The AD copy that sold 400 + million units | AdCopy 101
At MadAboutGrowth, we are learning as a community and since we are in the first week of September, it’s Marketing related blog and this is one of the most fascinating things for me w.r.t marketing. AdCopies, it can make or break millions of dollars of your client’s budget. The pressure on the ad copy writer is even more when it’s a brand launch. In this post am gonna dissect one such launch campaigns and extract learnings from the same.
In 1913, R.J. Reynolds carried out the first ever viral ad campaign and probably the most successful product launch in history. To put that in perspective, his campaign sold 425 million cigarettes in the launch year.
To put in perspective, the 425 million cigs looks like:
- 35,416,667 cigarettes a month
- 1,164,383 cigarettes a day
- 808 cigarettes or 40 packs a minute.
In this post, I’m going to share how he did it, the exact ads he used and what lessons you can apply to your business & ads.
R.J. Reynolds — Son of a Tobacco Farmer
Richard Joshua “R. J.” Reynolds (July 20, 1850 — July 29, 1918) was an American businessman and founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
Bio
The son of a tobacco farmer, he worked for his father and attended Emory & Henry College from 1868 to 1870, eventually graduating from Bryant & Stratton Business College in Baltimore. He sold his share of the family business in 1874 and moved south to Winston, (now Winston-Salem, North Carolina) to start his own tobacco company. Reynolds was a savvy businessman and a hard worker, and he quickly became one of the wealthiest citizens of Winston-Salem; eventually, he was the wealthiest person in the state of North Carolina. He died in 1918 of pancreatic cancer.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
In 1874, Reynolds sold his interest in the family tobacco business to his father and left Patrick County to start his own tobacco company. He needed a railroad hub for his business, and since there wasn’t one in Patrick County, he went to the nearest one, Winston, NC. Winston and Salem were separate towns at that time. By 1875, Reynolds had established his tobacco manufacturing operation, and in the first year, it produced 150,000 pounds of tobacco. Although Winston-Salem alone had 15 other tobacco companies, Reynolds was able to distinguish himself through his business acumen and innovative techniques, including adding saccharin to chewing tobacco. By the 1890s, production had increased to millions of pounds annually.
The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was chartered as a corporation by the state of North Carolina on February 11, 1890. In 1892, Reynolds’ net worth had grown to $200,000.
In 1913, Reynolds developed a great innovation: the packaged cigarette. Most tobacco users who smoked cigarettes preferred to roll their own, and there was thought to be no national market for pre-packaged cigarettes.
Reynolds worked to develop a flavor he thought would be more appealing than past products, creating the Camel cigarette, so named because it used Turkish paper.
Reynolds undercut competitors on the cost of the cigarettes, and within a year, he had sold 425 million packs of Camels.
How? Glad you asked, we are gonna see that in the next section
He went straight to the largest marketing firm, N.W. Ayer & Son to launch this Camel brand.
He offered them $250,000 ($6.5MM in today’s money) to launch Camel.
… And they refused.
If This Cigarette Will Not Sell Without Advertising…
Armistead, the handler of the advertising account for N.W. Ayer & Son, advised against the launch:
“While it is true that all those around the Reynolds Tobacco Company who have tried the new cigarette think it is a great blend, some of them may have expressed that belief because they thought it would please you, Mr. Reynolds.
If you spend a quarter million dollars on that cigarette — and the public does not like it — you will kill the brand, as well as lose a quarter million dollars. Public approval is the only way to test the product.
If this cigarette will not sell without advertising — it certainly will not sell with advertising.”- Armistead, the handler of the advertising account for N.W. Ayer & Son,
The advertising firm recommended Reynolds do what we now call a soft launch / test out the MVP with focus groups. They recommended he send a carton of Camel Cigarettes to 125 retail stores in Cleveland and only measure repeat orders.
And repeat, they did. If it was a new age SaaS startup the equivalent would be a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) off the charts!
Reynolds tested Camel Cigarettes in all sections of the country. And indeed Camel cigarettes had repeat sales everywhere.
Armed with this information, Reynolds set up the necessary distribution deals in place and went back to N.W. Ayer & Son.
The First Ever Viral Ad Campaign In History
Adcopy1
The first ever viral ad campaign was just a series of 4 ads, each printed on typically a full-page spread one day after the other.
Nothing about the product.
Nothing about the company.
Nothing about tobacco.
Just a full-page illustration of an animal that people may have heard of, but nobody had ever seen. The camel you see here is named Old Joe and was part of the Barnum & Bailey circus.
