Gratuitous sorcery and incantations from actual Wizards.

1. Use Words that have Specific Meanings. “The bug moved along the ground, deciding which way it should go.” The ant crawled between the blades of grass, peeking left and right at every intersection.”

Bug is nonspecific. Ant is specific.“…moved along the ground” is mildly specific, but not vivid.“…crawled between the blades of grass” is specific and vivid.

2. Don’t Tell. Show.“…deciding which way it should go,” tells you what the ant was doing.“…peeking left and right at every intersection,” shows you the ant and leads you to conclude that the ant is deciding which way to go. You are, for a moment, seeing through the eyes of the ant. Giving human motives to inanimate objects is a powerful tool known as personification. “Your Rolex is waiting patiently for you to come and pick it up at Shreve and Company.”
3. Write Tight and Clean. Short Sentences Hit Harder than Long Ones. Adjectives and adverbs don’t accelerate communication. They slow it down. Use them with restraint.

What I’m doing now is giving you an example of a long sentence, (in essence, the kind of sentence often written by persons who are trying to sound educated, although in truth, sentences like this one just make you sound full of yourself,) for the purpose of demonstrating that complex sentences full of commas and parenthetic statements and verbose, multi-word, adjective-stacked descriptions have a much diminished impact and are not nearly so pleasant to read as short, clear statements like the 6-word sentence and the two 4-word sentences that preceded this horrific construction of 135 pompous, tedious and wearisome words that keep going on and on for so very long that by the time you get to the final point, you have forgotten several of the previous ones that were made.

4. Let the Subject of the Sentence Take the Action. Passive Voice is a Bad Choice. You speak in passive voice when the subject of the sentence is acted upon: “Wizard Academy is attended by interesting people.”

You speak in active voice when the subject of the sentence takes the action: “Interesting people attend Wizard Academy.”

Passive voice is noncommittal: “It got lost.” Active voice is confident and clear. “I lost it.”

5. Feed Your Pen Surprising Combinations of Interesting Words If you inform without persuading, you are hearing a newscast when you write. The goal of the journalist is to inform, not to persuade.

If you entertain without persuading, you are hearing creative writing as you write. The goal of the creative writer is to entertain, not to persuade.

The poet leads you to think and feel differently. The goal of the poet is to persuade. And the best ones do it in a brief, tight economy of words.

I’m not talking about rhyming. I beg you not to rhyme.

I’m talking about using surprising combinations of vivid words to trigger assumptions and conclusions in the minds of those who hear you.

Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote Richard Cory in 1897. This was when “clean favored” meant good-looking, and how you were dressed is how you were “arrayed.”

Richard Cory Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, “Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—And admirably schooled in every grace: In short, we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light, And went without the meat, and cursed the bread; And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Compare the images contained in that 124-word poem to those in the 135-word example in Point 3. – RHW

6. If you would become a better communicator…if you would write better ads, persuade more people and make more money, read Good Poems, curated by Garrison Keillor. You can get the 3 books or visit the online archives.
7. Read a poem a day, every day. It will take you about 60 seconds. Think of your daily poem as a vitamin. Don’t worry about understanding the poem. Just rub the salt of it on your mind. You will soon begin hearing a different voice when you write, and find yourself looking into sparkling eyes when you speak.

Photos that have been black-and-white are about to become full-color.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads® today.  

I was 16 during the winter of 1974.

Ted was 52.

We worked together in a steel fabrication shop in Oklahoma.

I was known as “Schoolboy.”

Standing near the heat of the coffee pot waiting for the horn to signal the end of our break, Ted would tell stories about World War II. Those stories might as well have been about cave men and dinosaurs because Pearl Harbor had happened 35 years earlier and I was only 16.

The story I’m about to tell you happened 42 years ago.

It seems like yesterday.

Do you remember Bluto from the old Popeye cartoons? In 1974 his name was Harold and he was 32 years old. Muscular and angry, Harold got what he wanted through intimidation.

One day I called his bluff. I told Harold “no.”

But Harold wasn’t bluffing.

I regained consciousness at the base of the storage racks where we kept the 6-foot aluminum fan blades. Ted told me Harold’s lightning blow lifted me off my feet and landed me 2 yards from where I had been standing. When I went home at the end of my shift my neck was so stiff I couldn’t turn my head.

My mother knew immediately what had happened.

