“Most advertising isn’t written to persuade. It’s written not to offend. An ad too weak to offend is an ad too weak to persuade. Mission statements are even worse. Have you ever noticed they all say the same thing? A powerful statement forces the reader to choose between two sides of a line drawn in […]

Hey Partners! Thank you for all the email love the last few days! Well, this spring I got a new client. A doctor who was starting a brand new Pediatric Dental office, so going from 0 to 60 seemed like a bit of a challenge, but we did it! She has had 26+ years experience […]

On Jul 23, 2015 12:09 PM, “Paul Boomer” <paul@paulboomer.com> wrote: Sarah has taken a pediatrics dentist office, who had no appointments, to being booked solid. In less than 45-days. 45-days. Paul From: Chuck McKay Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2015 04:55 PM To: ‘Paul Boomer’ Cc: ‘Roy H. Williams’, ‘Wizards’ Subject: Re: Bragging on Sarah Klenke Way to go, Sarah.  Tell […]

Bonding, as opposed to Branding… Roy, as you may recall, I live in Scottsdale, AZ.  I first heard the first Goettl ad about a month ago — I instantly knew the spot was written by a Wizard of Ads partner, or at least a disciple of yours.  But it was YOU!!  So cool to hear […]

Indy: For Mirth. Oddly fascinating. A gravity-defying tap dance routine that incorporates Salt n Pepa, The Jackson 5, The Sugarhill Gang, and Edvard Grieg. Might want to take a 3-minute break and go full screen for this one. Peer Gynt never sounded/looked so good. Brad Whittington

Indy, My sister thought I’d dig this… it’s pretty great, and I thought you’d dig it, too. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-obsessively-detailed-map-of-american-literatures-most-epic-road-trips Give my best to Roy, Tim Miles PS from Indy – Andrew Backus and Bryan Eisenberg also brought this map to our attention in the selfsame hour as Tim Miles. It’s an interactive map of famous road trips in literature. When […]

“Never claim to have exceptional service. Most people won’t believe you. And those who do believe you will expect more from your staff than they can possibly deliver. It’s a lose/lose proposition. Rather than promise exceptional service in your ads, tell the public something objective, factual and verifiable that causes them to say, ‘Wow. Those […]

Those were actual ads. This last one is an online thing put together by a talented person having fun.

See you next week! – Indy

Matthew wanted an update to “Cedric’s Billion-Dollar Ant Farm,” the MMMemo for June 23, 2014 Click the flying trio above my head if you want to read the wizard’s response.

RSA Animate — Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

I was going to give this a more thorough response (and I still might), but for now, how about some first thoughts? The first is that, if you are interested in The Trivium, you really ought to read Dorothy Sayers’ essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning.” Second is that, if you read Sayers’ essay, you’ll see that […]

I was a ten year-old boy holding a flashlight for my Dad while he worked on an air conditioner for a customer. His name was Duncan Goodrich. He didn’t talk much. But there’s a certain kind of magic that happens when a son holds a flashlight for his father. I held it steady and quiet […]

What do Cops, CEOs and Dads all have in common? Let’s start with Cops. What is the most important thing that Cops do? What, in fact, do Cops mostly do? Forget about picking up donuts and flirting with waitresses. The most important function that a Cop performs is being … PRESENT. The mere presence of a police […]

Hollister Williams looks out the window of Molly the Trolley in downtown Fort Worth. His brother, Gideon, looks out the window of his great-grandmother’s condo at the end of the trolley ride and then at his father while riding the train. Photos by “How YOU Doin’?” Williams of VidBetter, in color at the bottom of this page.

“When you have nothing to say, don’t let an advertising salesman convince you to pay money to say it.” – Roy H Williams, the Wizard of Ads

Pennie and the wizard and I took Hollister and Gideon, their grandsons, by train to Fort Worth last Friday. This is the photo we took from the train station in Austin just before we left. iPhones are cool. Like they say, “Your best camera is the one you have with you.” – Indiana Beagle

“We are awash in numbers. Data is everywhere. Old-fashioned things like words are in retreat; numbers are on the rise. Unquantifiable arenas like history, literature, religion and the arts are receding from public life, replaced by technology, statistics, science and math. Even the most elemental form of communication, the story, is being pushed aside by […]

Bryan Eisenberg sent us this wonderful video explaining the character development of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and the Coyote and all the other Looney Tunes characters of Chuck Jones. It’s FAB-u-rous, darling. And if you want to read Jeff Sexton’s excellent blog post about Chuck Jones that indirectly explains WHY Rex’s second […]

You were curious which logo Rex and Jacob picked for VidBetter, right? A logo is an expression of personality and perspective. This logo fits Rex and Jake. And a good logo is memorable. How many times have you heard the wizard say marketing should always strive to be “new, surprising and different?”

Taken by a friend today … I know how u love sha dow pics. – Eric Rhoads Sent from my iPhone.

