The Problem With Ad Copies, And How to Fix Them

See this ad by Myntra?

• Clear cut messaging✅

• Clever wordplay on End of Season sales (common, relatable)✅

• Usage of A-list celebs for brand recalls + trust building✅

Now, here’s what Flipkart did the past month for its GOAT sale:

• Unclear proposition (what’s on sale)❌

• G.O.A.T sale? (Trying to appeal to a modern audience, coming off as a smidge cringy + unrelatable) ❌

• Wordplay with the right intention might have gone wrong (They had to write Greatest of All Time everywhere) - If you have to explain the point, why make it in the first place ❌

The question we’re going to try and answer today is:

How do some brands suck with their ad copies, so much so that it kills the entire vibe of the effort, while others kill it, for generations to come

Here’s a simple formula to make your sales copies far more interesting (and to be honest, just make more money for you)

Rule 1: Headlines Must Be Relatable

The first thing you nail down, before ANYTHING else, is your subject line or your headline.

Flipkart nailed it with G.O.A.T sale. Myntra nailed it with their End of Reason. Durex’s whole job is to nail you (seeeeeee?)

Headlines. Very important. Make sure they’re crisp, to the point, and not forgetable. Spend 75% of your effort on this. Afterall, this is the only place you’ll make money.

Rule 2: Hijack Brand Recall

There’s a few ways to do this. The easiest one is to get someone influential in on your campaign.

Myntra got this one right. Corvette from the above example, and Flipkart from the GOAT one didn’t.

Imagine if Flipkart made a series of ads hyping up the G.O.A.T sale, pulling in people like Ronaldo or Messi, then countering with copy like

“This G.O.A.T is not for sale, but you know what is?” and then a Find Out CTA

Start up a series of friendly banters online on different genres, get the engagement going, hype up products, set up rivalries……

I’d love to see if this would actually play out great. I’m positive it would.

Share this with enough people at Flipkart and maybe we’ll actually do this next time :)

Marketing is amazing,

Shoaib