The Great Ad Myth

Advertising is like houses. You do a great job of constructing a poorly designed house, but when you’re done, you’ve still got a poorly designed house. It doesn’t matter how good you are with a hammer and a saw when the blueprints themselves are faulty.

Likewise, it doesn’t matter how good you are with nouns and verbs when the core message itself is boring. There’s no good way to tell a bad story. Ultimately, it is the core message of your campaign – the blueprint – that determines the success of your advertising.

The core message of your advertising matters more than how well it is written.

The core message of your advertising matters more than how well it is produced.

The core message of your advertising matters more than the spokesperson who delivers it for you.

The core message of your advertising matters more than your choice of media.

The core message of your advertising matters more than the target it reaches.

Give a powerful core message to an average writer and a mom’n’pop business can leap from Main Street, Mayberry, to the New York Stock Exchange. But give an average message to a powerful writer and you’ve got blah, blah, media filler. But you already knew that.

One of my great failures as a human being is that I don’t know how to make small talk. I’m being totally serious with you. I’ve never been able to master the art of talking without saying anything. I suppose it’s why the people I meet in social situations often get the mistaken impression that I don’t like them. My awkward inability to make small talk makes me a horrible party guest, but a better-than-average ad writer.

Let me speak frankly: I’ve been extremely successful as an advertising consultant because I’ve been able to convince courageous businesspeople to throw caution to the wind and say something in their ads that actually matters.

The secret to successful marketing isn’t copy writing, it’s strategy.

Great advertising isn’t born in the hearts of great advertising writers. They’re born in the hearts of great businesspeople. Do you have the courage to stand apart from the crowd, to truly be different, and then to shout that message from the housetops? If you do, get ready to see your advertising begin to really pay off.

If you don’t, get ready for business as usual.

– Roy

P.S. Find out more about the Wizard of Ads Academy