I'm starting a class in Copywriting at the Creative Circus next week and have been concepting where to start. I've not worked with these students before. I know they've taken courses in writing, web writing, a few others and have been taking teams concept courses, but the spread of the students' school terms and lack of personal knowledge had me flummoxed. I remembered my promise to talk here about Innovation and - unless I need to spend all the time on things more basic, I hope I've also found my core subject for the term.
By now, you've all read, contemplated, practiced working with both the Kamikaze Creative Work Plan and the Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Work Plan, right? You've spent time with the Key Fact discussions and how to manipulate various KCWP sections to change your ways of thinking (if not, go back and do it now - this post might not make sense if you haven't). That puts us here, with the assumption you have a project - advertising copy, art direction, personal, marketing, product development or whatever - you want more innovative. While this will be dealing more specifically with Copy, you can apply and manipulate the KCWP principles to just about anything.
First, let me dispel some myths about Prospects and Copy. The Prospect rules all creative endeavors. Innovation - no matter how far out you go and the farther out, the more true - lives in Prospectland, too. Professional Creatives - whether they're ad creatives, engineering creatives, product development creatives, whatever - innovate for our Prospect, not for ourselves, our books, bosses, yadda yadda. This puts a slightly different twist on things, shifts the paradigm from the creator/innovator to their Objective: creating the desired response in the Prospect. The kind of Innovation we do isn't creative for creative's sake. If you can't get your head around that, lots of Fine Art schools will show you how to follow your personal muse. Forget about Advertising.
There's another truth about Innovation you must consider: Innovation means different things to different people. Something may be old hat to you - but your grandparents may find it revolutionary. If your grandparents are your Prospect, it is - to them. If you're your Prospect, you're going to have to dig deeper. One exception I'd like you to consider: if you preface anything you present to your CD or in a portfolio show with "This was considered pretty radical for insert your category/market/the times here," it's nothing you want to show if you're going for innovative. Instead of being a smart thinker, you'll come across as unoriginal or old.
Knowing this, how do we innovate with Copy? Assuming you have a fresh, unexpected Concept, we have to look at that Concept through the Prospect Mind. Figure out how they take in the information/motivation, what's important to them and their process, how it relates to your job at hand.
So what makes Copy Innovating? Style? Content? Vocabulary? The lack of? Think back to the entry on What it takes. That thing about Problem Solving? That's where copy innovation starts. How will you solve the problem? What approach will you take? Find an innovative approach to solving the overall problem. You've taken the first step toward innovative Copy. It's the verbal or nonverbal but still communicative/informational expression of that solution.
Which brings us to another truth about Innovation. It breaks rules. Turns things upside down even in ways the Prospect may not notice, but will still make them engage/think. Regardless what it is.
Problem is, almost everything you can think of has been tried. Comic books, stories, sign. Poetry, true confessions, no copy at all. Go back to the way you solve the problem. Work from there. Follow where it takes you. Sometimes what makes copy innovative is the way the problem is solved; how it's presented. The juxtaposition of the information/solution can lead to expression in ways you'd never expect.
Make the copy not just an extension/explanation of your innovative solution. Make it part of - and therefore inseparable from - the solution. That's where you'll find the thread where innovative copy starts.
The thing is to implant your copy into your solution. Let the unexpected give birth to compatible, extended unexpected, rather than try to explain. This is a bit easier in Objective Based projects, as you get to determine - even invent - the medium as well as the concept. In the more traditional advertising mediums (and I consider much of web work part of traditional ad mediums - WTH, it's been twenty+ years!), where Copy is usually Copy. Concept Innovation needs to be extended to whatever it is you need to say.
You can do this stylistically, in the way you frame the solution of the Prospect Problem you're solving, with the way the Copy is fed to the Prospect, with no Copy at all - just about anything you can come up with. The key is to take the risks, grow your Copy as the Innovative Language of Innovative Concept. Whatever language that may be, however that Language can be delivered/received.
Take a look around. If you can, find something you consider Innovative. Then do a kind of Reverse Engineering, to figure out why it's Innovative, how it's Innovative and ultimately - if it's Innovative. Figure out who/what it's Innovative for. You don't want what you do to mirror what's already done - you just want to learn to intuit the process. Most importantly, how the process differs from the way Copy is usually done. When you realize that difference, it may be a clue to creating Innovative yourself.
