More Reasons To Love Direct Response Advertising
“Never stop testing and your advertising will never stop improving”
David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy, a cantankerous, controversial and brilliant Scotsman who was my first marketing mentor– built his advertising empire using only direct response marketing.
The very first direct response advertisement he wrote wasn’t for a Fortune 100 company, a Fortune 5000 company or even a scrappy but well funded start-up. As the story goes, it was for his children – to find their lost dog who had somehow squeezed through the gate and was off on an adventure. At the begging of his distraught son, Ogilvy hastily penned a stack of flyers posting a handsome reward (no photo of the dog could be attached) and plastered them around the neighborhood. Before they even got home the phone was ringing off the hook.
This is direct response advertising at it’s simplest – an eye catching ad with an irresistible offer and a reason to take action now.
The alternative to direct response advertising is what’s known as “brand advertising”. These are ads that include pictures, graphics, images of some kind as a way of establishing brand recognition. But no offer. No reason to respond now. No sales pitch of any kind.
David Ogilvy was very much against brand advertising and I wholeheartedly agree. The only function of advertising is to sell. It is not to look cool, hip or artsy, or win industry awards. Brand advertising is like playing blind archery because you have no idea if the ads you are running are actually working. Guess work should never be part of advertising. You should never have to ask your customers where they heard about you to see which of your advertising is actually making you money.
Direct response marketing on the other hand, removes all the guess work – and all the wasted marketing spend. Every dollar you invest in direct response advertising can be tracked down to the penny, the ROI measured. It’s a much smarter and far more profitable way to run your marketing. At Bolder&Louder, we are direct response marketing specialists. There are very few advertising agencies who can truly say that. Happily we’ve found a way to combine the creativity of brand ads with the results of direct response marketing so our clients get the best of both worlds. You’ll be happy to know that David Ogilvy’s dog was returned safe and sound – of course having no idea that he had just helped his master begin building his billion dollar advertising empire.
