I’ve created thousands of ads. A few failed miserably. Most worked as well as could be expected. 

But some were explosively successful. In this article I’ll describe three of them and give my opinion on why they exceded all expectations. First, the two tricks that made them work.

Empathy–A Precondition for Receptivity

Empathy persuades. Empathy converts. But it has to be genuine, which most empathy in advertising is not. Writing with empathy is the hidden power that breaks down the doors that keep you on the outside.

Show understanding and you can get through to people. The product or service you’re selling has to be right for them, but even if it is, without empathy, it’s hard to get them to see that is.

Expert persuaders in the art of politics all say persuading begins with listening. If people feel like you’re listening to them, they’re willing to listen to you. They’re also more receptive to your message.

 

A Buddhist monk was engulfed in flames. And he was the one who set the fire. He did it to protest a war that was cruel and unjust. 

I was 16 years old when I saw the photo.  My professor of Honors English took pages from a magazine and taped them to the walls of the classroom. Each of us had to choose a photo and write about the event it portrayed. 

I chose the burning monk. I tried to imagine what his thoughts and feelings must have been in those last seconds. The next day we got our papers back. I got an A- and one comment: “Good Empathy.”

I didn’t know what it meant, figured it was some kind of sympathy. Since that time, empathy has become a major power in my life. 

When I turned 21,  I became a pit trader and broker in silver and gold. In that role, you are constantly buying and selling from other members of the exchange in a trading pit. Sometimes you make hundreds of transactions in what was then a five-hour day. 

Buying a few points lower and selling a few points higher with each trade could mean a lot of money at the end of the day.

After a year or so, I became really good at doing that. It was like getting into the head of another trader and getting him to accept my bids and offers, even when he didn’t want to. 

I didn’t think of it much at the time, but I was using empathy. Everything I did was open and above board. He could have done the same thing to me, but I was better at wielding that weapon. 

I had a very ethical friend during my 11 years in the pits who thought that what I was doing was unfair and immoral. I didn’t agree that my using a better understanding of psychology was improper.

But it’s a valid question to raise. Empathy is not inherently good. Some psychopaths use empathy to do a better job of harming their victims. Some people think it’s a trait that makes you weak. Elon Musk famously said that “the fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” So it’s not surprising that he seems to have a hard time with all human relationships.

But for a writer, especially a copywriter, who is trying to persuade the reader to take some action, empathy is the lubricant of receptivity. It was the major component in each of the three successful campaigns described below.

Sustained Attention–Getting the Reader Across the Finish Line

Getting sustained attention from the reader is usually required for conversion. This is the second trick used in my three favorite campaigns (and in many others).

A good hook might get readers to the next sentence, but it won’t carry them across the finish line. In rare cases of really dry timber, the initial spark might be enough. But it usually takes more.

The hook gets you started, and most decent copywriters think hard about their hooks. But then, after grabbing attention, many let it go. 

Unless you get your target to read the ad or listen to the TV spot beyond the hook, in most cases there won’t be a conversion.

These days it’s fashionable for some copywriters to describe what they do as “conversion copywriting.” Is there any other kind?

It’s not usually hard to sustain attention. The language used and feelings expressed to generate empathy, just need to continue right up to and including the call to action. 

To abruptly break off the empathy when switching to closing, is a red flag of insincerity and one of the many reasons so many people hate advertising and the writers who create it.

The Heartland

There was a posh health spa originally located near a small town about 26 miles from Chicago. It was called The Heartland Health & Fitness Retreat. I was serving as their director of marketing in the early days. 

The small ad agency I led was also in its early days. So it was important to me to achieve big results. Adding to the pressure was the managing partner of the resort. He was an important friend and is one of my favorite human beings in the world. I was determined not to disappoint him. 

We used to run a small ad in the Travel Section of the Chicago Tribune every Sunday. I did the kind of ads they expected, and management was pleased with the results. We would get about 25 bookings from each ad. 

