The Current River
Posted: December 28, 2009 Filed under: Publishing, writing | Tags: camping, Current River, Kayaking, magazine writing, rivers, Sierra Club Leave a comment »My 2000 word article boiled down to 330 choice words for Sierra Magazine, now in print and online here.
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Spreading the joy with a video Holiday eCard
Posted: December 16, 2009 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative | Tags: Christmas, eCard, Holiday, video, writing 3 Comments »Click here to see the Holiday eCard I wrote for the talented folks at Oden who put it all together and made it just right. A word of warning: you might want to get a tissue.
Going crazy over going verdant
Posted: December 2, 2009 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, Ethics, Vocabulary | Tags: Advertising, Copywriting & Creative, environmental writing, green marketing, sustainability 2 Comments »If you ever listen to NPR, no doubt you hear how the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is “committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.” That word “verdant” always makes me smile. Why? Because every company on the planet is talking about sustainability and going green. Believe me, I know. I’m writing environmental statements, composing sustainability reports, and naming green initiatives on a regular basis. Everyone is talking about it, and yet we are all looking for ways to communicate our sustainability in some original fashion. It seems everyone is looking for their own shade of green.
Unfortunately, that isn’t sustainable. I mean, we’ve already run out of words, haven’t we? Take your pick: sustainability, green, eco-this or environmental-that. Oh, and verdant. It’s like somebody at the MacArthur Foundation said, “whatever you do, don’t use the word GREEN!”
Recently I wrote a sustainability brochure for a major corporation. We wanted to talk about sustainability in three contexts: environmental stewardship, financial accountability and social responsibility. So I came up with this snappy idea: People, Prosperity, Planet. Nice, huh? My client thought so. In fact, she wanted to turn it into the name of their program. Just one problem. Well, perhaps a half-dozen problems. My client Googled it and found those three words strung together all over the internet, sometimes in that exact order. In fact, one company had the nerve to trademark it.
So, my advice is this. Spend less time avoiding the word “green” and more time finding the real truth in your sustainability messaging. You are probably not “saving the planet.” So it isn’t wise to exaggerate. Don’t greenwash. Make sure your sustainability message is believable (because what you are saying is true) and substantial enough to be notable. Whether you think global warming is a hoax or a threat, it’s best to err on the side of environmental responsibility from a marketing standpoint, so don’t be afraid to address the needs of our environment in constructive ways. You may not be Al Gore green, but you can at least muster up a good chartreuse. And remember, it’s not so much what you are doing to ensure a sustainable future that’s important. It’s what you can help your clients do that resonates most.
What is writing?
Posted: October 28, 2009 Filed under: writing | Tags: Advertising, Copywriting & Creative, graphic design, writing Leave a comment »What is writing, anyway? Every once in a while I have the opportunity to speak to a class of design students at the University of Memphis about writing and about how writers and designers interact in the world of advertising and marketing. I always ask that question. What is writing? One student replied, “words on a page.” Typical but wrong. That would be typography.
Writing is connecting disparate ideas. It is organizing information to tell a logical story. Writing comes from recognizing the complex relationships between words and how your choice of words affects meaning and understanding. It is controlling and manipulating language to achieve a desired effect. It is communication.
But most of all, writing is thinking made accessible to others. You can’t really write until you learn how to think.
What I have tried to impress upon the students is that writing doesn’t necessarily involve a lot of words. In the advertising business we engage in an activity called “concepting,” in which we come up with the big idea and invent just the right vehicle for communicating our message. Sometimes that concept is 50% headline and 50% visual, but it is always 100% writing. Here’s an ad I just wrote for FedEx that hardly has any “words on a page.” Its mission is to remind Memphis Grizzlies fans that FedEx is the official sponsor, and that FedEx is as enthusiastic about the team as they are. The thinking, in this case, is being conveyed by the photograph. What better way to show FedEx fanaticism than bobbleheads in the cockpit?
That’s Rudy Gay and OJ Mayo, in case you can’t make it out in this small rendition. Bobbleheads in the cockpit make for an arresting image and convey the idea that FedEx isn’t just a monetary sponsor; they are dyed-in-the-wool fans. These days the hapless Grizzlies could use more of those.
Making something look good is aesthetics. Making people understand? That’s writing. Whether you use words or not.
A deep dive on office buzz words
Posted: September 20, 2009 Filed under: Expressions, Language, Vocabulary | Tags: Language, office buzz words, Vocabulary, words Leave a comment »
Officespeak, that constantly changing language of buzz words and phrases heard around corporate conference tables, is an interesting paradox. It is universally deplored yet universally deployed. Remember facetime and interfacing with clients? Having to think outside the box and pushing the envelope? It was all about being on the same page.
Nowadays, someone is bound to ask how much bandwidth you’ve got. They’ll want to reach out, drill down and circle back. You might hear “value-add” as a noun and “impact” as a verb (remember when only teeth got impacted?). And no-doubt there are times when, no matter what you are doing, you’ll be asked to take it offline.
To be successful, you’ve got to promise the right deliverables while staying within your core competencies. Optimize ROI. Look for a way to grab the low-hanging fruit. How? Well, you’ll need a roadmap going forward. You’ll need to incent employees. You’ll need ideas that can piggyback on mine. Ideas that are actionable. You’ll need to add a new thread. Take ownership!
At the end of the day, what you are really looking for is a gamechanger, a paradigm shift, perhaps something viral. (I’m feeling a little viral, myself.)
In the marketing business, we hear folks talk about marketing concepts that are “channel-neutral,” meaning ideas that can work for a variety of media–direct mail, print advertising, web, and so on. Just the other morning, I heard it called “channel-agnostic.” What’s next? Channel-atheistic? If that’s the case, we can all just go home.
