Why Grammar and Punctuation and Picky Layout Rules Matter in Advertising

Or: Avoid Hurdles and Give ’Em Signposts Instead

By Noah LibermanChicago, Illinois

National Grammar Day was Sunday, March 4 [2012]

Sunday is a fitting day, because grammar is like religion:• Grammar guides you past life’s problems to a

better place, like religion.• Grammar chafes a bit, just like religion.• Sometimes we break grammar’s rules for a

compelling reason – just like with religion.• But in the end, grammar gives us clarity, just like

religion.

The advertising tie-in: courtesy of neuromarketer Roger Dooley:

• 95% of new products fail• 98% of direct mail gets no response• 98% of emails don’t convert• 20% of ad campaigns give no brand lift• 20% have negative brand impact• The mind: 95% subconscious

The takeaway: Don’t tax the unconscious mind. Appeal to the conscious mind.

• Make reading and viewing easy and transparent, so your message comes through.

How?• Avoid “hurdles” that confuse.• Use “signposts” that guide.

A copy/font example of a hurdle. Read these copy blocks.

In a study, people who read the bottom copy thought the exercises would take much longer than people who read the top copy did.

This ugly italic font was a huge subconscious hurdle for readers, and it soured them on the message.

The advertising implications of too many hurdles and too few signposts:

• Hard-to-read, weak messages• Distracted, frustrated readers• Less effective campaigns, ads, DMs, websites• Frustrated clients• Plague, pestilence and flood (well, in extreme

cases)

The conclusion (not to this whole presentation, sorry):

• Grammar, punctuation and visual cues affect the success of your message.

• Grammar, punctuation and visual cues affect the success of your message.

• Even when you don’t know grammar/layout rules, you sense them. (That’s how you learned language when you were tiny and how you communicate so naturally right now.)

• Grammar, punctuation and visual cues affect the success of your message.

• Even when you don’t know grammar/layout rules, you sense them. (That’s how you learned language when you were tiny and how you communicate so naturally right now.)

• Mistakes and inconsistencies create conscious and subconscious hurdles that obscure your message and leave a bad impression.

• Grammar, punctuation and visual cues affect the success of your message.

• Even when you don’t know grammar/layout rules, you sense them. (That’s how you learned language when you were tiny and how you communicate so naturally right now.)

• Mistakes and inconsistencies create conscious and subconscious hurdles that obscure your message and leave a bad impression.

• Give your audience signposts instead, and let your message work.

Avoid hurdles. Some examples and explanations

Don’t let your headline outrun the body copy

It frustrates our expectations of a “grid” that helps us understand how layout parts relate to each other. It’s a hurdle.

• Better: eBook: How To Use Google+ for Business• Better: New: How To Use Google+ for Business• Better yet: REDESIGN the miserable thing.

Actually, this layout makes another mistake: the image is neither fully under the headline nor fully outside it. Big hurdle! Oh, and the tight gutter between the image and the copy. Are you feeling subconsciously claustrophobic? Or is it just this room?

Your headline CAN be shorter than the body copy, but how much shorter?

• A lot shorter if it’s a one-line headline. Can be stylish.• But if the headline’s more than one line, all lines

should cover most of the width and be fairly similar in length. Why? to avoid the impression of randomness that’s distracting – another hurdle.

Better: Have You Built Your Google+ Business Page Yet? Do It Now

When your headline’s more than one line, don’t break a phrase across lines!

This is a nasty hurdle. “Business Page” has to be on one line.

Better: Have You Build Your Google+ Business Page?

(Now wasn’t that easier to read?)

Here’s another example, from a print ad

Isn’t the wholeidea a betterlooking smile?

• Perfectly good copy. But bad line breaks make it feel like you’re riding a tricycle down a staircase, backward.

Better:Isn’t the whole idea a better-looking smile?

Bulleted/numbered lists: use hanging indents!

Hurdle:

No hurdle (note better line break and consistent capitalization too). Doesn’t it just “feel” better?:

10. On-Page Social Sharing

• The point of bullets and numbered lists is ease of reading and understanding the grouping of ideas.

• Hanging indents help us visually identify each idea.

Now let’s turn away from design before the designers lynch me, and focus on words alone.Be logical and be consistent!

Example: The ampersand in body copy is a hurdle; it’s for abbreviations, logos and headers. Here it looks arbitrary, sloppy and kinda strange

Hurdle: Circles & the value…No hurdle: Circles and the value…

Now, the dreaded hyphen. I’ll keep it brief-ish:

• The hyphen is a great example of what all punctuation does: avoids hurdles and gives you signposts, so you absorb the message easily.

• Hyphens tell us how words go together. That’s important. We’ve already had one example:

Hurdle: a better looking smileSignpost: a better-looking smile

Dreaded hyphen, cont.

• In the hurdle, as you read, for a split-second you’re unsure how the word after “better” will function. Will it be a noun (“a better day”)? Will it be an adjective (“a better looking day”)? Once you reach “looking,” your mind re-adjusts. But this is extra work! Too many hurdles like this make reading hard. Is this how to sell tires?

• With the signpost, you take in the whole phrase “better-looking.” No extra mental work. Nothing obscures the message. You want to buy tires!

Another example:

SuperTech Brand Management Software

Is it the SuperTech brand of management software? Or is it brand management software from SuperTech?

A voice actor I worked with thought it was the former. Hurdle! She put a slight pause after “brand.” (Do it now, yourself.) We had to re-record the section. When written with the hyphen, there’s no confusion how to read it.

SuperTech Brand-Management Software

Grammar rule 4,398,493:

He/She who authorizes the checks ultimately makes the rules.

Corollary: But as an agency, we should be prepared to explain why the rules help our client.

And sometimes hyphens would be too fussy:

A carefully planned going-away party for Sue Janna(-ly functions like a hyphen already – it preps you for the next word. So no hyphen needed.)

A very sudsy dishwasher for Nick(We know that “very” combines with another descriptive word – it always does. So skip the hyphen.)

A chocolate chip cookie (Such a common phrase, no threat of a hurdle – a hyphen would just look pedantic.)

The advertising takeaways:

I’ve only offered a few examples, but it should be clear that grammar, punctuation and visual rules exist because they make reading and viewing easier and your message more effective. They do this by:• providing signposts• avoiding hurdles

So provide signposts. Avoid hurdles. And say your prayers!

Epilogue:

Don’t take rules too far. This is advertising, after all.

But:

Don’t get complacent.