The Wizard of Ads: Turning Words into Magic and Dreamers into Millionaires is a book written by Roy H. Williams. It’s a collection of short essays that delve into the principles of advertising and marketing, but also offer broader insights into communication and persuasion.
The book emphasizes understanding human psychology and emotions to create effective advertising messages. While written decades ago, the principles discussed remain relevant in today’s marketing landscape.
If you’re interested in marketing or advertising, The Wizard of Ads is definitely worth checking out. Below is a summary of the notes I took while reading the book.
Wizard of Ads Notes
The risk of insult is the price of clarity. Most advertising is flaccid because the business doesn’t want to ruffle any feathers by insulting someone. If you are willing to speak the simple essential truth as plainly as you are able, and support what you say with illustrations and examples, then you can have much better success. Do not allow the dictate of public opinion to hamper your efforts.
Old books contain buried treasure. Five minutes in an old book quickly reveals that most of what is being sold today as new insights into human discovery is merely the rediscovering of knowledge we had for centuries. Example: Influencing Human Behavior, 1925.
Creative thinking doesn’t have to be brand-new ideas thought of from thin air. Take John Gutenberg, for example. In reality, he invented nothing. Coin stamps and winepresses had been around since the time of Christ. John simply saw the connection between a coin maker stamping tool and the winepress. Instead of stamping the image of a king, the stamp could bear a letter of the alphabet. Instead of pressing grapes, there would be paper.
Focus on using better words in marketing; do not make a better mousetrap (product). Words that conjure up a pleasing image in the mind are words that live forever and are persuasive.
“If a man can make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” This is a popular concept that drives people to create better things to try to sell but the reality is that people do not buy better mousetraps. The old-fashioned ones, which are cheap, work just as well as the new ones with fancy features. Plus, no one wants to spend more money than they have to for a mousetrap they are going to throw away.
The customer seldom pays attention. While an attention-getter is nice to have in an ad, you have to go deeper than that to keep the attention. You need to entice the customer with a thought that is more interesting than the one they are currently thinking of.
The common, mundane, average, and predictable are ignored; the unusual, intriguing, and fascinating are spied on and examined. Offer the person a thought more interesting than the thought that currently occupies their mind.
Advertising doesn’t begin the work as quickly as you would like, but it also doesn’t quit working until long after it has been abandoned. Similar to the law of inertia. It’s like trying to push a car. At first it is hard, but once it is moving, you can trot along behind it, giving it a nudge to keep moving.
If you want to write powerful advertising, you must point the movie camera of language to the place in the mind where you want the listener to go. The imagination can be powerful, but only when the listener is a participant in your movie.
In your ads, don’t point the camera at yourself. You’re just not that interesting.
“You” engages the imagination of the listener. It puts the action of your spot in the present tense active. Using the word “you” makes the listener part a participant in the ad.
Ads are either intellectual (information-focused) or emotional (experience-focused).
A well-written intellectual ad begins by delivering a punch line directly to a felt need, then quickly substantiating any claims made during the opening statement. Get to the point. Blurt it out. Tell them plainly what’s in it for the listener. The public also prefers that you back up what you say with proof.
A well-written emotional ad causes the listener to imagine taking the precise action you would like them to take. Example: As you step across the ancient, tree-filled lawn toward the torch-lit gates of the Plaza, the cares of the day melt away as you anticipate the evening ahead. There is no finer meal to have on earth. This is no place quite like this one.
When writing intellectual ads, close the loopholes. Begin with a frank statement or benefit, then substantiate each claim. Closing the loopholes is the difference between persuading a customer and simply informing them.
Example (customer thoughts in parentheses);
Parkins and Maddock will cut your insurance costs by 10 percent (Or what?) or buy you dinner at the Plaza del Fuego. (I’m not sitting through a sales pitch for a lousy dinner.) All it takes is a three-minute phone call, and there’s no one to meet. (Still too much hassle, and I don’t know the details of my coverage.) So the next time you reach in your mailbox and pull out the insurance renewal, walk to your phone and call Parkins and Maddock. Read them the limits and deductible printed on the notice (That’s right! The renewal notice does have the details.) and they will immediately name the price at which they can give you identical coverage, apples for apples. (Identical coverage? No one to meet? Just three minutes?) If the Parkins and Paddock price isn’t at least 10 percent lower, you’re off the the Plaza del Fuego. (I’ve always wanted to go to the Plaza del Fuego.) You’re going to have to write someone a check. Why not write a smaller one to Parkins and Paddock? (I need to remember to call these people when I get my renewal notice.)
Don’t just tell the truth in advertising. You must cause people to realize the truth.
When ad writers present their client’s information in a predictable manner or use predictable words, they make forgettable ads. The advertiser may like the ad because it is accurate, but such ads are weak. The human mind discounts the predictable. There can be no curiosity where there is no mystery, no delight without surprise.
It’s not who you reach (i.e., target market), it’s what you say. People tend to blame the list or the targeting, when the ad was likely not persuasive or given enough repetition.
Advertisers can easily reach the right people; they just may not be saying the right thing.