When I got out of school the next day, Ted was waiting for me in the parking lot at work. He told me not to go inside. Two policemen had led Harold out in handcuffs earlier and his buddies were planning revenge.

NOTE: Never hit a minor when he’s being raised by a single mother. Angry moms fight differently than men do.

I worked in that steel shop for 2 more years.

One day Ted said, “Schoolboy, every person you meet has something they can teach you. Your job is to figure out what their skill is and then get them to share it with you.”

Ted, as usual, was right. When you assume that everyone you meet has a valuable skill, you begin to look at them differently.

Harold was a different person when he came back to work. Crushing legal bills and the humiliation of jail gave him a beating far worse than he had given me. With Ted’s advice fresh in my mind, I asked Harold the secret of knocking a man off his feet.

Harold’s answer surprised me because his technique had little to do with physical strength.

A few years later I learned that success in business has little to do with intelligence and success in selling has little to do with being talkative and success in advertising has little to do with the product.

Business isn’t about knowing, it’s about doing.
Selling isn’t about talking, it’s about listening.
Advertising isn’t about the product, it’s about the customer.

And knocking a man down isn’t about your fists, it’s about your feet.

If you aren’t a showman or a storyteller, you’re still in good company. Wizard of Ads® can help you create the brand or marketing story you need to drive your user experience. Book a call.

I’m experimenting with radio in a way that, for me, is new and different.

Many of those who understand what I’m doing won’t agree with the fundamental premise of my experiment. But that’s not what worries me.

I’m concerned about those who will agree and then attempt it – and fail. I believe they’ll fail because they won’t do it right.

Here’s what’s happening: I’m airing a 5-second ad every hour, 24 hours a day, for 365 days, on each station in a broadcast group in a major city. The result will be 51% reach (18+) with a weekly frequency of 10.4. This means that 51% of the total population in that region will hear one of my ads an average of 10.4 times each week, 52 weeks in a row.

That’s right. One 5-second ad per hour, 24 hours a day, on each station in the broadcast group.

You can run, but you can’t hide.

Here’s why I fear people who attempt this experiment will likely screw it up:

1. They’ll buy too little frequency.
   “Well, I think a spot an hour is overkill, so I’m just going to buy a 5-frequency instead of a 10+ frequency each week.”
2. They’ll rotate too few ads.
   I’ll be producing 12 new 5-second ads every 6 weeks. Consequently, even though I have a 10.4 frequency each week, the typical listener is likely to hear 10 different ads, one time each.
3. Their ads won’t say anything worth remembering.
   The key to success is to make a different, memorable statement in each 5-second ad. You can then open, or close, each ad with a single word that identifies the company. Only one or two ads in every series of twelve will feature the contact info of the company.

Here’s what I like about this plan:

1. Reach is double what I used to get for the same money.
2. Frequency is triple what I used to get for the same money.
3. With a 10.4 weekly frequency, I can safely expect a listener to unconsciously “connect and combine” each of my brandable chunks, nuggets and factoids to create a coherent mental image much bigger than the information found in a single ad. In fact, I expect that within a few months a large percentage of that city will be able to recite meaningful amounts of information about my client.
4. The 5-second format – combined with 12 new ads in rotation every 6 weeks – will allow me to dodge the audience burn-out bullet.

What will happen if my experiment proves successful?

1. I’ll finally have a way to help advertisers with small budgets in big cities.
   Give me a schedule of 1 spot per hour, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year on the smallest station in town and it won’t be long before my client is on a second station, then a third.
2. Get enough advertisers to do this and Radio will become happy again.
   Even if you believe that “a unit is a unit, no matter the length,” you can’t argue with the fact that airing twenty-four 5-second ads would mean only a 2-minute commercial load per hour. This would mean that a listener tuning in to your station would be greeted by a commercial – instead of music – just once in every 30 visits to your dial position, compared to the current 1 in 4.
3. Even if radio stations began airing 36 ads per hour – more than double the number they’re currently airing – I’m fairly certain that listeners would be delighted with just 3 minutes of ads per hour.
4. A radio station with 4 commercial breaks of NINE, 5-second ads each hour would have rollicking, rock-and-roll commercial breaks of just 45 seconds each and I’m convinced listeners would retain a higher percentage of those messages.

