I’ve recently been enjoying a little presentation by legendary copywriter Luke Sullivan which he gave at Miami Ad School a few years back. The emphasis of his presentation is that ‘simple gets noticed’.
The idea that simplicity is desirable in advertising isn’t new, but Sullivan has a way of putting things that brings the message home in new ways.
He also has some great examples from ads he’s collected over the years.
Simple is not new
Sullivan initially makes the point from how the layout of newspapers has changed over the years. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was about cramming as much as possible in as little space as possible.
Over time, as editors became more savvy about what kind of front pages sell newspapers, layouts changed to be much cleaner and simpler.
If newspaper editors understand this, says Sullivan, then how much more should we get it as those in the advertising industry?
Load-bearing beams
Sullivan has this great concept of ‘load-bearing beams’. This refers to the different elements of your ad and whether you can do without them or not — which items are really essential?
‘Reduce, reduce, reduce. Take out, take out and take out some more.’
Take away different elements one by one. If your ad still makes sense, you don’t need it.
This one from John West is a great example:
Ad for John West. Even the logo isn’t fully displayed!
There’s nothing superfluous here. As Sullivan says, adding to it would mess it up and taking away from it would mess it up. There’s a pleasing balance to it.
When you’re executing an idea, ask yourself: Does this need a headline? Does it need body copy?
E.T. keeps it simple
Simplicity also gets noticed in other areas (as noted with the newspaper example above).
Apparently, the pitch for the E.T. movie was: ‘Lonely boy befriends alien to help him get home’.
That’s enough not just to summarise the idea but to sell it.
Applying the ‘load-bearing beam’ test pays dividends wherever writing is involved. Email marketing, websites, promotional materials, even personal emails; the list goes on.
If you’re writing something that you want people to notice, get in the habit of paring away all that stuff that you can do without. Be brutal. Cutting stuff is hard to begin with but the more you do it, the more you get a feel for what really matters.
Simple is faster
Sullivan makes the point that simple is faster. What he means is that in a world where people zoom past billboards, flick through magazines and scroll through digital content, simple still gets noticed.
I like this point. Branding expert Marty Neumeier has said that we live in an information-rich, time-poor society. In a world like this, we serve people by making things simple. Our work gets noticed. They pause for a second to take in what we’re saying because it doesn’t require loads of effort.
Or to use Daniel Kahneman’s language from Thinking, Fast and Slow, System 1 thinking is always preferred. We don’t like to make an effort where we shouldn’t have to.