If you have a reason to do something, it’s more likely you’ll actually do it.

Pretty obvious. So obvious, you might not even continue reading.

As it turns out, this isn’t particularly obvious to most marketers.

But, it was obvious to one.

Lester Wunderman.

Who wanted to test a theory.

The theory was, if I give my audience a reason to watch my T.V. ads, they will hear my message and purchase my product.

In a high stake’s competition, Wunderman bet the Columbia account against McCann. Test this theory, if it works, Wunderman gets the account. If it doesn’t, McCann gets the account.

Winner takes all.

This is all taking place at the height of Mad Men era advertising. Needless to say, McCann is the frontrunner in this competition.

What happened next is the Gold Box campaign.

Wunderman placed a Gold Box in his magazine advertisements requesting the reader to look for his T.V. commercial.

Giving the target audience a reason to look for the advertisement.

It was a roaring success.

He beat McCann in every test market.

It was an “omni-channel” campaign where he used one channel to give the audience a reason to engage with him on another channel.

In our next campaign, how can we be more like Wunderman and offer our audience a reason to look for us?

A thank you to Malcolm Gladwell and the Tipping Point for providing this example.