Thursday, June 29, 2006
Four Words
Is four words of copy enough to sell a car? Or at the very least, get me to want to learn more about it?
Maybe, but they’d have to be four really great words. And there’d have to be some exceptional imagery to go with those words.
But a recent direct mail piece I received from Jaguar USA just seems to fall flat.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Monday, May 29, 2006
Insights Through a One-Way Mirror
Over the course of my career, I’ve had the chance to watch a few focus groups behind that one-way mirror and have viewed the tapes of a few more.
Most of the time, however, my access to focus group research comes in the form of a highly distilled summary, usually a PowerPoint presentation. The many hours of discussion on attitudes, perceptions, and reactions to ideas are all boiled down into a few bullet points.
While some access to data is usually better than no access at all, this becomes extremely frustrating.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Friday, April 14, 2006
Guess That Logo
This is an interesting quiz.
View just a portion of a logo and see if you can guess the company.
We’re constantly bombarded by logos, and a lot of time and money goes into designing them. But how much do people really remember? Well, see for yourself.
My score was 155,340, which I’m guessing is about average because the high score is 200,000.
Posted by Richard Bloch
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Sunday, March 12, 2006
Better Buy That Shredder
Rob at Cockeyed.com has just announced the results of an experiment on applying for a credit card.
I get a heck of a lot of credit card applications in the mail.
I almost always tear them in half and throw them away. Sometimes, if I am feeling particularly paranoid, I’ll tear them into little bitty pieces.
Is that good enough? Could a determined and dexterous criminal gather all the bits, tape them together and apply for a card in my name?
To find out, Rob tore up a Chase credit card application into about 15 pieces, taped them together, “changed” his address to his parent’s house, “changed” his phone number to his cell phone, and sent the application in.
Would Rob receive his card? It doesn’t seem likely. On its web site, Chase advises:
If you receive financial solicitations that you’re not interested in, tear them up before throwing them away, so thieves can’t use them to assume your identity.
But Rob did receive his card at his “new” address. And he used his “new” number to activate it.
Well, I gottta go. I’m off to buy a shredder…
Posted by Richard Bloch
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Monday, March 06, 2006
Everywhere You Look
There are seemingly endless choices of stock imagery art directors can choose from. So why is it that the same models seem to crop up over and over again?
The best known example is the “Everywhere Girl.” And I hope she was paid a fortune because her likeness is all over the web.
In fact, her image caused a bit of a ruckus about a year and half ago when she appeared on both the Dell and the Gateway sites simultaneously.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Sunday, March 05, 2006
Just Ask...
A guy named Tom Locke is testing out what he calls The $39 Experiment.
Basically, he’s invested in a roll of stamps to send letters to 100 companies asking for free stuff.
The results so far look encouraging.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Saturday, March 04, 2006
Won by Mercedes-Benz
When you were in school, your English composition teacher probably told you to use active voice and avoid passive voice in your writing.
I tend to agree. Active voice is more natural, more conversational, and more approachable than passive voice. But as with most rules for effective writing, there are exceptions.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Sunday, February 26, 2006
Aristotle & Associates
There are a lot of inspirational books on creating great advertising. Some of them are classics, but this one is really a classic – it’s 2,300 years old.
Aristotle, one the great ancient Greek philosophers, studied the art of persusasion. And his work convinces me that he would have been right at home in today’s advertising agency.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Thursday, February 09, 2006
Parking Lot Stripes
This falls under the category of “Why didn’t I think of that?” I have to kick myself for not coming up with the newest form of advertising – parking lot stripes.
Yes, you read correctly. A Colorado company aptly named Parking Stripe® Advertising is in the business of placing ads on the lines that divide parking spaces. As you get out of your car, an ad appears right below your feet.
According to the company:
Why are advertisers jumping at the chance to use parking lots to increase sales? That’s where the consumers are! The audience is captive and they are walking wallets in the mood to spend all that disposable income.
Well, I don’t know if people are “walking wallets,” but there’s a certain logic to this approach. After all, if you’re going to the grocery store with laundry detergent on your list, seeing an ad for Tide just before you go in may be just what it takes to get you to buy. And there’s plenty of in-store advertising, so it must work.
For example, at my grocery store, I see ads on the shopping carts, on those bars used at checkout to divide orders, and on the back of my receipt. There are even ads on the floor! I suppose if they could get away with it, they’d make all of their employees wear those sandwich board signs.
The one good thing about a new form of media is that hardly anyone can claim expertise. Even though the number of parking stripe ads I’ve written to date stands at zero, I still have the exact same level of experience as 99.9 percent of all the writers out there.
Posted by Richard Bloch
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Sunday, February 05, 2006
The “I” Word
Every direct marketing copywriter is well acquainted with turning features into reader-oriented benefits. After all, the reasons to respond to your offer ring through more loudly and clearly when phrased in terms of “you.” In many letters I see, there’s too much focus on “I” and “we” – and way too little on “you.”
But presenting reader benefits doesn’t mean always avoiding the “I” word. Using a first-person voice in certain places can actually make your copy more powerful.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Sunday, January 29, 2006
Gone With The “Blah Blah Blog” Look
Why haven’t I posted anything new in a couple of weeks? Well, I’ve been busy working on a new blog design. You’re looking at it right now.
The old design (preserved in a screen shot for posterity here) was simply a template that came with the ExpressionEngine blog software I use. But I decided I needed something a bit more creative than the same old “blah blah blog” look.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Sunday, January 15, 2006
The Blink of an Eye
A recent study published in the academic journal Behaviour and Information Technology suggests that people assess the visual appeal of a web site in about 50 milliseconds. (See “Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye")
This research seems a bit suspect to me. The “knee-jerk” reflex (when the doctor hits you just below the knee with that little hammer) is about 50 milliseconds. And that doesn’t even involve the brain—just the spinal cord.
Nonetheless, it’s pretty clear we make snap judgements about web sites we visit. But 50 milliseconds? I don’t think so.
Posted by Richard Bloch
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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Proud of Myself
I just posted my new web site. I’m not a graphic designer, so it took a long time to create. But I’m happy with the results and I sure learned a lot.
One phase of the design was to come up with a signature image for the site. I searched and I searched for a stock photo, but I couldn’t find one image I could just buy and use as is. So I ended up buying two – and then tried to figure out how to use Adobe Photoshop to combine the two images.
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Posted by Richard Bloch
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Saturday, December 31, 2005
Stress-Free Direct Mail
I thought this was an excellent example of a highly creative use of direct mail promoting “Stress-free business communications by BlackBerry” in the UK.
The concept is right on target, but I have no idea what it cost to produce. It was probably expensive, so the question remains: Did it generate enough leads and sales to make it worthwhile?
Happy New Year everyone!
Posted by Richard Bloch
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Monday, December 26, 2005
Long Copy vs. Short Copy
According to a 2004 study by the National Endowment for the Arts, fewer than half of Americans read literature for pleasure. That’s a drop of 10 percent since 1982. For younger people, the drop was 28 percent.
Reading, it seems, is no longer a pleasure. It’s become a chore.
Does this mean long copy is dead? I think in many cases, the answer is yes. But much depends on the mindset of your audience and the value they perceive in reading about you.
