More Haiku for you: What every Kamikaze Copywriter needs for inspiration, lessons in writing visually

More on why Haiku are so good for learning to write copy

As with my post of 1/13/13, What Japanese Poets know about Kamikaze Copywriting, I appreciate both the freedom – and strict limitations – of traditional Japanese Haiku.  Growing up in Japan, the form was all around me.  At best, I spoke/read pigeon Japanese, but mine was a family of readers and in keeping with our surroundings my parents often shared these amazing little poems with me. 

I think what I love most – and learned best – from this early (ongoing, really – I still read them for inspiration, in admiration of their form) exposure was how visual words can be without using descriptors.  When I write on a student’s paper “be more visual!” I don’t mean add a string of modifiers.  I mean put me (and your prospect) in the word picture you’re painting.

  

Writing visually is more about the experience than the description.  Visual writing is active, engaging.  Does this mean “I watched little Sally’s chubby legs run in ever-widening circles around the riot of blues, pinks and yellows that is her granny’s old English garden?”  Absolutely not.  Visual writing is active, puts the reader into the picture.  It isn’t about an experience.  It is the experience.  It isn't about the product, it is the product.

I often tell students “don’t write about the product, put the product – and the prospect – in active, sparsely worded perspective."  Product as hero.  Here are a few clues:

Action verbs, not passive verbs

Make the reader see what you’re saying, not hear it in their heads.  This means there’s also an engaging emotional component to your words and structure.

Don’t add more words, enrich the words you already have.

Visual writing is about the depth, quality¸ rhythm of words, how they fit into the line’s structure.  Playing with structure itself can add a visual sense.  Here’s a line I often use when defining Translate the Thought:  I know why birds fly (the thought it translates, I hate sitting in traffic).  The line contains no descriptors, but immediately brings to mind the image/feeling of birds flying freely and how I wish I could do the same.  In my mind, I see geese in chevron flight.  A friend of mine sees hawks circling.  My husband wonders if the canary got out of his cage.

My point is, the action the birds take – flying – gives the mental picture I can see myself in.  The knowingness speaks to how I feel about it.  It’s visual writing, sans descriptors.

I've given the assignment of writing advertising Haiku before (see post captioned above).  It’s always a big hit, although I am often perplexed by the difficulties students have with the 5-7-5 and using words that aren’t weak verbs, meaningless fillers (see Kamikaze Copy Sins). This assignment is going to be a bit different from the one I usually give.

This week’s assignment is to write three advertising Haiku.  How do ad Haiku differ from traditional?

 

• You must use the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, write visually and include a strong kiru (twist).  The language/tone/voice however, must speak to your prospect.  Thinking of the first two lines as posing a problem, the third, final line as its answer may help you get your head around the assignment, kiru, etc.
• You must include at least one feature/benefit (see blog post 8/27/12, Features, Benefits and the Language of Concept) in each Haiku.
• Each Haiku must be written to one of these prospect/product combos.  You must do three different product/prospect combos, not three Haiku to the same one:
• Safety message – teens texting while driving
• Sweet potatoes (category) – seniors
•  All natural, organic dog food (choose a brand) – dog owners
• Kitty towers (those carpeted climbing perches you see in pet stores) – cat owners
• Go To Meeting.com – meeting site/software to small business owners
• Axe Body Spray – Millennial Males (don’t worry about trying to match their current stuff)
• The Creative Circus – Upcoming college graduates
• This class – prospective Circus students

That should give you a pretty good field to choose from.  Post your Haiku in the comments section to this entry, bring them to Doreen Live!, we'll discuss them in class and I will take them home w/me (bring two hard copies to class, one for me, one for you) Thursday, 1:30 at the Circus.

Questions?  Reread the assignment email I sent earlier today.  Contact me via the Circus student gmail box.

Have fun.  See you there. 

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative

•  

Don't blame me, Mercury is Retrograde

From the Kamikaze Creative email bag:  Tag lines in the news.  What Doreen's been thinking over break.  The next assignment.

Can it be?  Another class, another new group of writers to torture, vex, bullyrag praise? Is Mercury in Retrograde (can't you tell the answer is Yes!)?  Copy Sins march on.

An email from a good friend, former student, great AD smart CD.  Great for tweaking the noggin, he sent another interesting link.  What do you think? 

