Short or Long: which is better?

“Can you just make it—I dunno—shorter?”

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard this about communication content.

Just recently, I was asked (more than once) to trim-down longer customer communications to meet a brevity objective. Makes sense, right? People are time-poor. They just want to get to the point.

But here’s the problem—when you strip things down too much, you also strip out the story and the value. Suddenly, the message doesn’t engage, doesn’t persuade, and—ironically—doesn’t get read at all.

And yet, for some, the assumption persists: shorter is always better. But is it?

Consider this:

• The most successful direct mail campaign in history—for The Wall Street Journal—ran for 25 years and brought in $2 billion in sales. It was a 775-word letter that many thought was ridiculously long, even back then.

• Merrill Lynch’s 1948 New York Times ad was a monster at 6,540 words. It wasn’t a tweet. It wasn’t even a one-pager. But it worked.

• More recently, brands like Red Bull have mastered long-form storytelling, using immersive content, documentaries, and event coverage to pull audiences in—not just for seconds, but for minutes, even hours.

• And then there’s Volkswagen’s 2017 ‘Pencil’ ad—around 500 words long, with not even a picture of a car.

So, are we really so different now?

Sure, we’re all busy. But we still invest time in things that interest us and add value.

Next time you’re creating a piece of communication, start there.

Ask yourself: “How do I add value for my reader?”Not: “This has to fit on a single page.”

That’s what gets people’s attention. Not word count.

David Murfet

January 4, 2025