Making Your Copy More Concrete Will Boost Ad Recall
The best approach to take in our overcommunicated society is the oversimplified message. In communication, as in architecture, less is more. You have to sharpen your message to cut into the mind. You have to jettison the ambiguities, simplify the message, and then simplify it some more if you want to make a long-lasting impression.
Jack Trout • Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
One of the surprising and counter-cultural truths about modern-day marketing, which I suspect drives many efficiency-minded people practically insane, is that physical direct mail continues to work really, really well.It makes no sense purely from an efficiency standpoint because it's a very expensive way of reaching a single person. But from an... See more
Rory Sutherland • Rory Sutherland on LinkedIn: #advertising #creativity #behaviouralccience | 348 comments
Consider a few basic, macroscopic rules that will take your word and phrase from drab to fab:
- Show, Don’t Tell: Use concrete examples and anecdotes to illustrate your points. I worked with X to design Y and Z which led to an uplift in $AM and B%” says a lot more than "I am a great designer.”
- Use Active Verbs : Active verbs make your writing flow
Tom White • Why Less Is More When Pitching Yourself
Concreteness Boosts Memory
- People remember concrete, visualizable things far better than abstract concepts.
- GEICO's Gecko succeeds because it embodies the brand's values in a memorable, concrete character.
Behavioral Science For Brands: Leveraging behavioral science in brand marketing. • How GEICO Use the Principle of Concreteness to Make Memorable Ads
Jingles and Slogans
- Jingles and slogans are unfashionable but effective for memory retention.
- Sarah Carter shares an anecdote about comedian Peter Kay, who sang old commercials during his show, and the audience knew all the words.
- People sang along to jingles from 40 years ago without prompting.
- Making messages easy to remember is really important.