Page 211 - 100 Great Copywriting Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

99 FOLLOW THE LAW OF
GRAVITY

If Isaac Newton had been a copywriter, the apple that hit him on
the noggin might have suggested the idea of reading gravity, rather
than boring old Earth gravity. It’s an interesting theory, borne out
by eye-tracking research, that suggests there is a natural order in
which people read ads, brochures, or web pages.

It goes like this: picture, caption, headline, subhead, body copy,
coupon, logo. It’s called reading gravity because the eye travels
downward on the page, taking in each element in turn. You can turn
this to your advantage or you can ignore it and force your reader to
perform cognitive gymnastics as they try to decipher your copy.

The idea

From Streetwise Publications
Do you have a driving license? How fond of it are you? Would you
like to know how to protect it—from speeding points, fines, or even
confiscation? Streetwise Publications publish a guide that promises
to do just that. I won’t give you the sales pitch—that’s their job. But
as a piece of advertising that conforms to reading gravity, they’ve
nailed it.

The mono ad has, at the top, a grainy photo of a policeman aiming a
radar gun at, we assume, a speeding motorist. The headline next to
it reads, “Drivers—Here’s the Insider Information the Police Don’t
Want You to Have!”

It’s a lulu. It identifies the target reader, uses our new best friend,
the concept of insider information, and has speech marks to suggest

202 • 100 GREAT COPYWRITING IDEAS