Doreen:

Maybe you've seen this already, maybe not.  Maybe it's relevant, maybe not.  Maybe it can find its way into one of your lectures or blog, maybe not.  Maybe it'll spark an epiphany that leads to your next book, maybe not.  Maybe I should stop using the word maybe so much, maybe not :)

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/death-tagline-152255

Thoughts?

Plenty.

Read the article - have always hated tag lines and at times, refused to write them.  Had  to anyway, agency/client insisted or worse - the client tried to write it for me.  I have too much respect for One-Five Perfect Words not to have caved. 

The right tag  can go integrated viral.  Be the brand, the catch phrase.  Today’s issue isn't  to tag or not to tag.  It's Can your line take advantage of all the inventive and traditional media we get to play in.

We have so many options, opportunities.  So many more and varied world markets to target, unique slang, sayings, cultural points of view.  

The article is right, not all tags are suited to all applications.  Characters space words messaging fonts colors.  A tag is not meant to be sacrosanct.  Like English, Russian, French and any other native tongue, tag lines are living, breathing language.  What you want to say is simple.  Say it straight. Then Translate the Thought.  Play in the richness of structure, language, niche terms, trending verbs.  Make it active, visual (in Kamikaze Creativeland, the term visual doesn't mean descriptive - it's writing the Prospect sees themselves in).

If it's not simple enough, drill it down.  Make it easy.  Remember all great Advertising is Singular.  Then translate the thought.

You don’t have to use it the in the same form manner, position, type color paper.  Just Do It lives as #Do, Just This, Just That.  Do This, Do That. Embed it in the video, set tone for the site, packaging, carry the product through ambient, promotions, direct, e- traditional broadcast, apps.  As yet undiscovered media.  It can live long after a new guy decides to change it, in the corporate space, an internal communication to employees.

Tag lines used to be this big important thing – unchanging, protected in use, graphic standards, etc.  I've used Writer by Trade/Problem Solver by Inclination forever.  It expresses what I do better than Kamikaze Creative, more philosophy than function.  I don't always use WBT/PSBI, depends what I need/am trying to do for/to whom.  Writer by Trade/Strategist by Inclination.  Writer/Thinker.  Smarter Writing/Smarter Strategies.  Same tag, simple, flexible in structure, allowing changes Prospects use to connect. 

Our industry is very uncreative about certain things - how we charge, client relations, media, new business.  As we’ve seen in the past two decades, advertising has been way too slow on the what how importance potential, successful use of e- and other emerging media.  How we use creative - to what end, where when. 

With all that Mad Man posturing, why hold the tag sacred? 

Change happens.  You feel it coming, plan ahead.  Play with strong, visual words you can use alone or in phrase.  Use structure to allow the change of a word for global local niche markets, trending slang.  You can reinforce the tag/branding without using all the words/the exact same words.  It's sacrilegious to fool with it is craziness. It's not the tag line that's dated.  It is our use of it. 

I’ve seen tag lines ground wandering creatives and clients - a good thing.  I've also seen "nonsense" tags become ad fashion - the "people helping people people" blind approach.  Hence my anti-tag kick, more about what clients (and agencies) demanded they say or not say - and boy does Company XYZ have a great line.  I want something exactly like that only about us. 

Today's issue isn't to tag or not tag.  It's how to use your line effectively   We have so many more options to reach so many more markets. All those unique customs language quirks points of view to consider.  

If it's structured for an unexpected strong word you can use singly, change words or order to suit global marketing, you're reinforcing the tag/branding without using all the words/the exact same words. 

A killer tag can start as a headline, move to the tag.  Live there for a bit, morph a bit to fit emerging markets, niches, mediums.  That's one of the most fun things about working in today's ad biz - all the options. 

Tag lines have options, too.  The world moves fast, emerging markets change, even mighty America is no longer the world commerce leader we once were.  Doesn't mean we should kill the form - just let it live in expanding opportunities and usefulness.

How can corporations refuse to change tags as they grow larger, expand business offerings, products, prospects, world markets, global applications, etc.  We update logos and still maintain corporate ID – why not tags? 

The real thing I hate about them?  Branding firms get hundreds of thousands of dollars for a clunky one.  Freelance writers are usually paid by a limited number of hours, no matter how great the lines are. 

In response, this what my CD friend wrote back:

Personally, I struggle a bit with the notion of a tag or "positioning" being an organic thing.  Feels to me like, if that copy is doing its job, it should transcend media placement, generational differences, product variations/line extensions and even good English..."Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee" does all those things.

