Page 131 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

59 THE RIGHT WAY TO USE
NUMBERS

For some people, the mere sight of a headline is enough to set off
their bulls**t detector. “I can spot marketing speak a mile off,”
they confidently assert. These are the people who assume that all
advertising is lies and that people like me are somewhere below
pond life in the intellectual food chain. But . . .

Show them the same sales pitch converted into numbers and a fair
few of them will, magically, be transformed into believers. “Did
you know,” they now equally confidently assert, “more than three-
quarters of golfers who switched to the Heavy Helga driver now hit
the ball 87 percent further?” Nice.

The idea

From the Times Higher Education, a newspaper
Media kits are almost the perfect vehicle for numbers-based
copywriting. Advertisers, and their agencies, need to know, in
detail, how many people read or otherwise consume the media
outlet being promoted. They want demographics, shopping habits,
income, preferred reading . . . you name it, the media kit has to
provide it. (Although I did see one that, in essence, said, “You can
reach posh people when you advertise in [title].” Judging by the ads
they carry, it works.)

For the Times Higher Education (THE), we wrote and designed a
media kit that drew on an extensive reader survey. Our job was to
convey the attractiveness of the proposition—advertising in the
Times Higher, as it’s known—without drowning in statistics.

122 • 100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS