It was 3AM on a Saturday morning several decades ago.
I was flipping toggle switches and twisting knobs in the control room of the smallest radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The equipment we were using dated back to the dawn of broadcasting. If anyone made a joke about radio, my station was the punch line.
Someone had left a trade magazine in the control room. I noticed the headline of a full-page ad purchased by Gannett Broadcasting. It said, “Radio Has Involvement.”
That word “involvement” hit me like lightning. I felt the tingle of it rippling across my skin.
“Involvement” now occupies a place in my mind called, “We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident…”
Another truth that I hold to be self-evident is, “If it makes sense to me, it will make sense to other people.”
My work of the past 50 years has been built on these two, self-evident truths:
- Involvement
Don’t try to create it. Find where it already exists and connect to it. - Make Sense
People believe what makes sense to them.
Each of us has a system of preferences and beliefs that governs how we think, speak, act, and see the world.
Those same preferences and beliefs give us a sense of personal identity, and we express that identity in every choice that we make.
People used to put bumper stickers on their cars as an expression of personal identity. They wanted everyone to know exactly what kind of person was driving that little blue Ford Fiesta. Today we identify with sports teams, influencers, footwear, colleges, political parties, beer, investment strategies, places of origin and hundreds of other things.
Advertisers: do not fall into the trap of trying to find people who share several characteristics.
Write your ads to focus on a single feeling that is shared by an enormous number of people. If not a feeling, then a belief, a preference, a superstition or an attraction that is shared by an enormous number of people.
You can create a deep and lasting relationship with a person even though there is only a single characteristic that you both have in common.
Great ads connect with people on a single point of agreement.
If you can master what I have just told you, you can master every medium of communication.
Never forget that.
Roy H. Williams
Indy Beagle PS – The wizard wrote about this same idea but from a different perspective in the Monday Morning Memo of August 3rd, 2026. The following is a snippet from that memo:
Identity reinforcement is the essence of affinity groups.
An affinity group is any group of people who are attracted to the same thing.
Every religion is an affinity group.
The fans of a sports team are an affinity group.
People who follow fashion are an affinity group.
If you like jazz music, or hip-hop, or Jeeps or NASCAR or backpacking or sewing or science fiction or romance or current events or capitalism or gossip, you are in an affinity group.
Mass media and social media exist to attract and serve affinity groups.
The size of a business opportunity is largely determined by size of the affinity group it serves.
PPS – A great ad is a rhinoceros. It makes only one point, but it makes that point very powerfully. Most ads are porcupines. They waddle along making countless little points as they annoy the hell out of everyone.
Scott Woolley has made a career of venturing into unfamiliar territory.
Scott has stocked grocery shelves before dawn. He has built and sold businesses in industries that share no common denominator. Comedian Jerry Lewis was a mentor. Star Trek’s William Shatner is a friend. Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino is a business partner.
In a wide-ranging conversation with roving reporter Rotbart, Scott Wooley explains how curiosity, persistence, and a willingness to learn will open doors that you never dreamed would open. Check it out, Cub Scout, at MondayMorningRadio.com