Emulating Advertising Legends with AI

Hey Claymaster, AI Wizards, GTM Leaders, and Potters,

(Yup, a customer asked me the other day, “so what do you all call yourselves? … Potters?” I thought it was pretty funny, but then again I’m a Dad.)

Anyway…

I’ve often thought of cold emails as advertisements. They show up, unannounced, and introduce a product that you may or may not heard of. The better ones are less pitches and more conversation starters.

However, I often get caught in a cycle of saying the same phrases or structuring my emails in similar ways.

It’s a difficult habit to break…. But, what if you could you emulate the writing styles and tones of the great advertising legends?The likes of David Ogilvy, who’s known as the “Father of Advertising” (well modern advertising, since it’s technically been around for centuries) or Leo Burnett, who’s the known for characters such as “Tony the Tiger'“.

Thanks to AI, we can do this, and we can do it within Clay to create personalized emails in the tone & style of these greats.

This is a two part post:

• Part 1: The Legends & AI Prompts

  • Who they are

  • What they’re known for

  • Their style and tone

  • Turning the legends into prompts

• Part 2: The Results & Table: The results with examples and a table you can copy.

  • How to create these prompts in Clay

  • What LLM to use

  • The results for comparison

  • The table you can copy…

An Announcement…

I’m creating a community section so I can highlight the work of Clay Experts, a blog post, job openings, talent looking for work, or a good Clay meme.

You can shoot me an email of what you’d like to include: [email protected]

10 Advertising Legends - Who They Are, Their Tone, & Style

Mad Men and Don Draper likely comes to mind. Don was actually inspired by Draper “Dan” Daniels, an advertising executive who worked at the Leo Burnett Company. And, Leo is on our list.

Admittedly, I’m not an expert on history of advertising, but this is what ChatGTP gave me. We can use these descriptors to inform our prompts.

1. David Ogilvy

• Known for: Founding Ogilvy & Mather, "Father of Advertising"

• Style: Clear, direct, persuasive, emphasis on research and data, strong headlines

• Tone: Authoritative, professional, rational, informative

• History: David Ogilvy (1911-1999) revolutionized advertising in the mid-20th century, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, with his emphasis on research and consumer insights.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Rolls-Royce: "At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock."

  • Dove: "Only Dove is one-quarter moisturizing cream."

  • Hathaway Shirts: "The Man in the Hathaway Shirt" campaign featuring a man with an eyepatch.

2. Bill Bernbach

• Known for: Co-founding Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB)

• Style: Creative, witty, emotionally engaging, groundbreaking campaigns (e.g., Volkswagen "Think Small")

• Tone: Innovative, playful, human-centric, conversational

• History: Bill Bernbach (1911-1982) was a leading figure in the advertising world during the 1950s and 1960s, known for his creative revolution that emphasized the power of storytelling and emotional connection.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Volkswagen: "Think Small" and "Lemon" campaigns.

  • Avis: "We Try Harder" campaign.

  • Life Cereal: "Mikey Likes It!" campaign.

3. Leo Burnett

• Known for: Founder of Leo Burnett Worldwide

• Style: Emotional appeal, memorable characters (e.g., Tony the Tiger, the Marlboro Man), focus on brand personality

• Tone: Warm, relatable, storytelling, friendly

• History: Leo Burnett (1891-1971) was a prominent advertising executive during the mid-20th century, whose agency became famous for creating iconic brand characters and emotionally resonant campaigns.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Kellogg's Frosted Flakes: Creation of Tony the Tiger.

  • Marlboro: The Marlboro Man campaign.

  • Pillsbury: The Pillsbury Doughboy campaign.

4. Dan Wieden

• Known for: Co-founding Wieden+Kennedy, creating Nike's "Just Do It" campaign

• Style: Bold, innovative, culturally relevant, storytelling

• Tone: Inspirational, edgy, confident, motivational

• History: Dan Wieden (1945-2021) made his mark in the advertising industry starting in the 1980s, co-founding Wieden+Kennedy and crafting some of the most memorable and culturally impactful campaigns of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Nike: "Just Do It" campaign.

  • Old Spice: "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign.

  • Coca-Cola: "It's Mine" Super Bowl commercial.

5. Mary Wells Lawrence

• Known for: Founding Wells Rich Greene, "I Love New York" campaign

• Style: Vibrant, theatrical, focus on brand identity, strong visuals

• Tone: Energetic, enthusiastic, dynamic, captivating

• History: Mary Wells Lawrence (born 1928) was a trailblazer in the advertising world during the 1960s and 1970s, becoming one of the first women to run a major advertising agency and creating iconic campaigns that still resonate today.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Braniff International Airways: The "End of the Plain Plane" campaign.

