| I learned many valuable lessons from my 15-year partnership with Agora's legendary CEO, marketing genius Bill Bonner. None is more important than the big idea. In my father's time, this concept was best understood by David Ogilvy, one of the most successful commercial advertising men who ever lived. In our time, that position is held by Bill. He's widely recognized as the man who brought the big idea into consumer direct marketing and sold more than a billion dollars' worth of publications by doing so. I know. I saw him do it. I want to share Bill's secret with you today. I won't be able to show you everything about it and exactly how to execute it. But I will tell you why and how his concept of the big idea is unique, powerful, and profitable. It may be the best direct-marketing technique of them all. When I started consulting with Agora in the early 1990s, I came equipped with half a dozen theories about direct marketing that I had used to start a bunch of successful businesses (including one that hit $135 million). We applied some of these to the Agora product line, and did very well. But when I worked directly with Bill, I discovered an entirely new way to create blockbuster promotions. I had never heard of the big idea. But when Bill told me about it, I went directly to Ogilvy's book, "Ogilvy on Advertising," and studied it from cover to cover. I remember being particularly struck by the following: "You will never win fame and fortune unless you invent big ideas. It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science, and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well-informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process." Ogilvy also explains how to recognize the big ideas of others. (This is a great way to figure out if your big ideas pass muster too.) Just ask yourself these five questions: 1. Did it make me gasp when I first saw it?
2. Do I wish I had thought of it myself?
3. Is it unique?
4. Does it fit the strategy to perfection?
5. Could it be used for 30 years? The first package that came over my desk my first week with Agora was a prime example of a big idea promotion. It was written by Lee Euler for a newsletter called Strategic Investing. The copy was formatted as a "bookalog" (a direct-mail format, new at the time, that looks like a paperback book) and titled "Plague of the Black Debt." It was a huge success. If memory serves, we mailed more than 14 million of those bookalogs and generated more than $7 million in revenue. The novelty of the format was an important part of the promotion's success. Just as important was the copy itself. It opened with this: "You don't have to be a conservative, a liberal, or anything at all to understand that America is about to be flattened by a tidal wave ... "That's right, folks. Now that Clinton's budget bill has passed—and if his economic projections are on target—we're going to add $1 trillion to the federal debt in the next four years. That's more than George Bush added in his four years. And it's almost as much as Reagan added in eight years. "It doesn't matter whether you prefer my figures or Bill Clinton's. We're merely talking about different shades of disaster. When you're dead, you're dead. There aren't some people who are 'more dead' than others." This wasn't the first big idea package Agora had mailed. The very first promotion Bill wrote for the International Living newsletter was based on a big idea. It was the "control package" for almost 20 years. Thirty million pieces must have been mailed. (If Bill had gotten two cents per piece—standard for copywriters—he would have made $600,000 in royalties!) The big idea of the International Living package was presented this way: "You look out your window, past your gardener, who is busily pruning the lemon, cherry, and fig trees ... amidst the splendor of gardenias, hibiscus, and hollyhocks. "The sky is clear blue. The sea is a deeper blue, sparkling with sunlight. "A gentle breeze comes drifting in from the ocean, clean and refreshing, as your maid brings you breakfast in bed. "For a moment, you think you have died and gone to heaven. "But this paradise is real. And affordable. In fact, it costs only half as much to live this dream lifestyle ... as it would to stay in your own home!" Read on at earlytorise.com: How to use the "big idea" in successful copywriting...
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