[bgilroy26]

I think the comments in this thread about ctr vs actual conversions are a bit silly.

Pof's target audience here is "people who like video games" and they're trying to get people to play a free online game. They don't really have anything to teach people in verticals where the consumer is making a measurable commitment. You do not need to be very persuasive to "convert" with that crowd.

Almost all marketing advice more specific than "the customer is always right" and "sex sells" etc. is dependent on the product and the audience.

What this is is a great ad. It's really funny (The speed lines especially. This car does not look very fast, but the speed lines show it's got a lot of heart), and it understands its audience. I think it has broader application than many are giving it credit for, it probably would work with any sincere product (i.e. selling something other than "one simple rule") targeted at younger people that does not solve a "serious" problem. Once you are proposing that people spend more than $40-$50 you are pretty smarmy if you are trying to push them into an impulse purchase

No one should decide on a health insurer based on a MS Paint ad, no matter how hip, nostalgic, and casual they are. On the other hand, you can make a lot of money selling funny ads to people and I think that's what's going on here.

[klbarry]

Other pieces of universal marketing "truth", all of which are accurate/general enough to not be refuted:

1) Ethos (your perceived character) is the most important, with regards to pathos (emotion) and logos (logic)

2) People make judgments by comparison/anchoring.

3) People process information best from stories.

4) People are foremost interested in things that affect them.

5) Breaking patterns gets attention.

6) People look to other people's decisions when making decisions.

7) People will believe things more easily that fit their pre-existent mindset. The converse is also true.

8) People handle one idea at a time best.

9) People want more choices, but are happier with fewer.

10) People decide first, then rationalize - If people are stuck with something, they will like it more over time.

11) Experience is memory, the last part of the experience is weighted heavily.

[jordhy]

Amazing list. I would perhaps add to this the "market sophistication level". In this particular case (saturated market and lots of high quality competition), ethos is highly important.

The ad is successful in empathizing with customers by display a drawing that follows the design of top-of-mind ad very current memes. This works because of the market sophistication level (i.e. potential customers knows how this particular video game works).

The presenter in this video does a fine job in summarizing market sophistication and different advertising strategies: http://www.mindvalleyinsights.com/market-sophistication/

[bgilroy26]

Wow great list!

I'm really jealous because I've been reading about the value of being able to generate specific examples:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/5kz/the_5second_level/

[klbarry]

Thank you. I'm a student of mass persuasion. The list will be updated on http://kevinlordbarry.weebly.com/irrefutable-truths-of-marke.... Keep in mind that the whole site is very unfinished, it just has some content mixed in with lorem ipsum text.