The fact brands are moving away from the tag feels like it has more to do, in my opinion, with this generation's insatiable desire to dictate/influence content and to have an ever changing experience rather than a sound strategic reason to do so.  So brands jump on that bandwagon to appear hip and connected. And that's fine.  But I think brands lose a little something when they can no longer convey what they stand for with the perfect combination of four to six words.

With more brands and touch points than ever before, that seems like the perfect argument to "SAVE THE TAG LINE."  (We'll make t-shirts and start a public service campaign.)  S***, what do I know…I guess my journey toward irrelevance has officially begun.

You’re not irrelevant, toots.  You’re mulling and thinking, discussing, being open to ideas, challenges.  Pushing your own limits so you can push the limits of the solutions you propose.  You're not irrelevant.  You're Kamikaze.

To those in my Circus class this Q:  Your next assignment.  Write a KCWP for a product you are currently working on in another class.  If you are not working on anything for another class use one you know something about. Use it to concept/write/translate the thought behind the product/company mission perception products prospect reality into twenty tag lines.  I want to see your KCWP, including any additional KKFs you try.  

I want to see the simple, plain statement you need to translate.  Then twenty different ways to translate its thought.  For the top three on your list (the ones you think work best), show me at least two additional extensions of the proposed tag, based either on use and/or cultural concerns.  Confused?  Wait for the email.  It'll be in bullets.

HINT:  Tags are like headlines and the last line of a great ad web page broadcast spot.  Memorable, with strong energy and a thought that somehow makes the Prospect participate in it.  Tag lines should be as conceptual as everything else we do.

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative.

A Kamikaze Apology for Things Beyond My Control

I don't know how it happens, either.  All those extra colons, periods, spaces, ugly glitches in posts I actually edit and proofread at least a half-dozen times.

Pretty sure it has something to do with transition from Word to Blogger.  It's been suggested I try to write in Mac Text and transfer/copy from there.  After grades are out, I'll give it a shot.  Meanwhile, please forgive errors not of my making.  

 

How Kamikaze Creatives make:Best Dressed Copy lists: In which Doreen.pushes style farther and gives one doozie of an assignment.

Before I let you go crazy on this last assignment of the term, a few thoughts inspired by the pages of your last two.  Random thinking of style/language of concept:

If you’re aping a known style of writing/voice/attitude, exaggerate.  Overwrite, then whittle to the point of ridiculousness during the edit(s).  Our prospect may not be as into the small details of writing late night (think Shamwow) styled spots, so we need to exaggerate the form to its highest art (read “clichés”). 

  

Keep it visual.  Example:  this sparse but powerful vision penned by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.  “...meat hook realities…”  Can’t you see the poor guy facing that bloody mess of an environment?  That’s him, third hook to the right.

Style needn't be an official Style.  Advertising is fashion.  In all its forms, agencies keep producing – no,  reproducing – work that cycles like a Jennifer Anniston hairstyle.  The first time you see it, it’s brilliant.  Give it a few weeks, watch an entire creative genre start, build and die like lapels and hemlines.  Work growing to fashion will dictate advertising style for the next few years.

When you use a particular style, everything must be in that style.  One slip, you’re toast.  Your features and benefits may not have existed in the Dark Ages, but must be put in Gothish English/mocking modern style.  Your roadster may sport z-rated Pirellis.  In Styleland your wheels were carved and installed by the well-known blacksmith, Enzo Pirelli. 

Don’t worry about toning it down.  Worry about using style as an excuse to ignore content/creative strategy.  The more you edit, the more the closer to what’s right you’ll be.  The chain of approval will let you know what’ll fly politically.  Your Kamikaze Prospect Definition will let you know how far you can go and still stay within the prospect’s comfort, interest/understanding of your stylistic approach.

Language of Concept most easily falls out of your concept (driven by a killer KKF, no doubt).  It must catch your prospect’s mind, ear and imagination in the private language of those who share some common experience/appreciation/sense of humor/sense of adventure/love of Sci-Fi/Damon Runyon street thugs/Justin Bebier. When it’s right, there’s rarely a choice. 

Whatever your muse, LOC forms almost on its own.  Not until the edit edit edit do you nail it – taking out/putting in those semantic, grammarian/non-grammarian details so important to hearing exactly what you say.

ON TO THE CIRCUS ASSIGNMENT:  The Circus students taking my class this term are required to do this.  Anyone else reading is more than welcome to play along.  Consider it as a reminder why we do this.

