Not a lot of story-based ads anymore?

Where are you looking?

What is THE MARKET you refer to?

There was never a copywriting "style", there were many styles.

You're reading old ads from magazines...are you looking in magazines? I still see a lot of stories in golf, martial arts, weight loss. Even on line ads still have stories.

See my sig file, there is a story there. Gotten some decent response from it.

And prospects???? For what? I've think you've taken a wide paint roller and painted across a wide wall of "Copywriting"... there are plenty of artists still using smaller brushes to get the details as the "Market" calls for. I find these general sweeping observations often come from a limited experience, or limited view. So, if you care to narrow down the "market" and perhaps, consider some niche perspectives, we might be able to give your our better informed opinions on the subject.

gjabiz

My bad. I didn't say it right. I meant ads that are just pure storytelling or conversational. No bullets of benefits, no testimonials, just pure storytelling that segues nicely into a call to action at the end.

Yes, those are old ads. Just my point. Does anyone use that kind of selling these days? I like it, but I want to know if anyone is still doing something like that today.

Hi Wytnyt,

I am seeing story-based ads for weight loss in my wife's magazines, but I hear what you are saying because I am not seeing that many of those ads, granted I am probably not looking in all the places where they may be.

I have a theory about long-copy in any case. Although there is no question about it's efficacy, I think that we are dealing with a completely new generation of reader - or rather non-reader.

Over the last years there has been a huge move towards moving long copy to video presentations, because video is just a medium of "NOW" and that is actually where we find the long copy, in video presentations that are really just long-form sales letters with voice over and illustrations.

They still need to tick all the boxes you would find in long-form, but they take the strain out of reading (which is something that the X-Box generation just lacks patience for).

Yeah, I think about that too.

I also wonder what caused the shift from pure story ads to those with bullets and benefits and guarantees.

I'd like to try and test an ad that's just all story and see if someone bites.

Do you subscribe to newspapers or magazines? I live in a tiny town in PA (where a lot of the residents still get around in horse drawn buggies and don't have electricity coming into their houses) and yet I see "story-based" ads. Here's one (published in late February) that I've seen a few times:



100% "story-based" ad.

It is not so much that prospects lost interest, but people just have less time these days. They want really quick to read chunk of information.

Take emails as copy: Short brief sentences are easier to read and faster to get through.

Big blocks of text and drawn out explanations can be annoying and frustrating. People want to know what how where and why in as little time as possible.

I was on a great webinar recently that showed that 2 blocks of paragraphs broken up into smaller chunks like I am writing here 'appear' easier and faster to read.

People don't want to have to 'think' or 'work' to get their info now.

...Marci

That's right. Modern people want to get to the point at once. They want to get to the point, do something and produce money out of it. I believe most of the people who are interested in making real money online are still starting. And I believe they don't have the luxury of time (they still keep their day job), so it's important to keep the ads short and simple.

From where I am, ads are still story-based. At least, ads on television.