Headlines

"Don't think that those millions will read your ads to find out if your product interests. They will decide by a glance - by reading your headlines or your pictures."
- Hopkins (1923)

Hopkins CC. My life in advertising (1927) & Scientific advertising (1923). Chicago. NTC Business Books 1996

Ogilvy has collected a list of 96 factors associated with successful advertising but has not published them all. They include use of:

• Headlines that promise the reader a benefit
• Headlines that contain news.
• Headlines that contain "tried and true" words like amazing, introducing, now, suddenly.
• Headlines that offer the reader helpful information, like "How to win friends and influence people."
• Headlines that include the name of the product.
• Headlines that name and thus flag down the target group

"Headlines

On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 per cent of your money.

The headlines which work best are those which promise the reader a benefit - like a whiter wash, more miles per gallon, freedom from pimples, fewer cavities.

Headlines which contain news are sure-fire. The news can be the announcement of a new product, and improvement in an old product, or a new way to use an old product… On average, ads with news are recalled by 22 per cent more people than ads without news.

If you are lucky enough to have some news to tell, don't bury it in your body copy, which nine out of ten people will not read. State it loud and clear in your headline. And don't scorn tried-and-true words like amazing, introducing, now, suddenly."
- Ogilvy (1983)

Ogilvy D. Ogilvy on advertising. London, Multimedia Books 1983