It takes 29% longer to understand written words than spoken words. When we memorize written words, it’s the sound of the words we remember, not their appearance. We hear words in our minds.
Well-written, intrusive ads establish echoic retention through the use of a reticular activator, a mental trigger in the unconscious that causes prospective customers to think of your company when they need your product.
Most ads are about the product or the company that makes it. Such ads yield disappointing results. The best ads are about the customer and how the product will change their life. Ads are interruptive. People subconsciously ask, “Why should I care?”
Sell to the imagination.
We all have an internal need to belong. It influences what we drive, where we live, the clothes we wear, the magazines we read, and the cola we drink. Most of our purchases involve self-expression, and we tend to buy things with which we identify.
The most powerful brands are the ones that help customers define their identity. For example, a winery’s tagline is “No wimpy wines.” That claim draws in a particular type of customer who identifies with the desire to avoid wimpiness.
Successful companies don’t spend their advertising dollars training their customers to wait for a sale. Running sales undermines the health of the business. A 20% off sale eventually progresses into 50% off to get similar results, and the customer has been trained to wait for the better deal.
Creating a traffic builder just to get your name out there is not wise. It’s like the car dealership that offers free hot dogs and games. Those attendees are not coming to buy a car but just for the free stuff.
If a traffic builder helps reinforce your market position or communicate your unique selling proposition, it’s much more than a traffic builder: it’s a good ad that just happens to generate immediate traffic. However, this kind of traffic is not predictable. An ad that generates traffic one week may not do so the next.
You have two options for ad writing:
- Write a meaningful ad that will be remembered when the prospect has a need for your product. (What you should do.)
- Write an ad that brings in immediate traffic. (What you shouldn’t do.)
If you want your advertising to be productive, you must have a compelling story to tell. Customers can read between the lines and sense false advertising or stretching the truth to get in the door.
Powerful advertising can generate negative fallout. Do you have the courage to defend what is said? Or will you pound your chest like King Kong, then run like Peter Cottontail at the first sign of adversity? Sure, we can soften an ad to appease everyone, say nothing, and sound like every other ad on the air. But please don’t hold the advertising agency responsible when the ad doesn’t work.
Echoic ads (radio) require intense repetition to be effective. If people aren’t complaining about your ads, then you are not repeating them enough.
You know you’ve written a good ad when it doesn’t sound like an ad. Be direct, frank, and believable. Your ad is only believable when the listener agrees with it. Remind him of things you know she has experienced. Tell him his perceptions are accurate. Look at your product through his eyes and speak to felt needs.
No person takes action until he has seen himself taking that action in his mind. We always imagine doing something before we do it.
Do your ads enticingly describe what awaits your customer? Do your words create a series of mental pictures? To be effective, your ads must cause the customer to “see” himself doing what you want him to do.
Press on. Keep repeating your USP. Don’t change it because it doesn’t seem to be working. People need constant repetition for it to stick.
How often does an ad contain new information that leads you to a new conclusion? How often is the ad truly memorable, as opposed to merely clever? Are the writers of these ads persuasive or merely creative? How often are they just “poppin’ the rag?
The public no longer pays attention to advertising that is obviously advertising (e.g., High Quality at Low Prices!). The best Non-Ads clearly communicate the benefit of a product in a style that doesn’t seem like advertising and is written in a way your customer speaks.
Good advertising can’t fix lousy service or products.
There’s a profound difference between what customers say they want and what they really want. Car wash = shiny car. VVS clarity diamond = people’s eyebrows jumping, saying, “Is that real?” Advertising = more customers.
Trying to reach more people than the budget allows. Too often, the media mix is too many people reached without enough repetition. Will you reach 100% of people and persuade them 10% of the way? Or will you reach 10% of the people and persuade them 100% of the way? The cost is the same.
Unsubstantiated claims are nothing more than cliches the prospect is tired of hearing. Do your ads give the prospect new information? Do they provide a new perspective? If not, prepare to be disappointed with the results.
Nonintrusive media, such as newspapers and the Yellow Pages, tend to only reach buyers who are actively looking for the product. They are poor at reaching people when the need arises because they don’t plant a reticular activator or create a predisposition toward your company. The patient, consistent use of intrusive media, such as radio and TV, will win the heart of the customer before they are in the market for your product. Tell them Why; wait for When.
A single ad should focus on a single thing. Got 17 things to say? Create 17 different ads.
Saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people.
Too many ads today are creative without being persuasive. Slick, clever, funny, creative, and different are poor substitutes for informative, believable, memorable, and persuasive.
The best product will rarely sell without good advertising. How will people know about it? If you build it, they will come is not true.
Most people have no clue what the features of a product or service mean. Train yourself to add “which means” to the end of every statement in an ad or presentation. This forces you to translate intellectual features into meaningful benefits they represent. It also answers the question, “What’s in it for me?”
Examples:
These sheets have 330 threads per inch, which means they will feel much softer on your skin and last much longer than the standard sheets, which only have 180 threads per inch.
This car has a V-8 engine, which means it will last longer than a smaller engine, has the power to pass traffic, and gives you the acceleration to get out of the way of accidents before they happen.