“Here in my Garage, just bought this new Lamborghini here…” You may recognize this line from the infamous Tai Lopez advertisement where he shows off his cars and books before instructing you to visit his website. Although the ad has been the subject of many jokes, it has been one of the most successful YouTube ads of all time, resulting in a hundredfold increase in his monthly YouTube views in only three months (Pham, 2017). While many despised the ad, some internet marketers took notice and attempted to match Tai’s approach. One of these marketers is an internet consultant named Sam Ovens, who created an ad similar to Tai with the goal of driving traffic to his site. You can check both ads below if you haven’t seen them yet. What follows is an analysis of Both ads from a consumer-behavioral perspective. I will first mention a few elements that Sam perfected, and then explain some areas where the ad came up short. Lastly, I will identify a few key elements from Tai’s ads which if incorporated, could make Sam’s ad more persuasive and effective.
What Sam Gets Right
He Builds Credibility
The first thing that one may notice in Sam’s ad is that it is set in a lavish high-rise apartment office overlooking the NYC. This setting immediately acts as a source of credibility to his role as a successful marketing guru. Sam also creates a sense of source attractiveness, not in the conventional sense of the word, but rather by making himself relatable to the audience. He accomplishes this but telling a brief story about how he, just like his target market, used to be stuck in a corporate day job.
Uses Logical and Fear Appeals
The majority of Sam’s persuasive appeals are logical in nature, such as listing all of the things that you could learn from his program. With that being said, he also incorporates several fear appeals by explaining where you could end up if you make one of the many common mistakes of consultants. This appeal to fear is effective mainly because he used the optimal amount of fear. This is important because the effectiveness of fear follows an inverted U curve: if there is not enough fear the audience has no reason to be concerned, but if there is too much fear the audience has a tendency reject the message or rationalize that it doesn’t concern them.
Things To Learn From Tai’s Ad
1. Create a “Hook” in the First Few Seconds
The first few times YouTube showed me Sam’s ad I skipped after only a few seconds. Looking back, the reason for this is that there is no “hook” in the first few seconds to grab the viewers’ attention. Contrast this with Tai’s ad, in which the first thing you see is him pointing his Lamborghini and shortly after to his giant bookshelf. In fact, within thirty seconds he has already used several hooks such as mentioning that he drives his Lamborghini in Beverley Hills and the fact that he has given a Ted talk. Together, these additions create interest in the viewer. Instead of mentioning his webinar right away, Sam should use similar tactics to create interest before introducing premise of the video.
2. Polished Footage is Not Always Better
One thing that becomes obvious by watching the two videos is the difference in production “value”. I put value in quotes because although Tai’s ad looks much less professional than Sam’s, don’t think for a moment that this wasn’t intentional. By shooting his ads with an iPhone Tai creates a sense of authenticity and spontaneity that makes his ads stand out from the thousands of flawlessly produced ads online. This is not to say that ads that appear amateur are always better than those that appear professional, in fact, professional ads have some of their own advantages. The point is that, consistent with the principles of Blue Ocean Strategy, there is not always a tradeoff between cost and value. If you are creative and strategic with the resources that you have, you can often produce just as much value, if not more, at a lower cost.
3. A Dynamic Setting Creates Interest
A key reason that Tai’s ads seem to stand out is that their settings are often highly dynamic: he could be walking by a pool surrounded by girls one moment and in his living room the next. Tai makes sure to never keep the background the same for too long because, whether conscious or not, he knows that people become habituated and get bored by stimuli that is stagnant. Sam’s ad, on the other hand, uses the same background for its entirety and thus risks losing the viewers’ attention. He could create for more interest by using props or simply moving around the room.