The weakness of this plan is that so few people know how to write attention-getting, memorable 5-second ads.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and let's create those mind-blowing ads.  

The basis of lasting partnerships is honest UPFRONT communication. Before signing any Agreements, it is important that we agree to work together in the following ways:

Mutual Investment

Wizard of Ads® for Services pricing is designed to help small businesses become BIG brands. Given the Client's current size, we appreciate that this is a significant investment proportionate to your size and revenue. This investment and trust in Wizard of Ads® for Services is taken very seriously.

This means we put ourselves in the vulnerable position of being underpaid when there's less money available. As the business grows, so does the Wizard's income. If the business falters, the Wizards go backward with you.

We intend to be your true partner - in sickness and health - so long as you own your business. Wizard of Ads® for Services is only looking for true partnerships, not a vendor/supplier relationship.

If you’re uncomfortable with the notion of paying us less now, to pay us considerably more once revenues allow, please do not commit. Wizards choose to follow this model as it is in the best interest of all parties and fully aligns motivations. 

You get an elite team of marketers motivated to profitably grow your business in alignment with you. We get a little bit more money when you make a lot more money. 

Both Parties are investing significant resources, energy, and time to work together. Wizard of Ads® for Services do so selectively with clients we believe in, and trust are in it for the long term.

Creative Authority

Getting the creative strategy right is imperative. Every word a Wizard writes is painstakingly scrutinized and carefully chosen to hit the mood just right. 

That’s why Wizard of Ads® for Services must hold creative authority over the words. You may accept copy as written or reject it outright, but may not modify the words themselves.

If you don’t like something as written, our creative writers are happy to discuss it and make the necessary changes to maintain the integrity and intention of the words chosen. 

Alternatively, the concept can be scrapped, and new creative can be created that you want to get behind 100%.

Decision Making

Wizard of Ads® for Services works with a single, courageous decision-maker. Decision influencers are welcome to participate but only look to ONE PERSON for final decision and approval. Wizard of Ads® for Services cannot be held accountable to an invisible committee.

Therefore, it’s always best when all decision-makers and decision influencers participate in the Uncovery and Marketing Strategy Presentation. It is essential you approve the plan at 100%. If you can’t fully defend and champion the plan, we are better off creating a plan you are behind 100%. 

Disruptive Strategy

As creative strategists, Wizard of Ads® for Services will regularly bring information that might be hiding in your blind spot. Pre-existing worldviews and beliefs can sometimes make these conversations difficult.

We only ask you to consider these ideas with radical open-mindedness and assume our positive intent. We are all motivated for the same results.

For example, we will steer you to limit discounts, rebates, coupons, and sales to attract clients. We appreciate this feels counterintuitive, and we will clarify our reasoning.

Rest assured, Wizard of Ads® for Services has considerable expertise in creating similar offers that do not damage profitability, brand integrity, and long-term customer relations.

Ultimately, you make the final decision. Our job is to figure out how to make it work for you. Just give us our day in court.

Anti-Agency

We are not a full-service agency. Full-service agencies are only motivated for you to spend more money since they tie their efforts to your budget. We reject this notion and eliminate unnecessary expenditures by focusing our services on what matters most in growing your business.

Wizard of Ads® for Services does not charge or pay for production, nor do we claim commissions or mark up production costs of our Clients. There is no situation where Wizard of Ads® for Services will be motivated by your marketing expense. We are only paid by your growth, putting your success at the center of our motivation.

Media Negotiations

The mass media buy must be structured in a very specific way, including running a full 52-week schedule and a very specific repetition. Given the nearly limitless number of cumulative listenerships, any change in the media budgets midstream leads to a complete renegotiation of the total channel buy. 

Once we have committed to a mass media buy, it’s really important to avoid adjustments unless they are calculated additions.

Media Management

Wizard of Ads® for Services does not claim the 15% agency commissions and, therefore, does not add the cost of media maintenance to our Client's fees.

That means you are responsible for all invoices, reconciliation, and sending new ads to the various media vendors. Wizard of Ads® for Services is not responsible for payments, make-goods, or ensuring the correct ad is playing on air. 

If an issue arises, we are available to work with you and the media groups to find an acceptable arrangement. 

Expect Knuckleheads

When you start running ads that are certain to get attention, you need the confidence to continue running those ads, even when you receive complaints. Wizard of Ads® for Services celebrates complaints. It clearly indicates that you are having an emotional effect in your marketplace.

