Billig Versus Best Practices – #1

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:

• Two women in the kitchen battling endless threats to their competence as wives and mothers by discussing product benefits worked.
• The endless repetition of product names in prose or set to music worked.
• And of course, the fake guys in lab coats worked.

HL Mencken once said “No one ever lost money underestimating the American public.” And it seemed that many marketers filed that in their brains right next to their Hopkins and Caples.

After a wide swing of the pendulum we seem to be back.

Today’s formulas are called best practices. They tend to recommend you zig when the competition zigs. They encourage sameness, when business thrives on differentiation. And in a bad economy with budgets and marketing director job security iffy, best practices can become the last refuge for nervous clients and agencies. It’s a joyless quest for predictability that leaves little room for the high of achieving exceptional results.

Let’s not forget that the most powerful tool in science is experimentation. The conflict between the art and science of marketing is ageless. And energizing. But fear can throw off that balance. And the result is predictable.

Yes, it’s the dirty little secret. We’ve had more than our share of new clients come to us, fresh from a costly and unsuccessful engagement with a “best practices” purveyor.