4. Use Concrete Rather than Abstract Examples
Another way that these two ads differ is the way in which they portray the potential financial success that the two programs could bring you. Sam tends expresses these rewards in monetary terms, like when he states that he is making over 20 Million dollars per year using his strategy. While this is a very impressive figure, the abstract nature of a numerical value makes it harder for most people to truly appreciate what that means. As a result, there is less emotion created from this approach. While Tai occasionally expresses rewards is dollar values, the majority of the time he takes a different approach and uses concrete examples. For instance, towards the end of his Garage ad, he explains that by following his advice you could have not only a nice house and cars but also create a stress-free new lifestyle, travel the world, and do the things you were destined to do. These are much more specific and thus allows one to visualize and “feel” the success rather than just examine it logically.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Disqualify Certain Prospects
An interesting thing to notice about Tai’s ads is that he doesn’t only mention who his programs are for, but also who they aren’t for. He does this in his garage ad by expressing that if you’re a cynic or a pessimist don’t even bother clicking the link. If you look closer, this statement is actually a false disqualifier rather than a true disqualifier, meaning, very few people will actually admit that they are cynics, so he is not losing out on many prospects by saying this. Then what’s its purpose? Despite being a false disqualifier, it still creates the perception to the viewer that he doesn’t need or even want everyone as customers. In addition, it acts much like a rhetorical statement that makes you rationalize to yourself that surely you aren’t one of the pessimists of which he speaks. This seems innocent enough, but the catch is that once someone perceives themselves in a certain way, they are far more likely to unconsciously make decisions that are aligned with that perception– In this case, they are more likely to act as an optimist. While Tai handles naysayers using mainly phycological tactics, Sam’s approach is predominantly a rational one, that essentially tells skeptics that they should just check out the testimonials. You can imagine which one would be more effective.
6. Happy Viewers are Not Driven Toward Action
Interestingly, At some point, they both mention that there are three keys to success, however, the way that they leverage these three keys makes all the difference. Sam mentions his three keys mid video and shortly thereafter thoroughly explains them all. This may make the viewer satisfied, but it does not necessarily keep them intrigued. Tai also mentions the fact that there are three keys mid video, but instead of telling the viewer what they are, he spends a few minutes explaining several reasons why they are very important. In fact, he never actually reveals the three keys and instead directs you to a video about them on his site. While this approach might make the viewer impatient and even frustrated, it surely doesn’t lose their interest. The point here is to keep the end goal in mind: in this case, the goal should not be to keep the viewer relaxed and satisfied, but rather to create a drive toward action though curiosity and tension. Happiness may be the final goal, but only after the prospect becomes your customer.
7. Don’t Give Up Your Leverage Until You Have What You Want
My previous point ties into the final element that I will analyze –the sequence of aims. I use this term to describe the order of various stages, each with a different aim, that the ad takes the viewer. Both ads take the viewer through the stages of interest, investment, reward, and action, but a small change in sequence makes all the difference. Sam attempts to lead the viewer in the exact sequence listed above. This is where Sam’s failure to leverage his three keys comes into play. By providing the reward (3 keys) too early, he loses the ability to leverage his viewers toward action. This is akin to feeding the fish in a pond lots of food and then attempting to catch one on an empty hook.
Tai, on the other hand, flips the last two steps around and makes sure to not provide the reward (three keys) until the viewer takes action (visits website). Even if you were originally not very interested in Tai’s program, the combination of the high specificity of the reward, the reasons given for its importance, and the relatively small commitment needed to acquire it, makes the action seem worth it to many. What’s more, even though the commitment is quite small (visiting website), once someone makes even a small commitment, they are more likely to comply with future requests (join an email list, make a purchase, etc.), a concept aligned with the foot-in-the-door technique used by many salespeople and marketers.
Takeaway Point
Although some of you might cringe when you see Tai’s ads, one cannot deny that they have been successful. The takeaway point here is to not throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak. As with all things in life, absorb the important lessons before you discard the rest.
Tai’s Ad
References:
Pham, T. (2017, October 19). Tai Lopez Is the Internet's Most Hated Entrepreneur and That's Why He Is So Successful. Retrieved from https://thehustle.co/tai-lopez-is-the-internets-most-hated-entrepreneur-and-thats-why-he-is-so-successful
Leave a Reply