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He was a copywriter, an advertiser, and an author.
Advertising Age, the most popular advertising magazine of his time, called him "the greatest mail-order advertising copywriter of all time."
Let's discuss the life of this legend and what we can learn from him.
Who is Victor O. Schwab?
Victor Opper Schwab was born on March 13, 1898, in Hoboken, New Jersey.
He was the son of Albert James and Letitia (Irvine) Schwab. At the age of 19, he enrolled as a night student at Columbia University, where he met Max Sackheim, then the head of copy at Ruthrauff & Ryan, a leading mail-order advertising agency.
Let me describe the advertising agencies of that time: Every advertising agency had a sector and a specialty. Some were mail, some coupons, some newspapers, some radio, some directly printed brochures or billboards.
Back then, you couldn't find an advertising agency that did all of these in small amounts, like "put 250 grams of this, put that, but not too much" at a nut shop. Things used to be clear.
For those who don't know, Max Sackheim was one of the most successful advertisers of the time. Advertising is like the Koç family of the 80s in Turkey. There is no other.
Sackheim hired Schwab as his private secretary because he knew shorthand.
Shorthand used to be a thing called shorthand, so since there was no keyboard in the past, it was necessary to quickly transcribe what was said. However, it was impossible to write normal words at the speed of speech.
That's why mankind developed an alphabet called Shorthand, which could shorten and speed up the existing letters. To do this, someone who wrote fast was still needed. Victor Schwab was that person.
But his contributions to mail-order advertising, especially for Dale Carnegie's book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," helped make it a bestseller in the 1930s.
What Made Him the Godfather of Advertising
I want you to understand this: It's almost impossible.
Imagine a clerk at a corporate company talking to his boss like this:
"Sir, as I said before, our sales campaign to sell our products has really fallen short. Therefore, we need to get down to business immediately. After our consultation, I think it's appropriate to change our wonderful advertising without increasing our budget. If you wish, we can start defending our company's future right now..."
What he said, the boss listened to this person, and sales exploded...
Do you think that's possible?
Of course, Victor Schwab didn't talk like that...
BUT
We're talking about him taking a big risk to prove himself (if he failed, he would never find a job in advertising again) and then being successful (anyone interested in advertising either knows or has heard of this guy. If not, run away without looking back).
In fact, you'll see that the people who achieved the highest levels of success in history usually burn their ships.
This led to Schwab's promotion to copywriter, where he became a research pioneer by using coded coupon ads to divide headlines, appeals, text length, edits and calls to action.
In short, they told Schwab: "Wow! We listened to you, and you really did it. Okay, from now on, the advertising business is yours. Take it, manage it, do whatever you want. We trust you. You got it!"
The Best Advertising Headlines Ever
Now let's give a few examples from Victor Schwab's work. These are all the headlines of ultra mega super doper successful ads.
Let's take a look:
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A small mistake that cost a farmer $3,000 a year.
Advice for women whose husbands don't save money - by a wife.
How a new discovery turned an average girl into a real beauty?
How to win friends and impress people
Do you make these mistakes when speaking English?
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These headlines may not be exactly for you... because you're probably not the target audience.
But they must have caught your attention. Read our article for an in-depth analysis:
What Can We Learn From Victor Schwab?
It depends on who's asking the question. If you are in the advertising business, you need to swallow what this man writes, understand the logic behind it and use it fluently.
If you are a business owner, you should use his advertising principles in your business IMMEDIATELY...of course, if you haven't started using them yet.... if you want to increase your customer base by using Victor's firsts without wasting any time....
Get in touch with my agency today. If we’re a good fit I will personally take a look at your company and your marketing, come up with a strategy of what I’d do differently and discuss it with you in depth on a call.
No cost, no obligation.
If you want to work together I’ll tell you exactly how that works, if you don’t want to work together that’s fine too. No hard selling, no pressure, no annoying sales tactics.
Sounds good? Then fill out this form: https://www.msimarketingresults.com/free-marketing-analysis
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