After a few months, I told the manager I had an idea for a different kind of ad. It was the same size as the old ads, so media costs would be the same. But there was a higher one-time production cost, because we had to hire a photographer and a model. 

What was different about the new ad? We didn’t just list features and benefits for readers to figure out what was in it for them. We got into their heads with them and helped them explore their feelings about aging and their desire to resist it. It was written as an inner monologue the reader was having with herself.

This empathy, based on targeted customer knowledge, is my preferred way to write ads. And it did not disappoint when it came to results. Instead of generating the usual 25 bookings, it pulled 10 times the results!

The trend continued in future weeks. I was pleased. But the new advertising manager, a woman with zero advertising experience, hated the new look. With her preconceived ideas, she wanted to go with emphasizing fitness instead of anti-aging. Keep it positive.

This is not surprising. Many clients are not results-driven, like you might expect. Instead they cling to unverified principles in their heads. One that is popular is “Always be positive.”

I don’t know where these preconceived ideas come from. I do know I often achieve great results with negative headlines. So has American Express. It’s hard to believe that “Always Take It With You” would pack the same punch as “Don’t Leave Home Without It.”

To generate the introspection I wanted for this ad, I would have to orchestrate every single element. This included the look and expression of the model, hair, makeup, and wardrobe. 

Light and camera angle had to be just right. Every word of copy, the layout, and even the typeface. Everything needed to promote the introspection, the mood, and not break the spell. 

And when the ad was produced, everything clicked. I was optimistic as I saw my idea come to life. 

Then there was a special payoff for me. 

When phone calls came in from an ad, the receptionist would ask the caller where they heard about The Heartland. Usually they would say they saw our ad in the Tribune.  But with this ad it was different. 

Many would say something like they wanted the “fountain of youth” or use a similar expression.  But these words and ideas were never mentioned in the ad. 

That means the responders read the ad, grasped the ideas, and then expressed them in their own words. As a copywriter, I can think of no greater compliment.

The essence of any ad’s success was appealing in a strong way to the reader’s desires (the positive feelings about something) or their negative feelings (their pain points about something).

Many advertisers know this and try to implement it in their work. When they don’t succeed, it’s because something kept the message from getting through. That’s why the attention to every small detail is critical. If you’re in an office making an important sales pitch, you don’t want to hear noisy tree cutting in the background.

The idea of an inner monologue came from a series of radio commercials I had planned for a different client. I wanted a female voice to stand out in pods of commercials, which were usually narrated by men. The series never got produced, but the idea stuck in my head.

Then, months later, I saw a fashion ad in Adweek. It was a French ad in black-and-white at a time when nearly all fashion ads were in color. 

The look on the model’s face showed the mood I was going for. I thought this could be combined with the inner monologue idea, so I put these two ideas together for The Heartland ad.

ThugBug

I had been working for ThugBug for about six months. We ran 1/2 page ads in the trade press. Most were similar to what they were using when I picked up the account. ThugBug sold alarms/security systems for cars. 

Then one day the owner got really excited about a new product he was introducing to his dealers. He had about 300 dealers/installers across the country, if my memory is correct.

So instead of running the usual 1/2 page ads, I persuaded the owner to run a full-page ad in the main industry publication. The running cost would be higher, and the production costs would also be higher. 

Because of these higher costs, the client was clear that he expected more results than usual from the new ads.

Most of the time, my customer knowledge in a certain vertical came from research. And in those days that meant putting a research firm on monthly retainer. Without accurate customer knowledge, empathy is not usually possible.

In this case I didn’t need the research. I knew the auto security business very well before I ever took on the account. A company I founded and was a 50% partner of was engaged in selling car security systems on a retail basis. And I had about 10 years experience in advertising these products.

The new system that ThugBug was promoting was a remote control alarm, like all of them today. But in 1986 nearly all car alarms were manual. There was a keylock in the front fender to turn the system on or off. 

