As a copywriter, I’ve always been interested in great advertising, but lately, I’ve become interested in how writers write. Depending upon who you talk to, there are somewhere between two and 158 theories about procedures to follow when writing copy. Fully half of those are hair-brained theories, so I’ll eliminate them. This is the first in a 79-part series.*
Like many, my preference is to be a social copywriter. I like noise and activity and bouncing ideas off co-workers. I’ve done my best work shooting pool and drinking beer. I’ve also collaborated on some campaigns while playing ping-pong and/or pool and drinking beer. I’ve had some great ideas at ballgames, in the car, and while getting our asses kicked in a company softball game.
The free-association model has served me well over the years, but just to make sure I’m not missing out on something, I’m going to give the other process with which I’m familiar its long overdue shot.
The other school of thought is to think clearly and stay focused on the matter at hand; to think about the benefits; keep in mind the parameters outlined in the creative brief; close yourself up in a sterile environment and knock out the copy.
That all sounds good on paper. I’ve got a print assignment for a company that makes spices and rubs. Let’s give this “focus on the task at hand” thing a lash.
Copywriting by the numbers
The client has provided a creative brief. (It’s here somewhere.) They’ve got a new product for a BBQ rub, and they want to move the product during peak outdoor grilling season. They want to appeal to the casual guy, one who doesn’t want to take the time to develop his own rub. The target market is the guy who is more interested in spending time with family and friends than winning BBQ competitions. So…
Summer is time for BBQ. BBQ means summer. Make your BBQ come alive. Make your summer come alive. Summer’s just around the corner. My son is asking me about where we’re going on summer vacation. We went to Mount Rushmore last year. Quite a trip. Good times.
When I was 11 or 12, we went to Silver Dollar City, but on the way, my Mom was freaking out because she thought my Dad was driving too fast up the narrow Ozark roads and she was so upset by the time we got there, she didn't want to do anything till after we had lunch. We stopped at a restaurant that didn't have the type of soda she liked, so she told the waitress, "I'll have iced tea" which sounds kinda good. I’m going upstairs for some tea. The lemon Crystal Light tea mix isn’t bad, much less dangerous than when we were on that vacation and my Mom squeezed the lemon and I caught a little spray in the eye which burned quite a bit.
(Five minutes to make tea. Ten minutes to look outside to see if it’s raining.)
After that lunch, we went to ride the log jam and see the shows and my parents bought us these old-fashioned candy sticks in a bunch of different flavors (root beer was my favorite.) I think I really liked that place because there was a lady there dressed as a saloon girl. Still have a picture of the two of us somewhere.
(Spent a half-hour looking through old pictures. No luck, but found a bunch from our trip to Oregon the following year.)
My Mom has so many snapshots from that trip; of Oregon, California, the Grand Canyon, and Rocky Mountains… and as I'm remembering some of them, I understand why Kodak ads were SOOOO effective. They didn't sell film, they sold memories. Which is similar to the advice a guy gave me when I opened a bar & grill 10 years ago: "Don't sell the steak. Sell the sizzle!"
The Spaghetti Factory in my home town did that when they would have the servers walk around the restaurant for 15 minutes before they opened with sizzling pans of onions and roasted garlic and the smell just made your mouth water for pasta when you walked in. They always had Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin playing. One of them sang “I’m Beginning to See the Light” on the ‘Swingers’ soundtrack. I’ll just look it up real quick on IMDB.
It was Bobby Darin. Dean did “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You,” but Frank didn’t have any tunes on the soundtrack. Really weird. Tony Bennett was, though with his version of “With Plenty of Money and You.”
IMDB is a fantastic site, by the way. You wanna know about soundtracks? IMDB can help you out. You wanna know how many movies Dean and Jerry Lewis did together? IMDB can tell you.
(Spent 10 minutes reading through the Jerry Lewis bio on IMDB. Did you know he never wears socks more than once?)
It’s a real shame Martin & Lewis broke up because they were so successful for a long time… and they had a milkshake named after them in ‘Pulp Fiction,’ which was one of only two options - the other being Amos & Andy - so one was vanilla and one was chocolate, but why would you order plain vanilla when there are so many great shake flavors?
Variety is the spice of life, after all.
So… back to the spice ad. The holes in the lid are slightly bigger than normal, but not as big as some. They’re not so big that the rub dumps out too quickly, but not so small that it clumps up and closes off. It’s a small, almost imperceptible feature that makes it easier to use the container as a shaker. It’s great.
“Great Shakes.”
DING DING DING DING!!! And there we have it. Nice big visual. Copy that writes itself about how the feature will benefit Joe CasualGriller. Done deal. I need to do a few more to present, but we'll call that a concept worth throwing out there.
OK… so the by the numbers approach doesn’t really work for me. Old habits die hard. I’d much rather continue to write the way I always have. Somehow the thought of cramming myself into an office is rather claustrophobic. I’m afraid the writing would be sterile.
The point is that I get inspiration from everywhere and everyone. I think a lot of copywriters do. There are times when I am in my own world when I write, but that’s usually in the nuts and bolts phase of writing the copy; not in the big picture, idea generation stage. That’s when I like access to consumers… and they’re everywhere. Want a kick in the pants? Go where the product is sold and talk to the people who are buying it. Better yet, listen to them talk about it. You’d be surprised what you learn that’s not on the creative brief the client provided.
*Kidding. I'm familiar with two. I use one extensively.
