1. Effective headlines
Prepared by J. Scott Armstrong (details on him at jscottarmstrong.com).
Please inform Scott about errors and also make suggestions (armstrong@wharton.upenn.edu)
Scott has taken these slides from adprin.com, a site that he founded. That site contains interactive versions of these
slides, along with linked references, videos, and webcasts, all in PPT and PPTX format that you can download.

2. “In today’s environment, even man could become
an endangered species.”
Consider the above headline. What was the ad for? See the
next slide for the answer.

3. A laxative.
Use descriptive headlines for
high-involvement products.
(Principle 9.1.1)
Which had higher recall?
___ a) “Introducing the only fan clutch with a three-
year, 300,000 mile warranty”
___ b) “Look for the label that delivers durability.”
See the next slide.

4. “a” was three times higher (Persuasive Advertising p 244)
Use descriptive headlines for high-involvement
products. (Principle 9.1.1)
Evidence on descriptive headlines:
Especially effective for high-involvement products
Still ads with descriptive headlines had 1.52 times as much
recall. (Quasi-experimental data on 24 pairs of high-
involvement print ads from WAPB) (Persuasive Advertising p 244)
4

5. Include the brand name in the headline (9.1.2)
Especially for low-involvement well-liked brands.
Quasi-experimental evidence:
Recall was 1.49 times higher in 24 pairs of low-
involvement print ads from WAPB (Persuasive Advertising p 245)
Typical practice:
Half put a brand name in the headline. (Based on 480
WAPB print ads.)
5

6. 6

7. Effective Headlines
Which of the following two headlines is more effective?
___ A. Are you afraid of making mistakes in English?
___ B. Do you make these mistakes in English?
See the next slide for the answer.
Adapted from AdPrin.com 7

8. B. Lead the reader into the body copy (9.1.3)
Also, do nothing to stop the reader.
Our WAPB analysis of 19 pairs of print ads
showed a 1.19 times higher recall by omitting
periods in the headlines (Persuasive Advertising p 246).

9. Are short headlines more effective?
Little prior research and ambiguous results
Our initial efforts showed nothing, but there was a
missing condition.
Keep the headline short for low-involvement
products only(9.1.4)
Quasi-experimental findings: Recall from WAPB
analysis(Persuasive Advertising p 246)
InvolvementShorterLonger
High (118) 17.9 19.9
Low (31) 21.9 20.5
9

10. Based on this exercise, write a small application step for
yourself, and set a deadline, preferably within one week. If you
are working with someone else, share your application plan and
the results of your application.
• For example, take the periods out of your headlines if you
have something worthwhile to say.
Adapted from AdPrin.com