You will also be certain to have someone take advantage of your generous offers. When strategizing, you’ll need to factor in the occasional knucklehead into the cost of doing business.

Digital Misconceptions

Within three months after your advertising hits the air, many digital marketers will show a marked increase in direct and organic traffic. Some Digital Marketers mistakenly claim this result as their own. This is a common mistake we see. 

Done correctly, over time, you will continue to spend less and less on unbranded digital lead generation by increasing your branded keyword online presence.

Trust Takes Time

It takes time to build trust with prospective clients. That’s why branding is a long-term strategy. There is always a lag between the start of the new campaign and the time it takes your customers to connect the five critical dots.

You MUST BE WILLING AND ABLE to endure this lag period.

Experience suggests this lag is typically 8 to 12 months, depending on how competitive the marketplace is, the company’s reputation, the budget in relation to reach, and uncontrollable environmental factors.

During this time, we will be helping you implement a transition plan to ease the pain. The good news is that this only happens once.

If you're not prepared to make a 3 to 5-year commitment to elevating your brand using the Wizard of Ads® methodologies, this is a poor investment of everyone’s money, energy, and time.

Annual Strategy Session

Travel permitting, we meet in person once a year to do a deep dive of your strategy outside your city. Years of experience have taught us that we get better results when decision-makers are outside their office. That’s why this meeting should not occur in your hometown.

During this one-day session, we’ll go over where we started, where we are now, and where we’re going next. This is the time to address the marketing strategy in earnest, make any desired adjustments, celebrate success and partnerships, and solidify the media buy.

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Are you ready to dominate your market and become the next household name? Call Wizard Ryan Chute today. 

There are two kinds of advertising.

The goal of the first is to make yours the company the customer thinks of immediately and feels the best about when they – or any of their friends – need what you sell. This is called a “relational” ad campaign. It works better and better with each passing year.

The goal of the second kind of advertising is to cause the reader/listener/viewer to buy something from you immediately. I began my career writing these “transactional” ads. I was good at it. This type of campaign is called “direct response.” Transactional ads work less and less well the longer you run them.

Today I write only the first kind.

If you have the staying power to build a relational ad campaign, you’re going to need to remember your origins. You’re going to have to write your Genesis Story.

There are two kinds of staying power. The first is financial.

Here’s my advice: Don’t launch a relational ad campaign so big that you would not be able to sustain it indefinitely. If you say, “I can fund this for 6 months, but by then it needs to be self-supporting,” then you’re spending more than you can afford. It’s impossible to predict the moment of breakthrough, that moment when all your previously fruitless efforts will begin to radiate results like a newborn sun.

This is why you have to have the second kind of staying power: emotional staying power. Three or four months into your campaign, you’re going to begin to panic. But the only thing worse than never launching a relational ad campaign is to launch one and then abandon it.

Relational ad campaigns are never about having the lowest price. A customer who switches to you for reasons of price alone will just as quickly switch from you for the same reason. And there is nothing that some other company can’t do a little worse and sell a little cheaper.

People don’t bond with companies so easily as they bond with people. We bond with people we like, people we feel good about, people we think we know.

Here are three examples of well-told stories of origin:

“My Dad was a house painter. He taught me to sand and scrape old paint until my fingers were aching and raw. But I wanted to make him proud, so I always worked hard. I’ll never forget the day we opened our brown bags at lunchtime and he said, “Son. I’m proud of how hard you work, but I hope that someday you’ll get a job where you can wear a tie.” And because I wanted to make him proud, I decided to open a jewelry store. I watched as my Dad took his last seven hundred dollars out of his sock drawer to help me get started. But he never got to see that store. He died just before it was open.  I lived on wieners and beans for the next 11 years until I finally figured it out:  Lose the tie… And be a regular guy just like your Dad. That’s when things turned around for me. I’ve been sharing the story of that 700 dollars with young entrepreneurs in High Schools and Colleges for years. America’s newest and best Kesslers Diamonds is about to open in front of Cabela’s next to the Rivertown Mall in Grandville. I’m Richard Kessler, and I’m hoping to become your jeweler.”

Your origin story doesn’t have to be your first ad. Some of the most successful stories of origin have been introduced after the advertiser had already become a household word.

