Do you recall when the “Tiny Pill” lead was all the rage 10+ years ago?
Newspaper print was also on fire in the States at the same time and entering its last chapter as a dominant advertising channel. [Read more…]
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Do you recall when the “Tiny Pill” lead was all the rage 10+ years ago?
Newspaper print was also on fire in the States at the same time and entering its last chapter as a dominant advertising channel. [Read more…]
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Too late for those inclined to get out their pitchforks over the “class-bound” name of this 125-year old British aid society.
The “Old Gray Lady” hammered the Distressed Gentlefolk’s Aid Association in a 1989 article entitled “Lifting a Pinkie for the Upper Crust.”
Frankly, the Anglophile in me is still fond of these fundraising insertions which ran by the bushel in British stalwarts like Country Life, The Field and of course… The Tatler and Bystander.
This campaign ran for the DGAA (now under the hipper 21st Century moniker, Turn2us) in 1989 and 1990.
The meme-like headshot and headline combo really thrusts the reader into the copy. That’s why this had so many insertions. [Read more…]
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Here’s one of the usually excellent insertions from the Great Courses.
Think about this.
Most “non-math people” — and I count myself in the vanguard of this group — aren’t in a hurry to grab a lecture on calculus. [Read more…]
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It’s amazing when you reflect on the power the average solopreneur (whatever his or her specialty or market) today has compared with a like minded person of fifty years ago.
I was struck by the footnote in this DPS (double page spread) for the “Good Housekeeping Illustrated Encyclopedia of Gardening” appearing in where else… the May 1972 edition of Good Housekeeping. [Read more…]
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The timing for this unusual Gary Halbert insertion, signed by Scott Haines, could not have been worse.
It appeared just three months and a week after 9-11 and nobody was buying anything. [Read more…]
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This package has a museum feel to it in the age of Insta and TikTok.
Even though I live for “museum rarities” that can be resurrected to ignite RESPONSE…
I doubt this one had much spark. [Read more…]
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This was the world class direct response that Rodale churned out in the years when J.I. Rodale’s daughter-in-law, Ardath Harter Rodale, was at the helm and Rodale Inc. and around a $500 million company in the early to mid 2000s. [Read more…]
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It was the company built on direct mail marketing and top notch direct response.
Alas, they’re no more… swallowed up by a multinational with very different plans about the future. [Read more…]
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Barry Kaye was a 40 year fixture in direct response advertising in the areas of insurance, taxation, wealth creation and seminar marketing.
Here’s a great piece of lead generation that’s NOT for everyone — both the headline and the BANNER in reverse type at the bottom of this full page insertion from 1993 — spell out EXACTLY who this offer is for: [Read more…]
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Paul Michael was the originator of the lift letter for Greystone Press.
As the name suggests, the lift letter’s job is to LIFT response for the offer on tap and it’s usually a one-page single or double sided sheet of paper separate from the sales letter. [Read more…]
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Course copywriting and educational advertising doesn’t get any better than this.
This particular 52-page catalog with the 80% off offer had one goal — to move a mountain of product. [Read more…]
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Health and beauty marketers needn’t stand front and center in the pages of their promos.
Sometimes it helps, most of the time it’s a hindrance.
Case in point: CELERGEN, the “Swiss BIO DNA Cellular Regenerative Skin Serum.” [Read more…]
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Gary “the Great” Bencivenga called the Hume Financial press ad series, “uniformly great.”
Hume was a dynamo in investing home study courses and direct mail marketing for decades.
Hume’s pinnacle was in the mid 1980s when they were GIANTS in both direct mail and print. They used only the top copy talent of the time and of course, Gary Bencivenga was among them. [Read more…]
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Many in-the-know marketers and copywriters have never heard of him.
But his near anonymity aside didn’t stop him from pulling down some HUGE sales numbers in the mid-to-late 2000s. [Read more…]
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It’s hard to go wrong with an origin marketing lead.
It packs the universal belief that the grass is greener on the other side.
What is it that Canadians know about successful investing that Americans don’t?
The slippery slide into the copy commences. [Read more…]
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Sorry for the head-spinning title!
Not only did I achieve another alliterative accomplishment. 🙂
But at last, I got the chance to “think on paper” about direct mail marketing during the tumultuous times we find ourselves in.
It’s often cited that the ones who made the REAL money during the California Gold Rush weren’t the gold prospectors, but those who sold them the picks, shovels, pans and other assorted gold mining equipment. [Read more…]
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I remember this startling concept while sitting up in the third row at the great Bencivenga Bash in May of 2005.
Gary shared one of his potent trade secrets of presenting TWO direct mail packages to his illustrious clients: one a “High Probability” package and the other a “Bold New Concept.”
In this case, I guess we could call it a “BALD New Concept.” [Read more…]
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Not clickbait, I promise, !
I remember the first time I spotted this ad 20 years ago.
– It was an epiphany…
– It was metanoia…
– It was an idea so darn good… it ought to be SHOUTED from the rooftops…
Over a hundred years later. [Read more…]
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Who’s ever heard of a business opportunity ad in Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal or even Cosmopolitan?
The trailblazing Joe Karbo didn’t look much in his rear view mirror.
He was the first to knock down the barriers to biz-op advertising in these staid publications and many more.
And in so doing, many marketers followed in his wake.
One that comes to mind was the flamboyant Dean Du Vall.
There’s a certain timeless quality about this 4-page insertion from February 25, 1980 edition of the Los Angeles Times. It’s a stone’s throw away from the prepper pitches that land in many mailboxes today.
[Read more…]
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Why is the origin marketing lead one of the most effective leads out there?
It’s simple.
Claims are a dime a dozen but when you wrap them into a story about a mysterious and little known civilization whose people live into their hundreds and enjoy lifelong vigorous health, it’s hard to ignore.
Welcome to Hunza Land! [Read more…]
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The average direct response guy or gal would say of this ad:
“Where’s the copy?”
And old school admen would pull their hair out over the almost illegible reverse type.
No matter.
This advertiser absolutely NAILS the appeal. [Read more…]
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Here’s a textbook men’s health magalog.
You may have noticed the shift in claims in this market and the “one pill wonder” approach for an assortment of maladies — rather than just one, like waking up six times a night — is becoming the standard approach.
And the bulleted list of benefits under the subhead is the hallmark of a “super supplement.” [Read more…]
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There’s hardly a better question that CRYSTALIZES the understanding of your role in marketing and business than:
“What are we really selling?” This isn’t a static concept, in some markets it’s constantly evolving.
This mid-1990s bodybuilding promo is a great case in point. [Read more…]
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Here’s one of the world’s great copywriters doing the equivalent of a “posing routine” in his ad writing prime.
His prolific powers continue to astound a generation of entrepreneurs and business builders.
Who is he?
I’ll get to that in a minute, but first a digression. [Read more…]
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Recently one day, I stumbled across this remarkable print ad and asked myself the question: “How’d this ad get into my possession?”
Then it hit me.
Surely, this full page ad was no “mere mortal” ad. I reached for the 520-page transcript from the Bencivenga 100 Seminar with hope… and sure enough this ad on page 346 looked right back at me.
Imagine a newspaper reader in 1951 coming across this ad and exclaiming: [Read more…]