(If several paragraphs post strangely, I don't know why. Mercury is heading Retrograde, however (7/14-8/8), so it's beyond my control. Don't you love it! It's not my fault - Mercury's Retrograde!)
By now, you've all read, contemplated, practiced working with both the Kamikaze Creative Work Plan and the Objective Based Kamikaze Creative Work Plan, right? You've spent time with the Key Fact discussions and how to manipulate various KCWP sections to change your ways of thinking (if not, go back and do it now - this post might not make sense if you haven't). That puts us here, with the assumption you have a project - advertising copy, art direction, personal, marketing, product development or whatever - you want more innovative. While this will be dealing more specifically with Copy, you can apply and manipulate the KCWP principles to just about anything.
First, let me dispel some myths about Prospects and Copy. The Prospect rules all creative endeavors. Innovation - no matter how far out you go and the farther out, the more true - lives in Prospectland, too. Professional Creatives - whether they're ad creatives, engineering creatives, product development creatives, whatever - innovate for our Prospect, not for ourselves, our books, bosses, yadda yadda. This puts a slightly different twist on things, shifts the paradigm from the creator/innovator to their Objective: creating the desired response in the Prospect. The kind of Innovation we do isn't creative for creative's sake. If you can't get your head around that, lots of Fine Art schools will show you how to follow your personal muse. Forget about Advertising.
There's another truth about Innovation you must consider: Innovation means different things to different people. Something may be old hat to you - but your grandparents may find it revolutionary. If your grandparents are your Prospect, it is - to them. If you're your Prospect, you're going to have to dig deeper. One exception I'd like you to consider: if you preface anything you present to your CD or in a portfolio show with "This was considered pretty radical for insert your category/market/the times here," it's nothing you want to show if you're going for innovative. Instead of being a smart thinker, you'll come across as unoriginal or old.
Knowing this, how do we innovate with Copy? Assuming you have a fresh, unexpected Concept, we have to look at that Concept through the Prospect Mind. Figure out how they take in the information/motivation, what's important to them and their process, how it relates to your job at hand.
So what makes Copy Innovating? Style? Content? Vocabulary? The lack of? Think back to the entry on What it takes. That thing about Problem Solving? That's where copy innovation starts. How will you solve the problem? What approach will you take? Find an innovative approach to solving the overall problem. You've taken the first step toward innovative Copy. It's the verbal or nonverbal but still communicative/informational expression of that solution.
Which brings us to another truth about Innovation. It breaks rules. Turns things upside down even in ways the Prospect may not notice, but will still make them engage/think. Regardless what it is.
Problem is, almost everything you can think of has been tried. Comic books, stories, sign. Poetry, true confessions, no copy at all. Go back to the way you solve the problem. Work from there. Follow where it takes you. Sometimes what makes copy innovative is the way the problem is solved; how it's presented. The juxtaposition of the information/solution can lead to expression in ways you'd never expect.
Make the copy not just an extension/explanation of your innovative solution. Make it part of - and therefore inseparable from - the solution. That's where you'll find the thread where innovative copy starts.
The thing is to implant your copy into your solution. Let the unexpected give birth to compatible, extended unexpected, rather than try to explain. This is a bit easier in Objective Based projects, as you get to determine - even invent - the medium as well as the concept. In the more traditional advertising mediums (and I consider much of web work part of traditional ad mediums - WTH, it's been twenty+ years!), where Copy is usually Copy. Concept Innovation needs to be extended to whatever it is you need to say.
You can do this stylistically, in the way you frame the solution of the Prospect Problem you're solving, with the way the Copy is fed to the Prospect, with no Copy at all - just about anything you can come up with. The key is to take the risks, grow your Copy as the Innovative Language of Innovative Concept. Whatever language that may be, however that Language can be delivered/received.
Take a look around. If you can, find something you consider Innovative. Then do a kind of Reverse Engineering, to figure out why it's Innovative, how it's Innovative and ultimately - if it's Innovative. Figure out who/what it's Innovative for. You don't want what you do to mirror what's already done - you just want to learn to intuit the process. Most importantly, how the process differs from the way Copy is usually done. When you realize that difference, it may be a clue to creating Innovative yourself.
(If several paragraphs post strangely, I don't know why. Mercury is heading Retrograde, however (7/14-8/8), so it's beyond my control. Don't you love it! It's not my fault - Mercury's Retrograde!)
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