Got any others? Why not touch base? Leave a comment or shoot me an email.
Better yet, just shoot me.
Wordcracker: Coo-pon or Cue-pon?
Posted: September 4, 2009 Filed under: Language, Vocabulary, Wordcracker | Tags: Coupon, Language, pronunciation, speech 4 Comments »Now for something fun and pertinent to our recent economic upheaval. If you live in the United States, please participate in the following poll. To aid us in our research even further, please leave a comment restating your answer and providing any explanatory information you might want to offer, especially what part of the country you are originally from and what part of the country you live in now. I’ll leave this poll active indefinitely in hopes of accumulating enough answers to draw reasonable conclusions. Thanks!
So what is a Wordnut, anyway?
Posted: August 31, 2009 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, writing | Tags: Advertising, Copywriting & Creative, Language, words, writing Leave a comment »Certainly, you might infer that a wordnut is one who is nuts about words. But when it comes to my business, I like to think of it another way. The word is a kind of nut, the seed of everything. The beginning of thoughts, ideas, and opinions. From words come sentences, claims, and promises. Out of words grow respect, trust, and understanding. Sure, I am nuts about words. But I am also a planter of words, sowing them in rows so that they grow large in the consciousness of the customer. I plant the seeds from which success can spring. Who wouldn’t be nuts about that?
Advertorials: the genuine article
Posted: August 25, 2009 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative | Tags: Advertorials, banking, Copywriting & Creative, Nashville Business Journal 1 Comment »An advertorial is a hybrid of advertising and informative editorial content. At worst, it is created to deceive, to make the reader believe it is a journalistic addition to the publication. This, of course, is why you so often see the word “Advertisement” posted at the top of the article by the publication. One recent example of advertorials gone amuck is the full page ad appearing in newspapers across America for miraculous flameless fireplaces housed in genuine Amish-crafted mantelpieces. Perhaps you’ve seen it. (And if you actually bought one, I’d love to hear about it!)
Their over-the-top approach probably worked to sell fireplaces, but it is no way to build a brand.
At its best, however, an advertorial can be an effective component of a marketing strategy, taking what might ordinarily be a conventional advertising space and using it to inform the reader about a product or service in more detail or, even better, to inform the reader about an issue or problem that’s important to him.
For several years, I have written an ongoing series of advertorials for a bank in Nashville. It appears every month in the Nashville Business Journal and features a different bank expert who dispenses information and advice. Rather than just hawk the bank’s products and services, it focuses on issues that are important to business owners, CFOs and the like–the people who read the Journal. For example, when the federal government increased FDIC insurance from $100,000 to $250,000, I worked with the expert to write an article about how the change would affect readers. In another article, we covered the escalating costs of real estate in Downtown Nashville and what it meant for developers and builders in need of financing.
These advertorials are easily recognized as bank ads. But they are a soft sell. They offer real content and added value to readers while positioning the bank and it’s employees as experts in the field and a ready resource of up-to-date financial information and services.
In an industry like banking in which competitors offer very similar services, interest rates, etc., success comes from relationship building. A good informative advertorial can be the foundation on which new relationships are built.
Short words
Posted: August 1, 2009 Filed under: Language, Vocabulary, writing | Tags: Gelett Burgess, Language, short words, writing 2 Comments »
Gelett Burgess, a technical drawing teacher turned writer, penner of silly poems, and editor, published an essay back in the 30s called “Short Words are Words of Might.” He wrote the whole thing using one-syllable words. It reminds us of the power of our own Germanic language roots and how early words seem to have evolved from emotion itself. Come to think of it, some of the best words we have are four-letter ones.
Big flowery Latinate words are quite stupendous in their place, but as my 11th grade English teacher would tell you, never use a 50-cent word when a nickel word will do. Burgess demonstrates that our nickel words really are our most valuable by far.
Here are some excerpts:
“Short words must have been our first words when the world was young. The minds of men were raw… Their first words were, no doubt, mere grunts or growls, barks, whines, squeals like those of beasts. These rough, strange sounds were made to show how they felt. They meant joy or pain or doubt or rage or fear…
“But these sounds came, in time, to grow more and more plain as real words. They were short words, strong and clear. And these first short words, used by our sires way back in the dark of time, still have strength and truth. They are bred in our flesh and bone. We may well call such words the life blood of our speech.”
“Short words, you see, come from down deep in us — from our hearts or guts — not from the brain. For they deal for the most part with things that move and sway us, that make us act… That, I think, is why short words tend to make our thoughts more live and true.”
Magazine writing leaves me short-winded
Posted: July 9, 2009 Filed under: Publishing, writing | Tags: article writing, editors, freelance writing, magazine writing, magazines 2 Comments »For this writer, magazine editors have always been a bit of a mystery. One magazine paid me more for my amateur photos than for my professionally written article. In fact, I often get the sense that magazines don’t value writing all that much. Recently, however, I sent a 2,000-word feature to a major outdoor magazine. I got back a glowing note from the editor. He called it “delightful” and “very nicely done.” He said it had “just the right tone, with great detail.” “Funny,” too, he said. I was ecstatic. Then came the next paragraph.
Due to a backlog of feature articles and dwindling editorial space in the magazine, could I perhaps distill it down to 300 choice words AND retain some of the humor?
“Disappointing” doesn’t begin to describe it. And yet, the Sally Field in me wasn’t entirely squelched. So now I am writing a short piece for one of the magazine’s recurring columns. I’m still excited at the prospect of a writing credit in a really good magazine. But I’m also anxious. The only thing harder than editing your own (delightful, funny) work is throwing away 5/6ths of it.
Maybe I should have sent photos instead.
