Wordcracker: Copywriter
Posted: January 4, 2011 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, Wordcracker, writing | Tags: Advertising, business writing, Copywriting & Creative, creative, freelance writing, marketing, Origin of copywriter, writing 1 Comment »An advertising writer is called a copywriter. But why? Why “copy?” The story starts a long time ago, even before advertising as we know it. While “copy” can mean an imitation or facsimile, it can also refer–according my trusty Oxford English Dictionary–to the thing being copied. A copy, then, can be “the original writing, work of art, etc., from which a copy is made.” We can find this usage as far back as 1481.
So what does this have to do with advertising writing? Plenty. Fast forward to the moveable type printing press and the printed newspapers it spawned. The manuscript written (and later typed) by the news writer was called a copy because, we can now deduce, it would soon be copied by the typesetter and printer. In fact, a “copy boy” was often employed to run the manuscript from writer to editor to typesetter. Eventually, the “a” was dropped, so a copy became simply “copy,” used in much the same way we use the word “text.”
So, you keep asking, what does this have to do with advertising writing? Everything! To pay the journalists and the pressmen and make a profit, newspapers sold advertising (why do you think advertising courses are so often buried in our colleges’ schools of journalism?). Someone had to write the verbiage–the copy–for the ads they sold. And the copywriter–and a title that differentiated him from the journalist or news writer–was born.
The unfortunate similarity of “copywriter” and “copyright” causes consternation for many. You’ve got to be a lawyer to deal with copyright issues, and that I am certainly not. In fact, I have a hard enough time just coming up with a company name or a snappy slogan that has the potential to be copyrighted. Try coming up with an original website domain, for example. It isn’t easy. Because of this confusion and because not that many people know where the word “copy” comes from in the first place, I prefer to say I am an advertising writer or a marketing writer. And when I am feeling particularly smug, I simply say that I’m a writer, knowing that it will evoke all sorts of romantic notions in people’s heads. That, of course, often backfires, and they ask, “Oh, anything I might have read?”
Probably not. Not yet, anyway.
Attractive marketing? The ubiquitous refrigerator magnet
Posted: May 13, 2010 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, signage, writing | Tags: Advertising, Books for Kids, Copywriting & Creative, Homewood Suites, public relations, Refrigerator magnets 4 Comments »
What’s the attraction of refrigerator magnets? They clutter. They allow you to attach more clutter. They fall off and break, which makes your clutter just that much more junky looking. Yet, we have quite a few at my house, mostly souvenirs from family trips, including a beheaded soldier from Williamsburg. We never keep the ones from the pest control people, real estate agents, or other commercial enterprises. Usually they are ugly, what with their phone numbers and lousy slogans and faces, and who needs ugly clutter?
Other people I know have the whole alphabet, plastic letters that let you spell words, even bad ones–which is a fun thing to do when you are at their house and you’ve gone into the kitchen for that third glass of Chardonnay. Still other people have magnetic poetry, words you can arrange and rearrange to create all kinds of poems, especially bad ones. And then there are the magnets that act like frames for photos or kiddy art. We had one that said “My Kid Did This.” That, of course, invites a parent to post a cute art project or good report card. Or, it can become a kind of Frame of Shame. A bad report card. A photo of a messy room. A suspension notice from school. It depends, I suppose, on what kind of parent you are. And what kind of kid you’ve got. I think we just took down that magnet altogether.
I have the chance to write everything from annual reports to internet ads. Recently, believe it or not, I wrote a refrigerator magnet. Which got me to thinking about the whole genre. I found out that the average number of views a single household refrigerator magnet garners in a year is around 14,600. That’s pretty good. Create an especially nice one and there are plenty of people who will add it to their collections. People like Louise J. Greenfarb (doesn’t that just sound like the name of a magnet collector?). She has more than 40,000, and her cars (and everything else made of metal, I’m sure) are covered up with them. You can read about her collection here.
Interestingly (or not) there’s no official name for a magnet collector in the way there is for a coin collector (numismatist) or a stamp collector (philatelist) or even a collector of teddy bears (arctophillist). Magnut, maybe.
Although I may sometimes question the wisdom of commercial magnets, the one I worked on is an exception. It was commissioned by Homewood Suites to promote their partnership with the Books for Kids Foundation. Unlike other companies that might turn to the refrigerator magnet for marketing or public relations, Homewood actually has the refrigerators to put them on, which makes the whole strategy a stroke of genius. Think about it. Every suite has a fridge, the perfect place to exhibit a magnetic message and reach a captive audience. At the same time magnets just make the kitchen that much more like home, which is the whole idea behind Homewood Suites, anyway.