This is the last new assignment of the term.  Thursday afternoon’s live class is the deadline for this and all your final revisions of copy, lines, KCWPs I have asked you to revise.  Hard copies, all attached to each other somehow, please. I have copies of everything you’ve done, so all I want are the final edits and this assignment.  If I told you something was final, include it, labeled "Final."  Don’t forget to exchange work for classmate edits.

Hopefully, this one will amaze, amuse and frustrate the heck out of you:

One paragraph, written in your choice of three different styles.  Same KCWP, same copy, translated for the same prospect in three distinctly different styles. Each must include at least two features/benefits.  If there are more than two, use two in one style, two different ones in another, up to the six most important aspects in the minds of the prospect.

Here are some styles you might consider:

Murder mysteries – old English, modern, Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys, Dashiell Hammett, Miss Marple, Sherlock (Holmes or current PBS model), Berretta (stupid bumbling mumbling detective solves all), Dick Francis – whatever mystery style you want.

Romance novels.  Contemporary, historical of any period, but must be correct to its events, attitudes, Prospect Definition and importantly, style. 

Humor – all genres, all styles.  Can be of any attitude, semi-rude language, but must be Prospect Centered and conform to realities of product, style.  Sarcasm, overly dry or intellectual, political - which will best translate your message in a language they not only understand – but appreciate, find interesting, enjoy.  Most importantly, read and be motivated by your message and the way it’s presented, remember it.

Parody – be careful.  Do not insult, make fun of, vex or otherwise rise the ire of your Prospect.  Make sure you’re not too dismissive with your product. 

Lawrence Ferhlingetti.  I suggest (and highly recommend) A Coney Island of the Mind.

Anyone famous with a distinctive way of dress, speaking, point of world view.  If they’re famous you can pretty much imitate anyone you want.  What a concept!

I think you get the idea – there are gazillions of styles – recognizable styles – out there.  Pick three.  Your only limitations are always Prospect First.  Not your own ego/ambition.  Beyond Prospect approval there may also be varying tolerances of agency and client agendas to consider on the job.

For those still reeling, try this.

1.  Pick a Prospect
2. Pick a product with at least two strong features/benefits.  A product used/coveted by your Prospect.
3. Write a KCWP.  The only differences a style might command in your KCWP, if you have enough features/benefits to use two different ones in each style.  In this case your Promise/Reasons Why may differ with those using different F&Bs.
4.  Push your KKF.  Make sure it’s something the Prospect(s) all hold in common, some truth you can bend to the will of your Prospect, style, product, etc.
5. Concept, using different KKFs (fully pushed, then pushed some more) until you have a concept you can express in three distinctly different styles.
6. Write your paragraph in plain English first, as simply and ordered as possible.
7. Translate that paragraph into each of your three styles.
8. Almost forgot:  Post your favorite paragraph in this blog's Comments.  Let's share.
9. Oh – and don’t forget all your final revisions are due, too.

Looks like I will be down for a live class this Thursday afternoon.  More details after I speak w/Janie.  Have fun.

©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative.

I found it! More on the Kamikaze Key Fact, a few other things

I finally found the missing note that was to have been the basis of the last post.  While some of it was covered, there are some suggestions on where Kamikaze Key Facts hide I may have overlooked earlier.  Here's the note:

Kamikaze Key Facts can be found in an event, war, royal marriage/birth/death, attitude, philosophy, celebrity gossip, politics, fashion, scandals, conspiracy theories, legislation, election/politicians, whatever.

The one thing you can't forget is that whatever your KKF is based upon, it must exist/have happened at a time/place in the Prospect's life that made them especially aware of the KKF inspiring person/event.  Could be in a good or bad way. It just has to resonate with your Prospect and be big enough to carry your message in a way that engages the Prospect, motivating them to interact with your Concept.

If it can conceptually carry your product and strike an emotional motivation the Prospect (group) shares, it may the key to Concept you've been looking for.  

I'd also like to discuss a problem many beginners seem to have with the Kamikaze Key Fact. It's not part of the Prospect Definition.  Many of you try to use something that really gives insight into the Prospect's life. That's part of how the Prospect defines themselves or can be defined by others.

