“The more things change, the more they stay the same” - Testing ad campaigns with Scientific Advertising

My recent move to head up ContactAbility’s Melbourne operation is a return to a pure data business after some years out working in wider communications and technology roles. The change back has made me revisit the most valuable things I learnt early in my data career. It’s also given me a chance to reconnect with the people I learnt from - including the legendary Drayton Bird.

Reading up on some of Drayton’s material made me realise that 2016 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the person who arguably has had the biggest influence on the advertising and marketing industry as we know it today. Evidently this is someone Drayton draws much of his inspiration from though it’s likely 99% of today’s Campaign Managers, SEO Executives and Programmatic Optimisation Managers have never heard of him. However, there is no doubt this advertising guru’s experiences impact all of them in their every day work.

So who is Drayton Bird’s great inspiration?

Born in 1861 Claude C Hopkins built his career in advertising by championing many of the disciplines we use today – copywriting, branding, testing, coupons, samples, and campaign tracking.

Working first for fabulously named companies such as the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company, Swift & Company and Dr. Shoop's patent medicine company, he then wrote copy for the agency that was the forerunner to what is today’s global FCB network.

In 1923 he wrote a short book called “Scientific Advertising.” David Ogilvy famously said: “Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times.”

So if you have not already done so I highly recommend you follow his advice (the text is widely available online). The writing style is certainly of its age, but it will be a real eye opener to see that many of the things we do today were being done way back in the 1800s.

I’ll go into more detail in future articles – but for now I thought the following excerpt around Testing would whet your appetite:

“Now we let the thousands decide what the millions will do. We make a small venture, and watch cost and result. When we learn what a thousand customers cost, we know almost exactly what a million will cost. When we learn what they buy, we know what a million will buy.

We establish averages on a small scale, and those averages always hold. We know our cost, we know our sale, we know our profit and loss. We know how soon our cost comes back. Before we spread out, we prove our undertaking absolutely safe. So there are today no advertising disasters piloted by men who know.

Perhaps we try out our project in four or five towns. We may use a sample offer or a free package to get users started quickly. Then we wait and see if users buy those samples. If they do, will they continue? How much will they buy? How long does it take for the profit to return our cost of selling?

A test like this may cost $3,000 to $5,000. It is not all lost, even when the product proves unpopular. Some sales are made. Nearly every test will in time bring back the

entire cost.

Sometimes we find that the cost of the advertising comes back before the bills are due. That means that the product can be advertised without investment. Many a great advertiser has been built up without any cost whatever beyond immediate receipts. That is an ideal situation. On another product it may take three months to bring back the cost with a profit. But one is sure of his profit in that time. When he spreads out he must finance accordingly.”

Source: Scientific Advertising by Claude C Hopkins

So whilst he didn’t have cookies, tracking pixels, Google Analytics, Facebook Customer Audiences or advanced attribution modelling back in his day, his theories and practices still hold true today.

I’d encourage you to read up on this snapshot of our industry to see how it has changed – or not – over the last 150 years. You may just learn something new old!

By Alex Tweddle, Account Director, ContactAbility

ContactAbility specialises in customer acquisition and can reach more than 12 million prospects. To find out how we can build campaigns and strategies to help you reach new segments, why not drop me line today at alex.tweddle@contactability.com.au