Naming your shade of green
Posted: April 8, 2010 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative, writing | Tags: Advertising, advertising strategy, business writing, Copywriting & Creative, creative, green marketing, marketing, sustainability, writing Leave a comment »
When a person is born, the first thing we do is give her a name. A name formalizes the baby’s existence, gives us an easy way to make reference to her and provides a gateway to understanding and communication. Proper names are often given to inanimate objects, as well. It’s a way of humanizing them and making them seem more “knowable.” Give your third-quarter sales initiative a name, and people know you mean business. Suddenly, everyone has a name to rally around, a cause to champion, an identity to share.
The name of the game lately has been sustainability. Companies have been establishing their green initiatives and then formalizing them with a name or at least a theme.
That means some good, yet challenging, work for writers like me. Here are three such projects for high-profile companies.
1.
The first one is is for FedExCup and their effort to bring more sustainability to the game of golf, which by its very nature (or lack of it) isn’t particularly eco-friendly. Basically a golf course is a vast monoculture of grass and a lot of fertilizer. However, through this program, FedEx is working with an organization called The First Tee whose mission is to “impact the lives of young people by providing learning facilities and educational programs that promote character development and life-enhancing values through the game of golf.” It’s a noble goal. Even if a golf course can’t necessarily create a full-fledged sustainable ecosystem, it can help sustain something at least as valuable. Successful children. So how do you combine golf and the future in a name? Like this.
FedExCup Fore!Ever
2.
This next one is for the chemistry company Buckman. It is, no doubt, a challenge for a chemical company to go green. But Buckman is doing a lot to reduce its own environmental footprint and to help their clients do the same, reducing energy usage, water usage and waste in a variety of industries through advanced technologies. Buckman’s corporate color has always been green, so the name and theme for their sustainability initiative was a natural. Here’s the cover line and first page of copy from their just-published Sustainability Report.
3.
This last one is for International Paper. They just released a whole website based on this idea to showcase their sustainability efforts. Three of the sections there were written by yours truly: Carbon Footprint, Paper Sourcing and Recycled Paper.
There’s nothing unique or proprietary about “Down to Earth”. But it fits the general objective well, which is to provide straight talk on environmental issues and set straight some commonly held myths about pulp and paper. As I have said before, finding a unique name for your green campaign gets increasingly hard as more and more companies stake their claims. Better hurry.
Wordnut writes several 2010 Addy Award winners
Posted: March 2, 2010 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative | Tags: Addy Awards, advertising strategy, Carolina, Copywriting & Creative, FedEx, International Paper, Memphis Ad Fed 1 Comment »I am proud to have conceived and written a number of Memphis Addy Award winners this year, including winners in the following categories: full page color ad in a consumer or trade publication, color brochure/print collateral, and interactive self promotion in the public service category. The consumer ad also won Best of Show–Print! In addition I “concepted” and wrote the materials for a campaign that won numerous awards for its outstanding photography and art direction. As always I am very grateful to my clients who allow me to be a part of their successes (and earn a living in the process). Here are a few of the winners:
The ad
The brochure. Instead of the usual brochure, it is a collection of cards. The theme is “What will you build?” Each card covers something important you can build when you print on Carolina paper, such as store traffic, sales, pride, respect, profits, and so on.
The campaign for a silly contest for a paper company in which designers were asked to submit photos of themselves looking super serious.
To see the see the winning interactive entry, go here.
New Charmin commercial wipes some the wrong way
Posted: February 11, 2010 Filed under: Copywriting & Creative | Tags: Advertising, business, Charmin, commercials, Copywriting & Creative, creative, marketing, Slogans, toilet paper, writing 6 Comments »Medical commercials are bad enough. The ED commercials embarrass the devil out of me even as I wonder why anybody would have two separate bath tubs side-by-side. In a field, no less. But the new Charmin toilet tissue commercial? It just grosses me out. I’m talking about the one in which the bear mom examines the bear cub’s rear with a telescope. (Looking for asteroids, I assume.)
I have always disliked the overly cute bears and their butt-rubbing antics, but the newest spot is even worse. It goes into detail about how Charmin is stronger so it doesn’t leave bits of tissue you know where. Have any of us been all that concerned about it? Do you bring up this sort of thing to your friends? Can we not have some decorum? Can we not infer that a stronger tissue is good without going into details? Do we have to “draw a picture” for everything? On national television? Well, you might argue, it is a problem and they are in the tissue business. But something tells me they enjoy it just a little too much.
In fact, that’s where I really draw the line–at their new slogan: Enjoy the go!
Enjoy the go? Call me anal retentive, but that’s the last straw. And the last roll. Turn the other cheek? I don’t think so.
I’m switching to Northern.
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.
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.