The Kamikaze Key Fact is never about the client/product.  It's always about the Prospect.  Like everything else in the Kamikaze Creative Work Plan, it must be stated from the Prospect's point of view. Creative from the client's point of view really doesn't concern the Prospect.  Because they don't volunteer to pay attention to advertising communications of any ilk, only by speaking in their language about things that interest/benefit them and inspire Prospect participation in the concept can we motivate the Prospect to fulfill the Advertising Objective.

Professional clients understand this.  Smaller, newer clients may not grok that their concerns are secondary to their Prospect's.  It behooves us to educate them to Prospect Centered thinking.  Especially as they are seldom the Prospect. 

Hope all that helps.  If not, let me know.  I'll try to find another way to explain it for you.

HOLY KAMIKAZE IT MUST BE NEAR MIDTERM: Emotional Threads, more Kamikaze Key Fact Insight, Watch for new student Advertising Haiku, add your own

As too often happens, I woke up in the middle of the night and put some KKF thoughts down on a pad.  I finally found the pad in the dogs’ toy box, partially chewed but no notes.  Here’s as close as I can come to what I wanted to tell you:

By now you know how important the Kamikaze Prospect Definition is.  In Kamikaze Creativeland what goes on inside the Prospect is as important as what you see outside.

The key is to discover what feelings, thoughts, attitudes, emotional highs lows baggage the Prospect Group holds in common.  I say Prospect Group as our Prospect can seem so broad, beyond obvious demographics they seemly hold little innerscape in common.

This is where that “emotional thread” running through all of them, no matter how disparate they may seem, comes in.  

It’s one thing to grok your Prospect based on occupation, education, age, stats, figures and obvious surface, societal commonalities.  But because the most effective advertising speaks directly to our Prospect on an intimate, emotional level (as well as a factual, product/competitive/feature/benefit level), we have to find common human ground.  

No matter how different their politics, spiritual beliefs, social habits/requirements, some common emotional tie holds them together.  What we used to call The Great Cosmic Consciousness.

If we can discern this, we can use it in combination with the KKF, to motivate our Prospect – B2C or B2B - on a personal, almost unconscious level.  Gottcha!

Some examples of common emotional threads:

Fear of death, life, poverty, wealth, anonymity¸ fame

Love/Fear of animals, Love/Worries of/about children

Worries about money/economy, politics/war/peace/environment

Worries about love or hate certain types of music, art, literature, popular science, philosophy, fashion, food

Hobbies, clichés, closeness to family, families of friends, being alone – lonely or not.

Weather Issues (hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, ice/hail storms, flooding, drought)

Medical issues (Cancer, blindness health insurance, plague, Influenza), Anxiety, Loneliness

That Summer Feeling when the air/some event/some person, song, place triggers thoughts of being free/young/unfettered

Distrust of “Foreigners,” Trusting blindly, beyond stupidity

Loyalty to family/friends/political party/sports team/club/school/self/country/church/ city/state

Selflessness, Selfishness, Spirituality/Religion/Disbelief

Sport/Exercise/Sense of physical self, Strong/Weak sense of self/ego/confidence

Hormones/minds/bodies blocking sense they can die.  Bodies programmed for rebelliousness

Looking for old dreams, regrets.  Looking ahead, no regrets.

The list is endless.  Truly grok your Prospect, find the right one.  Live inside your Prospect.  Go where they go, read their magazines, special interest pubs and sites, listen to their music, watch their movies, TV,  shop in their stores (food, clothing, music, toys¸ flea markets, whatever).  Take public transportation, go sit in a Rolls Royce, visit the farm, factory, lunch counters.

Millions of people lumped together as one market.  Different jobs, different families, geographies, life stories.  As valuable as demographers’ externals are – income, age, sex, marital status, sexual identity, education, addictions, diseases, number of bathrooms.  It’s the internal, universal, cosmic consciousness commonalities – human emotions, attitudes, hopes fears dreams and dreams deferred – that bond them all in a way we can touch, motivate.

 

When you see “What’s the emotional thread that ties them together?” on your KCWP, that’s what I’m looking for.

It’s integral to the Kamikaze Prospect Definition.  No matter what you learn about a Prospect’s tastes, habits, daily grind, family status, financial security – it’s how they feel about those things – or how they wish they feel about those things – that feeds  our motivational thrust, language, design, colors, imaging.  It touches everything we discuss with our Prospect, every aspect of how we say it.

  

Without it we can make an argument, hope they buy in.  With it they identify, feel, skew the decisions – emotional and intellectual - in our direction.  Combined with the Kamikaze Key Fact, it’s the most powerful road to true Participatory Concepts we can take.