Tom Heflin was a railroad conductor. His wife had a sister. That sister had two little boys. One day she took those boys on a train to Winslow, Arizona to spend a few days with them. Tom took those boys out into the desert to collect rocks. One of the little boys grew up to be a pediatrician. The other just kept pickin’ up rocks. I’ve never been able to explain what got into me that day …but it’s never left me. It has something to do with how the beauty of nature is made permanent, and becomes transferable, only in natural gemstones. Blood-red rubies. Piercing blue sapphires. Emeralds greener than the greenest grass. And diamonds …rocks that are perfectly colorless, clear and pure. Rocks! Call me crazy. Call me naïve. But I don’t think gemstones are here by accident. I think God put them here. And he made them beautiful, and he made them rare, and he made them hard to find, so that you and I might give them as symbolic gifts to those rare and hard to find people who are beautiful in our own lives. You know who I am. And that’s all I’ve got to say today.

The power of your origin story doesn’t depend on your category of business.

I was a ten year-old boy holding a flashlight for my Dad while he worked on an air conditioner for a customer. His name was Duncan Goodrich. He didn’t talk much. But there’s a certain kind of magic that happens when a son holds a flashlight for his father. I held it steady and quiet and Dad talked to me while he worked. He said, “When a person needs help, you respond right away. Not when it’s convenient for you.” He said, “Always do the right thing. Always do what’s right.” And he said, “The Goettl Iron Horse is a magnificent machine. Nothing else even comes close.” That was the first night I held a flashlight for my Dad but it wouldn’t be the last. A few months later at Dad’s funeral, I realized that every time he handed me that flashlight, he was passing the torch. And my Dad believed in Goettl air conditioners. So I bought the company. Goettl. Gee Oh Ee, T-T-L. It’ll keep you cool, but it’s hard to spell. You can count on us to respond right away and do the right thing… Always. Gee Oh Ee, T-T-L.

Search your heart and mind. Find your story of origin. Make yourself vulnerable.

Richard Kessler told us that he was once so poor that $700 made a huge difference in his life. The late Woody Justice told us that he believed in God and he believed gemstones are here for a reason. Ken Goodrich told us the memory of his father drives his actions to this day.

What’s the story of how you got to where you are now… from where you were?

You really need to share that story.

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and let's create those mind-blowing ads.  

Business Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by at least two distinct identities or dissociated personality states that show up in a company’s behavior.

BPD emerges when unrelated teams work independently in the areas of (1.) Advertising (2.) Web Presence (3.) Sales Training.

If a person encounters your ads, then visits your website, then comes to your place of business, will they feel they have encountered a single personality three times, or three personalities once?

Advertising rarely makes the sale. It merely engages the customer in the early stages of a conversation. If the reader/listener/viewer of your ad has purchased from you in the past and had a good experience, it’s possible the ad will cause him or her to make immediate contact with your business.

But customers who are less familiar with you will hope to extend the conversation and learn more about you by visiting your website. And they will expect to encounter the same personality they met in your ads.

Will that happen?

Or will they encounter an entirely different personality crafted by your website team?

Does your website continue the conversation begun by your advertising, or does it stand alone, as though that conversation never took place?

To what degree is your website disconnected from your advertising? That will be the degree of disconnection experienced by your customer.

If by some miracle, the personality, tone and style of your website agrees with the personality, tone and style of your advertising, your biggest problem remains. Will your people continue the conversation that was begun in your ads and continued on your website? Or will they introduce an entirely different company than the one your customer was hoping to meet?

Relational Marketing depends on Integrated Messaging.

Integrated Messaging begins with

We Believe

(Statements that capture the Personality and Promises, Processes and Benefits of your company.)
Personality makes the customer feel they know you.
Promises make the customer feel secure.
Processes give credibility to your Promises.
Benefits are what the customer is hoping to experience.

Brandable Chunks

(memorable identifiers and phrases extracted from your We Believe statements.)

Deliverables

(Advertising, web copy, content marketing, and signature phrases used by your people, all built from the same list of Brandable Chunks) These deliverables include 5, 10, 15, 30 and 60-second radio ads, billboard copy, email subject lines and body copy, digital marketing text, memorable identifiers for truck and van wraps, store signage, etc.)

Book a call with Ryan Chute of Wizard of Ads®, and let's create those mind-blowing ads.