Copywriter David Ogilvy spent three weeks reading about Rolls Royce’s latest car before writing any sales materials.
He worked to understand the product and the ideas behind the name.
He read about components made with exquisite precision, and workers slotting the parts together with care and skill.
He sat in the finished cars as they were driven on motorways and country back lanes. Quality showed everywhere, from the gliding drive, the whispering purr of the engine, and the dashboard’s sheen.
Thousands of components meshed exquisitely to create an almost silent drive.
His job was to sell Rolls Royce’s cars.
He could have mentioned the worker’s painstaking care, or the production line’s efficiency, or the car’s gleaming interior.
He could have told us about the car’s quality, and how its elegant design led to a smooth and almost silent ride.
But he didn’t.
He wrote one line.
‘At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.’
In one stroke, he linked the product with the customer’s desire.
Critically, he didn’t tell us about the quality.
He showed us.
He put us in those luxury seats and let us feel the quality saturating every Rolls Royce.
So what’s the lesson?
We’re told artificial intelligence (AI) will change everything, and dump countless workers on the scrap heap.
Maybe Rolls Royce workers will be safe for now, but surely copywriters will struggle. Won’t AI tools like Chapt-GPT create sales materials at the click of a button?
Not so fast.
Good copywriters will examine the product. They’ll find out who makes it, how it’s made, how the parts work together, and how it’s used.
A good AI tool might scrape that information from the internet, or any company document fed to it.
But Ogilvy did more than assemble facts.
He took a creative leap. Ogilvy showed us Rolls Royce’s quality by showing us the silence.
Good copywriters also learn about the customers. Who buys Rolls Royce cars? What do they desire?
A decent AI might uncover those details from surveys and interviews, and churn out a competent summary of those facts.
But Ogilvy did better.
He built a bridge between Rolls Royce’s likely customers and the cars.
He saw how a quiet ride suggested quality. How talking about the silence could meet the customer’s desires.
Yes, lack of rattling means quality. And I’m not sure an AI tool could make that conceptual leap.
And no tool would choose to show that leap so clearly.
‘At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.’
Copywriters take readers on a journey.
They can understand a product’s features, and they’ll help readers imagine the sensation of touching the product.
AI tools have a place.
But what’s it like to want something? Good copywriters will know and can bridge the gap between product and desire.
Want excellent copy? Get a human.
Profitable bridges and you: where computers dare not tread.
