38 secrets to create advertising that sells by David Ogilvy

 Here’s a treasure trove of 38 secrets to create advertising that sells by David Ogilvy. My friend, Mike Malloy, at McDonough SOB at Georgetown pulled out a few of his favorites that he shared:

1) The most important decision is how should you position your product.

2) The second most important decision is what should you promise the consumer.

4) Your advertising must be built on a big idea to jolt the consumer out of his indifference.

11) Go for the whole hog because it pays to boil down your strategy to one simple promise, and then deliver on that promise.

12) Testimonial commercials are almost always successful - if you make them credible.

13) Problem-solution (don’t cheat!) works by setting up a problem that the consumer recognizes and showing how your product solves that problem. But don’t cheat because the consumer isn’t a moron. She’s your wife.

17) Commercials using on-camera voice do significantly better than commercials using voice-over.

25) 5X as many people read the headline as read the body copy, so if you don’t sell the product in your headline, you have wasted 80% of your money. 

26) Headlines that promise to benefit sell more than those that don’t.

29) 10 words is a good length for your headline.

32) Yes, people read long copy. Readership falls off rapidly up to 50 words but drops very little between 50 and 500 words. The more you tell, the more you sell.

34) Visual contrast in before and after photos perform above average in attention value.

36) Use captions to sell because 2X as many people read the captions under photographs as read the body copies, so never use a photograph without putting a caption under it. Each caption should be a miniature advertisement for the product - complete with the brand name and promise.