I have learned from many of the world’s top marketers over the years but the person who has influenced me more than anyone else is copywriting legend Drayton Bird.
In November 2003 the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton Bird one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.
Advertising legend the late David Ogilvy said he “knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world…”
What follows is a very interesting and poignant article written by Drayton which he has kindly given me permission to reproduce for you here.
Forty-odd years ago, I was creative director of an 80-man London advertising agency. By happy chance, many of our clients were not ordinary advertisers…
They were not likely to base their marketing decisions on what they liked or what their wives liked or what their friends at the golf club liked or whether a particular ad might win an award.
They had businesses that depended on results. They had to make their ads pay – or they’d go broke.
A massive challenge
Our biggest challenge was a company that sold washing machines door to door.
For you to understand what follows, i should explain something. At the time (you might even remember) people were buying a peculiar contraption called a twin-tub. Instead of having all the functions done in one chamber, there were two separate tubs.
My client believed that there was a market for the kind of machine he was selling – a sensible machine that did the whole lot (i.e., the kind of the machine we all use nowadays). So we set to work on the advertising for it.
Testing led to success
In a series of tests for my client’s machine, I discovered all sorts of things:
1. We had to make a price claim within the headline. ( “Costs less than a twin-tub.”)
2. We had to explain what the product was and what it did. (“This fully automatic washing machine washes, rinses, and spin-dries at the press of a button.”)
3. If we put people in the ad, response went up. First I tried a baby. That did well. But then someone said, “Maybe people worry about the baby being unattended.” So I put the proud parents in. That worked better. And when I tested a photograph instead of an illustration, it improved response by about 50%.
We managed to completely destroy my client’s main competitor. And I was delighted. Not just because we had won, but because we had done it with integrity.
A breakthrough
My greatest triumph for this client came from doing some advertising archaeology: reading Maxwell Sackheim’s classic book My First 60 Years in Advertising.
If you were to read this book today, you would learn from it, I promise you. I certainly did. Don’t make the mistake ( as many new marketers do) of thinking that the advertising business started yesterday or that the old-timers were idiots.
Sackheim was one of the great direct-marketing pioneers. In his book, he told about tests he did at the turn of the 20th century- more than 100 years ago. One of the companies he turned around through testing sold washing machines.
But although technology changes, people and their motivations don’t. Never forget that. He did the trick by making an unprecedented offer – that you could try the washing machine at home free.
This got me thinking. I knew my client’s sales force converted 40-45% of the leads we got into sales. I asked if any customers had ever complained about the machine and asked for a refund. Apparently this hardly ever happened.
So I sat down and wrote an ad that said: “Try this fully automated washing machine in your home for free for 7 days – no obligation.” Needless to say, the ad proved to be extremely successful.
What happened next? not good news
Around this time, I left the agency. But before leaving, I did something you should always do. I wrote down what I considered to be the factors that made our advertising work.
I told my successor that if he omitted any of them, the advertising would not work as well. If he omitted tow of them, it would work really badly. And if he omitted three, he might just as well start looking for another job. Well, the minute I left, everybody decided to get creative with the account. Instead of going back to what had worked, they tried wacky new ideas every week. Within a year the company was in trouble. In 18 months, it was broke. And the owner of the company – my intelligent, likeable client – killed himself.
This may seem a very extreme example of what can happen as a result of bad marketing, but it did.
People’s lives may depend on you
If you think I’m exaggerating when I suggest that marketing can be a matter of life and death, consider fundraising.
Every time I see some clever advertising done by a charity – advertising created to make the copywriter and art director pat themselves on the back instead of to raise money – I want to throw up. Their egos are costing lives.
Remember…marketing is a tool – a tool that you can choose to use the right way or the wrong way. And isn’t it nice to know when you do it right, it’s not only ethical… it’s profitable?
Drayton Bird
If you would like to hire Drayton Bird check out his website at www.draytonbird.com
Or if you would like to work with myself please do get in touch, you can do so by using our Contact Form.
Thanks for reading, I hope you found it as interesting as I did.
Neil Davies – Aida Marketing