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RADIO AD COPYWRITING PRINCIPLE: Specificity

If you want to be believed, don’t talk in generalities; be specific.

Which do you find more believable:

At Ed’s Real Barbecue Restaurant, we slow-cook our meat longer than most other restaurants…and you can taste the difference!

or

At Ed’s Real Barbecue Restaurant, we slow-cook our meat for 17 and 3/4 hours…and you can taste the difference!

Moses didn’t descend Mount Sinai with “some” commandments; he brought exactly ten.

Baskin-Robbins doesn’t offer “a bunch” of flavors; they offer “31.”

Other Examples You Can Use In Your Commercials

“In and out in just 20 minutes.” (Automobile lube job, tire service, oil change, etc.)

“At Ed’s Bank, we know that time is your most precious, irreplaceable commodity. That’s why we’re pleased to report that 94% of our customers spend no more than 2 and one-half minutes in the teller line. As for the other 6% …. Believe me, we’re working on them, too.”

“The all-new Blattmobile gets 34.6% better mileage than any other car in its class.”

“93% of our laser eye surgery patients go back to work the very same day.”

Instead of saying you’ve got the biggest selection,” prove it by quantifying it:

Ninety-three different models of flat screen TVs

Shoes from 46 different leading manufacturers

168 different entrees on our dinner menu

How effective is this technique?

It’s been proven to increase the results in 89.7% of the commercials it’s been applied to.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Bob Sneddon November 21, 2013, 2:36 pm

    You had me with you all the way until the last statement. There’s this marketing, copywriting and creative genius that I follow a lot and he always says it’s never ok to lie to the listener…

    So… are you going to refute this with specific research backing up your claim?

    🙂

  • Dan O'Day November 21, 2013, 3:10 pm

    @Bob Sneddon: Thanks for your kind words.

    That last line was tongue-in-cheek.