The sole purpose is to grab the reader’s attention and plant the brand in their mind, nothing more.
Adcopy2
An exotic animal and now a simple caption “The Camels are coming!”
A play on the famous “The British are coming!”. Talk about moment marketing eh ?
Again, a full-page spread in the newspaper.
“Wait, what? When? Why? How many? Who is bringing them?”
The first ad grabs your attention. This ad now creates questions.
Adcopy3
You’ve seen the first ad and know what camels are.
You’ve seen the second ad and know they are coming.
In this third ad, you find out:
- They are coming tomorrow (urgency).
- They are coming to your town (personal).
- They are coming in a very big number (visually descriptive).
Note the position of the camel it’s consistent across the adcopies. It’s coming towards you goes well with the “coming” verb. If the camel was positioned the other way around, it gives a feeling that it’s going away
Adcopy 4:
At this point, your entire town is talking about it. Tomorrow comes and everybody wakes up, wondering when the camels are arriving.
If you don’t see them in the streets, you’ll no doubt check the newspaper to see if there’s any more information. And then you see this:
For your convenience, here’s the copy:
(Headline)
Camel Cigarettes Are Here!
(Subheading)
To cigarette smokers of America who smoke 10c, 15c, 20c or 25c cigarettes:
(Copy)
Here are Camels — 20 cigarettes for 10 cents — a choice blend of specially selected Turkish and domestic tobaccos!
No man’s money can buy a more delightful cigarette at any price.
High grade tobacco and expert blending gives you a cigarette that will not bite the tongue and leaves no cigaretty taste (you know what that means!) in the mouth.
Every time you buy another brand you’re simply wasting money and pleasure.
On sale all along the line — 20 for 10c.
A Few Things To Point Out…
Look at the images:
- The iconic camel is still being used
- There is a picture of the product itself (pack of cigarettes) to recognize in stores
- There is a picture of the product in action (lit cigarette) to show what it is
The headline pays off the previous teaser ads and introduces the cigarettes.
The subheading is specific and calls out cigarette buyers of different price ranges.
The copy uses very descriptive language to communicate quality:
- Choice blend
- Specially selected
- High grade
- Expert blending
It translates these features to promise two main benefits:
- It won’t bite the tongue
- It leaves no cigaretty taste
The copy emphasizes the main “reason to buy” — value for money:
- 20 cigarettes for 10 cents (mentioned THREE times)
- No man’s money can buy a more delightful cigarette at any price
- Every time you buy another brand you’re simply wasting money and pleasure
Under the camel, there is a tiny paragraph saying no coupons or discounts available. The product is of such quality that it cannot be sold any cheaper.
Under the copy, there is a tiny paragraph that gives instructions on how to buy Camel Cigarettes if your shop doesn’t have it.
Key Takeaways
In your business…
- Start a business in an industry you know. Reynolds grew up in the tobacco business and was familiar with every step from farming to selling tobacco.
- Start a business in the right place. Reynolds started his business near a railroad hub, allowing him to easily source and distribute goods. Geography is a lot less important with today’s internet and infrastructure. But it still matters for brick and mortar businesses.
- Think of ways to improve your customer’s experience. Reynolds made his tobacco sweet. He used his expertise to make a tobacco blend so good that it overcame regional preferences. He added convenience by eliminating the work of rolling your own cigarettes.
- Be careful about feedback. It’s likely Reynold’s employees cared more about not upsetting their boss than being honest. The same is true of many people in your life. The market, especially repeat sales, is what decides if your product is good or not.
- Do a soft launch. Test your ideas before you spend the money and time to roll them out large-scale. Spend a little money making something people want before you waste a lot of money making something people don’t.
In your copy…
- Use the unusual to grab attention. An ad lives or dies by its ability to get attention and attention of the right people. Use unusual imagery to grab it, but keep it relevant to your brand/product. Generally, the more universal your product, the more vague your imagery can be.
- Call out your prospects. Directly call out your prospects and speak to them.
- Repetition. Repetition. Repeat your core offer multiple times in different words.
- Use pictures wisely. Use pictures to show your product and/or show it in use.
- Give buying instructions. Tell clients how they can get your product, especially if it is something new or it might not be available by standard means.
- Copy is a multiplier. A stellar product with stellar copy gets amazing results. But a crappy product with stellar copy still won’t get anywhere.
Here are all the four adcopies for you to marvel at them one more time before you leave this page
That’s all folks.
Until next time,
Sans
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PS: This is in no way an approval of Cigarette smoking, this is merely a case study for growth professionals to understand the nuances in Adcopy writing.
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