The Power of a Word

By Sonya Winterbotham, Wizard of Ads Partner

Hello.

One word.

One very common word.

Wouldn’t get you much for it in a game of scrabble.

But in advertising… One Aussie business owner has made “hello” his own. 

And when you think about how many times the word “hello” is uttered everyday –

That’s a lot of recall back to his business.

So who is he?  How’d he do it?  And how can you make the power of a single word work for you too? 

Say hello to Frank Walker Managing Director of National Tiles…

Frank’s radio advertising is now so well known he’s a youtube hit – having been remixed with the likes of Eminem, Duck Sauce, Martin Solveig & Dragonette and The Potbellez. 

And he did it by applying two simple elements to his advertising – consistency and surprise.

“Hello” is how every single radio ad starts for National Tiles… And the word is always uttered by Frank himself. 

He’s done this across all campaigns in all markets for so long he’d be sick of hearing his own voice – but he doesn’t change it, because Frank knows that customer’s can recognise a National Tiles ad even before Frank rounds off the “o” in hello. 

Of course tonnes of businesses could start their ads with a simple “hello” and it would get lost in the background.   The great success of Frank’s “hello” is not in the word, the word itself is blend-worthy, Frank’s success is in the way the word is spoken… And that gives Frank’s ads the wonderful element of surprise.

Y’see there’s the way you and I say hello as a greeting… And then there’s Frank’s way.

I could swear if you ran a stop watch under his “hello” you’d find that he extends it out to 3 or 4 seconds – sometimes even more.  He’s famously mimicked around our office with Frank Walker wanna-be’s every time someone answers the phone and says… hello.

This little “surprise” technique is such a simple way to stand out from the me-toos. 

Try it - put a twist on your words, a different pitch, different tone, draaaaw it out, staccato it up… Because once you’ve found the element of surprise you can turn a word into a word trigger – a single word that can trigger a recall of your business.  

Go on head to the scrabble board – find a word you want to own… And start thinking about how you’re going to say it.

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