What, then of the Kamikaze Key Fact? 

The KKF is bigger picture.  Something going on in the Prospect’s World/Memory felt strongly enough to motivate the Prospect, make them part of the conversation.  For some reason, many students find the concept of the KKF difficult to grasp.  I think it's largely due to how little about the Prospect’s world they truly understand.  Unless they’re advertising/concepting to/for themselves, they lack historical, philosophical, literary societal and practical experience to find KKFs that truly resonate w/their Prospect.

 

If this is the case, where do you look?  For common experiences that affect/affected their lives in ways we can relate to the client’s product.  Here are some KKF hiding places:

History – events that somehow changed the way the Prospect perceives the world.  Vietnam, Duck and Cover, 9/11, The Peace Movement, Hippies, Iraq, Chicago, car culture, assassinations, politicians,The Korean War, super heroes, super nerds, popular literature, cowboys in white hats, magazines, entertainment (movie & TV, as children and adults), Super Mario, Dynasty, Ozzie Osborne, fraternities/sororities, Ricky Nelson, D&D, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Match Box 20, Hank 3, Waylon and Willie, Rap, Ska, Beyoncé, bikinis, Liberace, yoyos music proms athletes high school football Halloween I think you get the picture.

Fashion – colors, design, interior and popular, personal, societal, industrial, architectural, advertising.

Formative economy – national, international, local, familial.  In childhood, teen, young adulthood.  The past, present, future.

Hobbies and Sports – Hula Hoops, Wind boarding, Sailing, Olympics, Football, Yoga, X-Games, Baseball, Basketball, Pool, Poker Psychics Reality TV are you starting to get the idea?

Kamikaze Key Facts lurk in every aspect of the Prospect’s total life experience.  The ones (and there are always more than one KKF) that align most with that Common Emotional Thread are what you’re looking for.  Try one.  Try a dozen.  See where they take you, what kind of conceptual context, language of concept - visual and verbal – this powerful combination (Emotional Thread + KKF) offers.  

Which do you use to insinuate your client’s product into their lives, connect with that special place, event, emotion?

ow m

It’s a powerful combination of Prospect and Product knowledge.  It’s the jumping off point for truly conceptual thinking.  Sure, some people can get there without the KCWP, Kamikaze Prospect Definition, Emotional Thread, Kamikaze Key Fact.  Some people have instinctual creative magic.  Still, they all had to start somewhere.  The Kamikaze Creative Work Plan teaches you how to think, organize ideas, thoughts input in a way that mimics the Creative Process.  With it, you’ll go farther, get there faster.

For my Circus class it’s time to share the results of your Advertising Haiku assignment.  For those playing at home, go to my blog post of 1/13/13, “What Japanese Poets know about Kamikaze Copywriting” and come up with some of your own. 

My students are required to post all their final approved and newly revised Haiku (three/student, as usual) in this post’s “Comments."  Everyone else is invited to do the same.  Let us know which you like best.  Since the class is mostly skyped one-on-one, it’ll give us a chance to see what/how the rest of the class is doing.

 

It’s also a great warm-up for jumping to our topic for the next live Circus class Thursday afternoon, August 15^th:  Style/Copywriting in the Language of Concept. 

©2113, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative

A peek inside the Kamikaze Creative Freelance Manifesto: Doreen gets a question. Let’s talk business.

Got an email from a former student.  Graduated, got a good job with a great Mentor/CD. Have an opportunity to freelance.  I don’t know how.

Here then a few gems from Doreen’s Kamikaze Freelance Manifesto.  These have to do with the business of freelancing, money, billing.  It’s often a difficult thing for beginning freelancers to be firm and upfront with rates and terms.  Hopefully, what I’ve learned will help.

1.  If you freelance while working full time, do not do it at work, discuss it with coworkers or use your employer’s equipment.  Many employers’ frown on employees freelancing.  Others don’t care.  Still not good to have it show up in any form at work.  Especially if it’s for another agency.
2. Never, ever, freelance for one of your agency’s clients.  Seems obvious, but you’d be surprised.
3. Talk money before you accept an assignment.  Tell them your hourly rate, how you bill, when you bill.  Ask what their budget is.  What the job is (get a detailed description). What role do they want you to take?  Concept, Design, Production?  Editing corporate speak or copy/language of concept?  Content?  Content Design/Strategy?  Ongoing blogging or single contribution?  Work from self-research or client input?  
4.  Depending upon the job it’s either one or more parts, or the whole.  How fast do you need it?  Do you need an AD/Designer/CW/backend/production person, too?
5. Each impacts the amount of time you’ll need to do the job.  Can get in/out quickly or will it carry for weeks months years?

