The Wizard of Ads, was named Business Book of the Year 10 years ago. Do you remember the subject of its very first chapter?Take a look.Roy H. Williams

The Wizard's Laws of the Universe, Lesson OneMy friend Kary Mullis once said, “Claims made by scientists… can be separated from the scientists who make them. It isn’t important to know who Isaac Newton was. He discovered that force is equal to mass times acceleration. He was an antisocial, crazy bastard who wanted to burn down his parents’ house. But force is still equal to mass times acceleration.”Antisocial crazy-bastard Newton published his famous Second Law of Motion in 1687 and got all the credit for it even though Shakespeare had made the same observation back in 1603. It was in Hamlet that he said, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”In other words, impact is equal to mass times acceleration.Let me connect the dots for you:1.   The size of an idea is its mass.2.   The shorter the sentence that delivers the idea, the greater its acceleration.How big is your idea? How quickly can you express it? These are the factors that determine the impact of what you say.Capture a big idea and express it in few words.This is the opening paragraph of a famous website about persuasion:You want more revenue. More revenue requires more people taking action. But people only do what they want to do. You have to give them what they want in order to get what you want.That wasn’t badly written. It contained a big idea but let’s see if we can tighten the word count and accelerate the impact:Want more revenue?Revenue requires people taking action.But people only do what they want to do.Give them what they want.They'll give you what you want.All we did was:1. Eliminate 1 appearance of the word “you” to turn an assumptive statement into a question.2. Eliminate 2 appearances of the word “more.”3. Eliminate “You have to” to open with a verb, “Give.”4. Break the long, final sentence into 2 short sentences.Impact was accelerated by cutting seven words and trading five long sentences for six short ones.“Waste not, want not.”“Give me liberty or give me death.”“Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee.”Ever notice how short phrases hit harder than long ones?In the spirit of today’s message, I think I’ll stop right here.Aroo.Roy H. Williams

The Medium is Not the MessageMarshall McLuhan’s famous line, “The medium is the message,” is at best a Japanese koan (ko-ahn.) You know, “What is the sound of one hand clapping,” and all that? I’m sure I’ll get a thousand ranting emails about this, but I’ve always felt koans to be a silly attempt to sound profound.McLuhan’s koan is at the top of my list. It was originally published in his 1964 book, Understanding Media. Nearly half a century later later, his disciples are still trying to explain what he meant.Enough.The medium is the medium.The message is the message.Ad campaigns don’t fail because someone chose the wrong media. Ad campaigns fail because someone chose the wrong message.The job of the media is to deliver your message.Your job is to give the media a message worth delivering.Each media has its own strengths and weaknesses. And because I’ve spent the last 20 years talking about message, today we’ll glance at media:Signage: Expensive signage at an intrusively visible business location is often the cheapest advertising your money can buy. Intrusive visibility is the quality that separates landmarks from scenery. You’re intrusively visible when the public sees you without looking for you. Do you have an intrusive location? Have you maximized your signage?Outdoor: Billboards reach more people for a dollar than any other media and they’re geographically targetable. In other words, you can reach specific pockets of your city with them. Their weakness is that they become invisible after just a few sightings in the same location, so be sure to move your boards every 30 days. Additionally, the average driver is unwilling to look away from the road for longer than eight words. So if you can’t sing your song in eight words or less, billboards aren’t your best bet.Direct Mail: Like billboards, direct mail lets you target geographically and in theory, psychographically as well, assuming the right member of the household sorts the mail. The problem with direct mail is that most of it gets thrown away unopened. And the costs of printing and delivery have skyrocketed.Television: Television delivers the highest impact of any media, but unpredictable viewer habits make it difficult to reach the same viewer a second or third time within seven nights sleep. If your message needs repetition, television is even trickier to schedule than radio. And the cost of production is extremely high for an ad that won’t embarrass you. But if you’ve got the cash and it’s not the off-season (summertime,) TV can be a powerful ally.Radio: Sound is neurologically intrusive and radio feels like a friend. The problem with radio is that most ads are written in such a way that they’re easily ignored, so your ad will need to be presented repeatedly to the same listener. This need for repetition makes scheduling easily botched. Most campaigns are scheduled to reach the largest possible number of people. Consequently, these schedules deliver too little repetition. Be careful you don’t make this mistake. The good news is that radio is the great equalizer. Unlike magazines, television and direct mail, radio ads don’t require a big budget to be world class; radio requires nothing but word skills and imagination.Newspaper: Newspaper ads need a visual trigger, a picture of your product. This trigger will attract the attention of customers who are consciously in the market for your product, but those who aren’t in the market will fail to see your ad. Consequently, newspaper ads often deliver immediately identifiable results, but these results fail to get better and better over time. In the short run, newspaper wins. In the long run, TV and radio win.Yellow Pages: Like newspaper, the yellow pages reach people who are consciously in the market. But while newspapers promote products, the yellow pages promote services. The highest goal of a service business is to be the name that immediately comes to mind when the public needs your services. This can be accomplished with Radio, Television, Signage or Billboards. But if your budget doesn't permit you to win customers before they need you, make sure you sing loud in the yellow pages.Magazines: Perhaps the ultimate tool for psychographic targeting, magazines ads tend to be expensive. Another downside is that most are delivered with very poor frequency, often just once a month. But when your message fits the readership, magazine ads can be awesome.Internet: The advantage of the internet is that it lets you reach the whole world. The disadvantage of the internet is that you’re competing with the whole world. How will you drive traffic to your site? If your small business has the ability to drive traffic through mass media, a website is often the perfect half step between your advertising and your store. Let your prospective customer get to know you online.It’s worked well for me.Roy H. Williams