  • Alka-Seltzer: "Plop Plop, Fizz Fizz, Oh What a Relief It Is" campaign.

  • New York State: "I Love New York" tourism campaign.

6. John Hegarty

• Known for: Co-founding Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH)

• Style: Simple, impactful, creative, focus on brand differentiation (e.g., Levi's "Launderette" ad)

• Tone: Bold, clear, provocative, confident

• History: John Hegarty (born 1944) emerged as a leading creative force in the advertising industry from the 1980s onward, known for his work with BBH and his emphasis on originality and brand distinctiveness.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Levi's: "Launderette" ad.

  • Audi: "Vorsprung durch Technik" campaign.

  • Johnny Walker: "Keep Walking" campaign.

7. Claude C. Hopkins

• Known for: Pioneer in advertising, author of "Scientific Advertising"

• Style: Direct response advertising, emphasis on testing and measurement, clear benefits

• Tone: Analytical, factual, logical, precise

• History: Claude C. Hopkins (1866-1932) was a pioneering figure in early 20th-century advertising, laying the groundwork for modern advertising techniques with his focus on scientific methods and measurable results.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Pepsodent: "You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent."

  • Schlitz Beer: "The beer that made Milwaukee famous."

  • Palmolive: "Keep that schoolgirl complexion."

8. Rosser Reeves

• Known for: Inventing the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) concept

• Style: Clear, focused on a single, compelling message, repetitive reinforcement

• Tone: Single-minded, persuasive, focused, emphatic

• History: Rosser Reeves (1910-1984) was a dominant force in advertising during the 1940s and 1950s, known for his development of the USP and his focus on clear, direct messaging.

• Example Campaigns:

  • Anacin: "Fast, fast, fast relief."

  • Colgate: "Cleans your breath while it cleans your teeth."

  • M&M's: "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands."

9. Gary Vaynerchuk

• Known for: Digital marketing and social media expertise, founder of VaynerMedia

• Style: Informal, engaging, conversational, focus on value and authenticity

• Tone: Energetic, personal, direct, relatable

• History: Gary Vaynerchuk (born 1975) rose to prominence in the early 2000s with his expertise in digital marketing and social media, building a reputation as a forward-thinking entrepreneur and speaker.

• Example Campaigns:

  • GE: Social media campaign for GE's Instagram account.

  • Budweiser: Digital content strategy for Budweiser’s "Made in America" music festival.

  • Unilever: Influencer marketing campaign for Dove.

10. Seth Godin

• Known for: Author, entrepreneur, and public speaker

• Style: Insightful, thought-provoking, emphasis on permission marketing and the importance of storytelling

• Tone: Thoughtful, insightful, engaging, philosophical

• History: Seth Godin (born 1960) became a key figure in marketing during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, known for his best-selling books and innovative concepts like permission marketing and tribes.

• Example Campaigns:

  • American Express: Early email marketing and permission marketing strategies.

  • Squidoo: A platform for creating single-topic pages.

  • The Domino Project: A publishing venture with Amazon to revolutionize book publishing.

Turning Legends into Prompts

Now we can take this information and use it to write better prompts. Here’s an example:

The part that is missing is how to instruct AI how to understand Clay’s value prop and connect it to the persona or company that I’m reaching out to. We’ll cover more of that in the next post and show examples of how these play out for each style & tone.

Clay Community Highlights

📢 Call for Agency Partner: A community member and subscriber of Claymation is looking to start an agency and looking for partners. He has 10+ years of sales experience and looking for someone that can compliment his skill sets. Connect with me on LinkedIn and send a DM if you’re interested and I can broker an introduction.

📕 OpenAI Case Study with Clay (How Clay built Claygent): GTM teams often struggle with fragmented data and manual tasks that slow down their outreach efforts. As Kareem Amin, co-founder and CEO of Clay, explains, "All tools before LLMs tried to automate what Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) or Business Development Representatives (BDRs) were doing in terms of research but they would get stuck. Data providers could provide a maximum of 100 data points per company. Engineers were building scrapers but that was finicky and time-consuming.”

🤣 Meme of the Week:

Me to Everett (Head of GTM Engineering): I’m drowning in a backlog of tables I need to build

Everett:

To be clear… I love making Clay Tables for customers!

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