When I became a copywriter, in the last quarter century of the last millennium, I was well prepared by advertising giants like David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins, John Caples, and of course Jerry Della Femina. And while I was motivated by a crusade against what I considered dumb ads, I was – and remain – more motivated by a passion to win in the marketplace. To make my clients successful. To outsmart the competition.
After a few months in the business, it had become clear to me that the cause of what I considered bad ads was not necessarily untalented people, as I assumed, but people with a rational commitment to results. They were practicing what was then called formula advertising, gleaned from a “scientific” approach: (more…)
Categories: Billig Vs. Best Practices · Direct Mail · Response Marketing · Salesmanship
Tagged: Jeff Billig, Best Practices, David Ogilvy, Jerry Della Famina, Claude Hopkins, John Caples, advertising
As a Branded Response agency, we monitor developments in search, SEO and SEM. Here’s a story of a brave company that’s trying to move search into the future. It’s called searchme, and it brings sight into the search equation.
The beta version of the search tool is available at searchme. It elegantly solves the problem of wasting time following a search result with a misleading or vague description. searchme has an itunes-like interface that allows slide through page snapshots, then click on the one that looks like what you want. And no ads yet! So check it out before they figure out how to monetize and go all google on you.
Categories: Online
Tagged: google, innovation, search engine, searchme
Defining and building a brand is an ongoing process and it’s a process that is being rewritten everyday. In the past, brand was developed by the marketing department and communicated to the target audience through advertising in a one-way conversation.
From a marketing perspective, brand was meant to create perceptions, not necessarily create action. Sure, brand marketers liked to measure awareness, perception and persuasion, but were not willing to measure a direct correlation to sales or even leads.
Today, consumers interact with brands in many different ways, and the brand advertiser can track much of this interaction. This ability to track has advertisers thinking about using brand to create perceptions over the long term and create action immediately – even if the action is not necessarily sales. Some of the keys drivers in this mind shift are: (more…)
Categories: Branded Response
Tagged: brand, Branded Response, Jeff Tarran, marketing, response, wayfinder response
