"Hi, I'm an Ad, Ignore Me!" That's what Mac Ross (The DM Fox) says most ads blurt out; he's right, of course. Whether it's online or off, an ad has to command attention. It must scratch an itch or strike a nerve, or stimulate anxiety, or joy, or what have you. In short, you must be in dialog with your audience or else they will ignore you, which is, of course, the biggest "dis" of all. "Life is full of chaos, and there's great value in that which makes order out of that chaos," observes the legendary Marty Edelston (founder of Boardroom Reports, which publishes Bottom Line Business and Bottom Line Personal, which just happens to be the largest subscription newsletter, with over 2 million readers). Does your copy make sense out of the chaos, or merely add to the increasing cacophony? Before getting into the Internet back in '93, I worked for Madison Avenue ad agencies. I started as a copywriter at the venerated Doyle Dane Bernbach and got to know Helmet Krone, who so deftly brought the values of Bauhaus to advertising. He created the classic VW, Avis, and Audi campaigns that pointed the way for future generations of art directors (who quite often revered and feared him). Because he had complimented me on a campaign I had done, I was buoyed enough to show him my next campaign. He began painstakingly pointing to each word of my overly- long headline that connected to the visual metaphor (a genre I was particularly attracted to then). He laboriously uttered each word until he gave up in the middle of the headline. "Deja vous," he said in that unmistakable low and mellifluous tone of his. "What?" said I. "There's nothing new here. I've seen all this before. It's just more of the same self-serving corporate s--t. You don't mind my being frank with you, do you?" "Oh no," I lied. "I would expect you to be nothing less than straight with me." "Well, I guess I should say something nice," Helmet pondered. "These comps are mounted on illustration board. That's new. It probably doesn't warp as much as foam core. That's a good idea. I will have to try that." True to form, all of his comps that I saw thereafter were mounted on illustration board. Look at your work and dare to ask yourself the scary question: "What would Helmet say?" "Sales in print" is what ad great John E. Kennedy said back in the '20s. Buying, whether it be b2b or b2c, is usually an emotional thing. People like to buy most products and services, though there are "grudge purchases" like different types of insurance (although this too is often a very emotional experience). A b2b buyer often is asking him or herself if they can deal with you on a day-in and day-out basis, so copy has to "speak" to the target in a visceral way. Storytelling is key: "We're having a sale on cars because it's Washington's Birthday." Excuse me? I don't think George had Buick Le Sabres on his mind when he was holed up in Valley Forge. Most sales need an emotional context, whether it's the sale of a car or a LAN. A consultative sales approach may work in the latter, but will be too skeptically received in the former. For the most part, most people write words instead of writing pictures. Your copy should evoke feelings and pictures that you draw in your storytelling. Your words should find Velcro waiting in the mind of the target, rather than laying there on the page like a latke. |
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