How to come up with different angles (examples)?

GREATQUESTION @ironbull !!!

This is an important subject and, as it happens, I have been working on some training materials on this very subject for a launch I have coming soon.

First, you MUST watch ads and commercials like a demon when you are able. An angle can be tied direct to an offer, but it is absolutely not necessary. For example, have you seen the GEICO commercial where Pinocchio is a bad motivational speaker?

An angle provides two things, a pattern interrupt and a hook.

Here is the premise:

1.
Father: "Did you know you can save 15% on car insurance with GEICO?"
Son: "Everybody knows that!"
Father: "Well, did you know Pinocchio was a bad motivational speaker?" (Pinocchio's nose grows every time is tells someone they have potential)
Narrator: "In 15 minutes, or less, can save you 15% or more on car insurance, GEICO"

The hook is saving 15% or more in 15 minutes or less.
The angle here is "Everybody knows that!" and presented with something humorous (a pattern interrupt) not everyone might know.


2. A few years back, there was a super bowl commercial with Cindy Crawford. She pulls up into a country gas station in a Ferrari, gets out of the car, and walks over to a soda machine and buys a Pepsi. While she is standing there with her head bent back and slugging down the Pepsi in a tank top and cut off shorts, 2 young boys are leaning over an old wooden fence watching intensely. Then one of the boys says to the other, "Is that a great new Pepsi can or what?!"

Now these are cases of humor being used as an angle. The angle is meant to use what is known as a Pattern Interrupt. The humor here in these examples is the interrupt.

You see, when anyone begins to hear (or see) a sales pitch, they have a pattern of behavior that kicks in similar to the flight or fight response. It's a defensive move. Well. Neuro-linguistic experts figured out a very long time ago that interrupting that pattern gives the sales person or advertiser a few seconds to redirect the prospects thinking. In the cases above, they are met with charming and slick humor associating a good feeling from the humor with the ad, the product, or the sales person giving a few valuable seconds to make a proper first impression instead of getting discriminated against because the ad or sales person is trying to earn their business.

Finch Sells has a good starter article about hooks and angles.
Angle Creation: How to Juice Your Campaigns