MAY 14, 1990 – The cover of Sports Illustrated showed a pistol being shoved into the back of a high school kid. Those were the days when an alarming trend swept this land of purple mountains, majesties, above the fruited plains.Kids were killing for tennis shoes. Remember?JUNE, 2008 – Retail in America is changing.We could blame it on the current recession, but the truth is much more interesting:Today’s young adults (18-34) spent their childhoods marinating in hype. The noise of Vegematic commercials and limited-time offers for Ginsu knives were the soundtrack of their lives. Cable TV was a friendly babysitter, shouting, “BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!” Upward mobility was the dominant religion. Out-of-control commercialism was an ocean that threatened to suffocate their souls.Britney Spears glittered when she walked.My sons were 7 and 10 years old when that issue of Sports Illustrated hit the newstand. Today they’re like a lot of other young men and women who grew up during the days of conspicuous consumption. They’ve quietly decided thatcheap is the new chic.Buying used clothing at a Goodwill thrift store is cool.Underpowered cars are cool.Craig’s List is cool.IKEA is cool.The new status…is not how much you spend, but how much you don't.– CBS Evening NewsCan this new trend toward minimalism and the conservation of resources be harnessed to make you money? Of course it can.But not in the way you think.You’ll find the answers you need in Austin. (Attend classes at Wizard Academy or book a day of private consulting with the Wizards of Ads.) Come.Was today's message a thinly-disguised ad for America's 21st Century Business School?Yes, it was. But doesn't the fact that I admit it make it a little easier to take?(The perceptive reader will realize that last sentence was the whole point of today's memo.)Understated fashion and transparent language are on the rise.THIS IS THE CONCLUSION OF LESSON ONERoy H. Williams

Time travel is fun.Want to learn to do it?Follow me.The year is 1608. England buzzes with William Shakespeare.Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear are performed to rave reviews while 44 year-old William grieves the death of his mother.A team of 47 translators works on an English translation of the Bible. Not one of them suspects their translation will remain in use 400 years into the future. In 1611 their Bible will be released as the authorized version of King James.The novel by Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote de La Mancha hasn't been translated into English but it’s all the rage in Spain. No one suspects that in exactly 8 years – on April 23, 1616 – Cervantes and Shakespeare will die simultaneously at twilight. No one knows each man will forever be remembered as the most celebrated voice in his language.Baltasar Gracian is a 7-year-old boy in Belmonte, Spain. He’ll grow up to become a Jesuit scholar, troublemaker and philosopher. His book, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, will sweep Europe in much the same way Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac will sweep another continent 150 years later. In 1992, Baltasar’s book will be rediscovered and spend 18 weeks on the bestseller list of a country that didn’t exist while he lived. But no one has an inkling of this. Today young Baltasar is a just a 7-year old boy playing in the dust in Spain.It’s been exactly 116 years since Christopher Columbus sailed for Queen Isabella and walked the soil of a whole new world. Today that new world is a place where conquistadors search for gold and tell tales of the Seven Cities of Cibola.No one cares about a shipload of English weirdoes and misfits who sailed over the horizon a few months ago to set up a colony in the wilderness. They’re probably dead by now anyway. And even if they’re not, nothing will ever come of it. I think someone said they decided to call their colony “Jamestown.”In exactly 361 years Neal Armstrong will do that Columbus thing again and a poet named James Dickey will complain, “There's no moon goddess now. But when men believed there was, then the moon was more important, maybe not scientifically, but more important emotionally. It was something a man had a personal relationship to, instead of its simply being a dead stone, a great ruined stone in the sky.” – Self Interviews, p. 67Are you beginning to see what I mean by Time Travel? It’s a delightful way to play. And frankly, you don’t play enough. I hope you don’t mind me saying.The key to time travel is:1.   Learn the details of a day that is past. Meet the people. Feel the buzz. Be part of their society. Become one of them.2.   From that distant vantage point, what do you imagine about our current day, knowing you will never see it?3.   Now return happily to 2008 and see how things actually turned out.If you want to take an even trippier trip:1.   Imagine yourself 20 years from now. What are your circumstances?2.   Now look back at 2008 and think about what you wish you’d done differently.You’ll be surprised how much this “Time Travel” exercise will change your priorities and alter your actions.Free the Beagle.Aroo!Roy H. Williams