The remote-controlled versions took a very long time to install, so dealers did not want to sell them. Whenever they sold one, it would tie up an installation bay for several hours. And since most dealers were working in decommissioned gas stations with only two installation bays, selling remote-controlled alarms was a nonstarter.

The extra revenue from selling the higher priced remotes did not justify the excessive install time. So they preferred to keep selling the less expensive systems. We would have to change their thinking on this to have any success at all.

So here’s where the empathy came in. I showed from the very beginning in the ad that we knew and understood their problem with remotes. 

I didn’t tell them they were wrong, but reinforced their beliefs in the downside of slow installs. Even made a joke about it.

The ad explained that this is exactly why this product was designed for quick installs. Customer got the features they wanted and dealers got the fast, profitable install times.

We backed our claims up with a money-back guarantee to persuade dealers to give the new system a try.

From the very first ad, results were fantastic. Not only did we achieve our goal of getting 50% of existing dealers to try the new alarm, nearly all did. And we also picked up hundreds of new dealers who were interested in the new product.

Triangle Electronics

I founded this company with a friend. Sales growth was excellent from our first year.

Our demos were young, so we advertised mostly on FM radio and then later got into print, using Chicago’s metros, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. Our schedule of radio and print continued to increase.

After several years, I left the business to develop my advertising agency, but continued to do most of Triangle’s advertising. As years went by the product line that came to dominate the business was cell phones.

Our radio and print ads were bringing in a major market share of cell phone business in our area. Then the owner, my former partner, decided that we should also be running spots on local TV. 

The company had no experience in television advertising, and my experience in TV was limited to financial advertising for brokerage firms.

The company’s main supplier for cell phone products and services was Ameritech, now marketed under the name of Verizon. We had already achieved a major chunk of their market, so they were usually accommodating to our marketing efforts.

They paid us a lot of co-op ad money based on our purchases, but we didn’t want to divert any of it for the new TV campaign. So at the owner’s request, I wrote up a proposal to Ameritech to fund a trial campaign for local TV.  They agreed but wanted a projection of the new sales figures we expected. 

I had no idea what to project, so the owner said to tell them we would do an extra 10,000 lines per month. I thought this was an enormous amount, considering we were already doing so well in our area. How much more could we get?

Ameritech gave us the money and we ran the campaign. It was an instant hit. It turned out that my friend’s projection was actually conservative. The actual results were even greater. 

During this time, the chain grew from 4 to 24 stores covering the entire Chicago metropolitan area. Sales continued to explode and so did profits. And eventually, Ameritech bought the company. 

Three months later, after the new owner took over operations, I lost the client. My spots cost much less to produce ($5,500 inclusive) than Ameritech was used to paying, and they generated more sales. My agency was too small for such a behemoth. 

The TV spots, like the rest of our advertising was segmented into 3 audiences: A general audience, an Afro-American audience, and a Spanish-speaking audience. We used different 30-second spots for each audience segment.

The first TV campaign was focused on seeing our customers as celebrities. Once again, empathy was the foundation. I got the idea from a famous American Express campaign in which minor celebrities were recognized more for their American Express cards.

We used customers with recognizable names. The customer we featured in our first spot was named ‘Janet Jackson’, but she was a school principal and not a recording artist. Then we used a ‘Michael Jordan’ and so on.

It was not about the particular cell phone we were selling, but about the experience of buying a cell phone from Triangle. In those days before the advent of smart phones, most of the phones had little personality. So we made it about the customer experience of buying and having the phone..

It showed our understanding of the customer’s point of view and kept the eyeballs on the screen until the end. It was empathy and sustained attention once again that did the trick.

Sometimes I would be in one of the Triangle stores right after a TV spot was aired. It was exciting to watch all the phone lines go crazy for about an hour after the spot was played.

I think we did only one more TV campaign, and it was even more successful. There is such a thing as momentum in marketing.