Advertising is based on this one thing...

Hi 👋

In the very first episode of Mad Men, a show about what it was like to be in the advertising business on Madison Ave in New York City in the 1960s, Don Draper, the main character and executive at an ad agency, is faced with a problem.

His tobacco client, Lucky Strike, needs a new ad campaign as cigarette sales are starting to go down due to fear that they may cause cancer.

The FTC also bans all tobacco companies from making any sort of health claims.

Don struggles to come up with an ad campaign as health problems cause fear in consumer's minds, which leads to a decline in sales.

The other issue is that cigarettes are a commodity, which means that there are tons of other companies trying to sell the exact same thing. So, pretty much all cigarette companies are faced with the same problem.

However, if you watched Mad Men, you'll know that Don Draper always comes up with an idea.

In the episode, Don says something timeless that can still be applied to the way we think about advertising today.

He says, "advertising is based on one thing... happiness."

Don knows that people want to feel good about the brands they choose. And the brands that win are the ones that can evoke a feeling of happiness, and even safety, in the minds of consumers.

Don asks the owner of Lucky Strike how their product is made. They go on to say that Lucky Strike plants its tobacco in the North Carolina sunshine, they cure it, they cut it, and they toast it.

Don immediately gets a campaign idea — Lucky Strike cigarettes are "toasted."

Instead of framing tobacco products as "poisonous," because they are, he tells Lucky Strike to position themselves as the better option by using the word "toasted."

Other cigarette brands are poisonous, but Lucky Strike cigarettes are toasted.

This is known as the framing effect.

It makes people feel safe and reassured that they can go ahead and smoke their cigarette because it's "toasted" — giving the perception that the poison part magically evaporates as something is heated.

Now, it's pretty evil to deceive people into making poor life choices, and we would never encourage any company to do this. But this example shows how powerful marketing can be because it can influence human behavior and society as a whole.

The framing effect is one of the most powerful marketing tactics you can use when competing in a market full of lookalikes. If you want to learn more about this, be sure to check out the article in the "Extra stuff" section of this newsletter.

With that, let's get into what we have in store this week (lots of good stuff):

• Marketing news from the past week

• The CMOs guide to profitable growth

• Why marketers should use Mastodon

• Ecommerce SEO case study

• How to create a more effective homepage

• Ad from the past

• Website of the week

• Cool marketing jobs

• And much more

🗞 In the news

• Marketers are left head scratching over 2023 after the pure chaos that was digital advertising last year

• A 2023 content marketing salary report

• Meta launches live roll-out of VRS system to mitigate unintended bias in ad exposure

• Movie trailers keep tweaking well-known songs. The tactic is working.

🚀 All things growth & product

The CMOs guide to profitable growth, 3 steps to getting started with product-led growth, and the 4 major pitfall with the lean startup methodology.

✍️ Content, copy, and social media

7 practical ways to write copy that converts, why marketer's should look into Mastodon, and how to create a LinkedIn marketing strategy for 2023.

⚙️ SEO

An ecommerce SEO case study, 2nd order SEO effects of generative AI, and 3 in-house enterprise SEO lessons.

💻 Website stuff

How to create an effective homepage, web design trends for 2023, and what you need to know about first-party data.

🧠 Extra stuff

The framing effect, understanding what value selling is, and 10 ChatGPT chrome extensions that are free to use.

📣 Ad from the past

(Gameboy ad from 1992)

Oh, the simpler times... 😌

💻 Website of the week

🏝 Cool remote marketing jobs

• Content Marketing Manager at Sendoso

• Email Marketing Manager at Kandji

• Head of Growth Marketing at Origin

• Senior Demand Generation Manager at PostPilot

• Founding Marketer (Product & Lead Gen) at Luminai

Okay, that's it for now 💚. See you next Tuesday!

“To the rationally minded the mental processes of the intuitive appear to work backwards." — Frances Wickes

Riddle answer: Ahead