The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.
David OgilvyRead
What you say in advertising is more important than how you say it.
Interpretation
The content of advertising messages holds greater significance than the stylistic presentation.
David Ogilvy emphasizes that the message conveyed in advertising carries more weight than the methods used to express that message. In a world saturated with promotional content, it is the clarity, relevance, and impact of the words chosen that ultimately resonate with the audience and drive successful engagement.
In practice
During a marketing seminar, you could quote Ogilvy to emphasize the importance of focusing on impactful messaging.
The headline is the 'ticket on the meat.' Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of product you are advertising.
Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.
Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
Experience has taught me that advertisers get the best results when they pay their agency a flat fee. It is unrealistic to expect your agency to be impartial when its vested interest lies wholly in the direction of increasing your commissionable advertising.
The mistake so many marketers make is that they conjoin the urgency of making another sale with the timing to earn the right to make that sale. In other words, you must build trust before you need it. Building trust right when you want to make a sale is just too late.
We want consumers to say, 'That's a hell of a product' instead of, 'That's a hell of an ad.'
Too many ads that try not to go over the reader's head end up beneath his notice.
If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing, If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.
Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it.
Styling cars sells cars and safety does not.
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