If you’re a student of old advertising like I am, then I’m sure you know the example from David Ogilvy’s Hathaway shirts campaign: The man with the Eyepatch.
That eye patch ad alone spawned a whole school of copycat artists, and hundreds of rip-off eye patch ads popped up around the world. Why?
Because it worked.
And because – for one reason or another, David Ogilvy had managed to bottle mystique.
So, how can we take that magic, and transfer it onto the Internet, to use it to attract a list? It’s easier than you might think – find out below the jump.
In case you’re not up on your Madison Avenue history, the ad featured a man being fitted with a new suit – nothing remarkable about that, the only noteworthy thing was the very thing that made the ad so damned effective- he had an eyepatch.
Now here’s the kicker:
Nothing in the copy mentioned his patch.
As a reader, you get sucked in, wondering what the story is behind the patch – so you start reading. As you read, you get a bunch of fantastic reasons to buy a Hathaway shirt… but you never get to know about that eye patch… And why should you?
It’s none of your business.
That eyepatch was a big, attention grabbing question mark that forced you to read more. David Ogilvy was amazing at creating ads that simply begged to be read.
Now, as a Internet Marketer, where does that leave you?
What can you do to create an environment where your prospect simply MUST read your squeeze page, your blog, or your sales material?
Well, I’ve dissected the two major reasons that I think David Ogilvy’s Eyepatch ads worked so well, and I’d love for you to put them into play in your marketing:
1) The eye patch hints at a very gripping story. Losing an eye is traumatic, so whatever caused the injury must be an engrossing tale of misadventure. People love those. Hinting at a moving story with a visual cue could be exactly what you need to get people reading. But don’t just strap on an eyepatch – find an edge that you can claim for yourself.
2) Ogilvy never explained the eyepatch. That means that the very mystique that drew your eye to that man in the Hathaway shirt leaves with you. He’s still haunting, dashing, and mysterious. And now, you happen to know a little more about why he chose Hathaway as his shirt of choice.
If the ad had been about how he got his eyepatch, even if it was an adventurous sword fight atop a burning freighter in the Arctic, you’d be left thinking about that story – not about the shirt, and not about the man in it.
Take Tellman for example.
How many times have you seen him in a ridiculous hat, or crazy outfit? Plenty of times right? But how often does he make the video he’s shooting be about the objects of clothing he has on, or the hat he’s wearing? Rarely if ever.
Most of the time, he may be in a big leather top hat with green bug-eyed goggles, but he’s teaching a lesson about finding a niche, or about writing a blog.
The real take away here is that you can use visuals and burning questions to draw in readership (or viewership), but you can’t let your ad become about anything other than the goal you have for it.
Never let your focus veer off the goal. You’re here to sell shirts, or to get optins.