Moments that Make You Proud Here’s what Rex sent to his designers as his $1,500 contest was drawing to a close… It’s the final 18 hours of the VidBetter logo contest! It’s still not too late to send in your design. Yes, there are strong contenders, but we haven’t picked a winner yet. I’ll be looking closely […]

The artist thanked the wizard for his compliments and then confessed that she had borrowed the idea of that silhouette from a 101 year-old painting by Giorgio de Chirico called, “Melancholy and Mystery of a Street.” De Chirico painted this scene in 1914 during a visit to Versailles, the private city built by Louis XIV – the self proclaimed […]

If you hang out with the wizard long enough, there are certain phrases you’ll hear him say a lot. “Take your inspiration from wherever you find it, no matter how ridiculous.” That’s one of my favorites. You’ll also hear him say, “Repurpose the proven.” I was looking over the wizard’s shoulder as he wandered through 1,400 VidBetter logos that […]

Click the rabbit to see the VidBetter logos before, and after, inspiration. It’s video time! Click the rabbit to see the VidBetter logos before, and after, inspiration. It’s video time!

The Buzzy Linhart Story. He almost qualifies as a lost boy except for the fact that nobody knows who he is. Or perhaps that makes him the quintessential lost boy. In the first 10 or 20 minutes of the film you hear the most amazing list of folks he jammed with, but he was incredibly […]

Besides the innate inanity, the thing that draws me to Buzzy is his complete commitment to the song to the point of not caring about sounding ridiculous. For example, the scat solo at the end of The Time To Live Is Now, and more pointedly, the last minute of Get Together.

I’m thinking if the Wiz hasn’t heard Buzzy Linhart, then the time to hear is now. And what better than this classic? – Brad W.

As a general rule, any wine with garden gnomes on the label is usually pretty good. Edi Simčič – 2008 – from Slovenia. – Indy The song is summertime slow “and the sky is red, from off toward New Orleans” until 3:28 when the wind begins to kick up and we get a storm of chords and drums […]

The wizard’s son, Jacob, bought him a sampler of extremely rare and obscure kinds of tea, organic and fair trade, from little family farms in North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Each cube has exactly enough tea to make the perfect pot. The princess gets a cup, the wizard gets a cup, and I get a […]

This is the transcript of the video, complete with the names of each of the designers ABOVE the text of the slides on which their work appears. I did this so you might be able track them down at 99 Designs and commission your own logo through their One-to-One program. Music: Can We Stay (by The […]

You cannot instruct a person to have enthusiasm any more than you can instruct them to give birth to a redheaded child. The person must first be inspired. Inspiration is what you give them. Enthusiasm is what they give you. People inhale inspiration and exhale enthusiasm. They cannot give you enthusiasm until you give them inspiration. […]

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Here’s the transcript, complete with the designers’ names just above the text of the page on which they appear. You’re going to want to find these designers at 99 Designs when you’ve seen what they can do. How to Get Fantastic Logos from 99 Designs Average logos are born from average instructions. Memorable logos are […]

Gene Naftulyev sent his drone over the campus so that you could get a bird’s-eye view. Extremely very cool. Take a look at the grass and you’ll see that this video was taken during the winter.

This is Tuscan Hall, our event center. This is what the campus looks like during the springtime and early summer. Because of the heavy rains this year, we’ve still got this kind of green in early July. Aooooooooooo! – Indy

Another major donor, Gene Naftulyev, sent his drone over the campus so that you could get a bird’s-eye view. Extremely very cool.

Craig Arthur lives in Australia so he doesn’t often get to hang out with Roy and the other Wizard of Ads Partners. Craig finally said, “I need a break,” and flew to Austin. Other partners flew in to meet him here. A rambunctious week. It was the first time Craig had seen Santiago of Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and […]

“Friends began arriving with champagne, and the party began. That afternoon I finally reached my mother. I wanted to tell her to stop sending me articles about DNA since I had now won the Nobel Prize for my expertise on that subject. My mother often mailed me articles from Reader’s Digest about advances in DNA […]

Hi Roy – So, I’m in Washington state producing/shooting the second season of a show about the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife for Animal Planet. Between a day in the mountains going up, down, sideways and diagonally across a variety of rocky, densely vegetated, and/or very steep terrain, with palpable tension as the guys manning […]

This week’s Frank is Erik “The Golden” Church, COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. (We call him “the Golden” because he’s very bright and he lights up a room.) Here’s the email and newspaper clipping Erik sent in: Hi Roy, Always good to see you make an appearance in Canada’s national newspaper. Best, Erik

The more we are proud that the Bethlehem story is plain enough to be understood by the shepherds, and almost by the sheep, the more do we let ourselves go, in dark and gorgeous imaginative frescoes or pageants about the mystery and majesty of the Three Magian Kings.” – G.K. Chesterton, Christendom in Dublin, Ch.3

Claudia Elsner Gallery                                  In 2008, the Dysfunctional Zebras were an early class on the new campus of Wizard Academy.

These were found at Distractify.com

These dudes are singing an old Scottish funeral song. It’s very beautiful. You’ll like it, I promise.