Here Are Two Adverts: Can You Guess Which Did Better?

How good is your judgment?

Below are two ads, both over 100 years old.

Can you guess which did better?

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You'll find the answer near the end of this piece.

How did you do?

Now let me tell you about them.

I originally saw these ads during my first job as a creative director, some 40 years ago. Our biggest client sold washing machines direct - and I must have done a pretty good job as our chief competitor went broke.

I would like to say this was entirely because of my uncanny talent, but it was largely because we had a better product.

Anyhow, I had read something by David Ogilvy saying that before he wrote for any new client he studied all the advertising in the relevant category over the previous 20 years. I went back even further.

I found a book called My First 50 Years in Advertising, by Max Sackheim - which is excellent, by the way.

Max eventually co-founded one of the first specialist direct marketing agencies - Sackheim and Sherman, and he told the story of the winning ad, one of the first he ever wrote, in the late 1890s.

Anyhow, this leads to my next hint, taken from the great John Caples, who was once asked by the Wall Street Journal if the principles he laid down in the '30's and '40's still applied.

"Times change. People don't" he responded.

So, study what has worked in the past - even the distant past.

Which ad worked better? "Let this machine do your washing free" (with a happier face and much longer copy) trounced the negative approach and set Max Sackheim's career going.

I read his story and then wrote an ad headed, "Try this washing machine free in your home for 7 days". I even used the same typeface, which at that time was out of fashion.

I decided on this approach partly because I had found that once people had the washing machine in their homes hardly any complained, whereas only 20% of normal enquirers converted to sales.

The ad worked like a charm, and saved a ton of money in salesman's commission

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Here's a sad postscript.

After I quit the agency to go into the mail order business, they forgot the principles I had listed for them, started getting "creative", and the client went broke.

The poor fellow who owned the company committed suicide. So good marketing can be a matter of life and death. And fancy ideas can kill.

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(Max Sackheim and his partner devised the concept of the modern book club, and I shall write to you about him again, as he wrote one of the most successful advertisements ever, which ran for 40 years).

Best,
Drayton

P.S.  This is number 24 of Drayton Bird’s 101 free helpful marketing ideas.  You can sign up on the link below for the rest.

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Website: www.draytonbird.com / www.eadim.com

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