4. Work from a signed Estimate.  Outline what your responsibilities are, what you will do, what the estimate includes, doesn’t. 

Give your time estimate, your hourly rate, any fees or materials included.  Have the client sign, keep that copy.  Ask for a Purchase Order.  Some jobs don’t require one, if it does include the PO# in Estimate if possible, always  in Retainer,  all other billing (Progressive/Final/You name it)

.

5. A word about Estimates.  If you’ve never worked with a client before, pad the hours you think it will take.  Not too much – allow for a few more meetings, revisions, phone calls.  Unless they’re a professional client (ask around, make sure they haven’t been burning every writer in town) who’s done similar projects with other freelancers, getting information, approvals, existing photos/illustrations, meetings, etc., may take longer than you think.  If they don’t, you can always even things up on the final bill.
6. Unless it’s a straight fee, I personally bill to hours spent.  No matter how much more I could charge by estimate.  If I go over an hour or two on a small job, several hours on a big one, I usually eat the time, but make sure the client knows I don’t have to.  If I can keep the relationship upfront and honest, there’ll be no problems when time-sucker jobs really go over.
7. If a job goes over because of my error – I didn’t follow directions, am off the approved strategy, had problems of my own making, I eat the time.  As long as the client isn’t asking for changes due to pure subjectivity, I own the problem.  Make this clear on all estimates/invoices.
8. If a job goes over estimate due to client error, incorrect/incomplete input, changes in previously approved strategy, bringing me in for meetings that don’t happen, blind subjectivity, avoidable corrections and rewrites, the client pays.  Make this clear on all estimates/invoices.
9. When you start talking money, but before you write the Estimate, let the client know you get a 50% of Estimate Retainer before you start work on a project.  You may decide to eliminate it later for a steady, well-paying client, but the Retainer is one of the best indications of a client’s respect for your time and Invoice.  If they pay the Retainer, they pay the Final Bill.
10. The Retainer will also pay the rent until you finish – and then typically wait another 30 days+ - to be paid for it.  If you’re a very busy fulltime freelancer, your cash flow may not make living off your Retainer necessary.  But it’s still good business (lawyers do it), helps qualify clients.
11. Decide what other terms you want.  Will you get the Retainer and wait until the end of the job – no matter how long it takes – to bill them the balance?  Or will you Progressive Bill long lasting jobs?  How many days will you give them to pay?  Ten?  Thirty?
12. I offer tiered discounts for those who pay any bill (but the Estimate) early.  The Estimate is due on receipt, although I usually allow a few days to turn the check around.  I also charge escalating interest for those who pay late.
13. Spell out all terms on your invoice.  I also put in a clause using the Retainer as a Kill Fee if the job is killed after I start, but before I’ve used all the Retainer time.  I am my only inventory.  If I set time aside for a certain job, it may mean turning down something else.  It may also mean I can’t get that job back or start another job right away.
14. If it’s not in writing, you cannot trust things to go according to agreement.  You have no recourse (short of harassment) if someone doesn’t pay your bill.  If the job’s killed, you want to get paid for reasonable time, effort, lost opportunity. 
15. Talking about freelance terms is different from salary negotiations.  You may want to give someone a deal because you want to build a relationship.  If so, be sure they know it’s this once.  Subsequent work will be negotiated at your normal rate.
16. Often we’re asked to do a job for a flat fee.  This can be a bonus or a time sucker.  If I think I can do a low fee job and not feel like I gave it away, I might take it to build a relationship, because I’m otherwise unoccupied, because it’s a job I really want to do (fun, new category, new medium, great art director/designer, whatever).
17.  If the fee’s high, karma is paying you back for the last one that ate your lunch.  I always try to find out if they have a budget before I start taking hourly rates.  If it’s something I don’t want to do, if the fee is too low, I explain what it would cost to have me do it and offer to ask around for a less expensive writer to refer.  I give them a little free advice on what to look for, what things could cost at meatiest – and barest –bone.  Entrepreneurs, single proprietorships, friends of relatives have no idea what we do and how much things cost.  A frank discussion + a little (free) good advice often mean a real client when they have budget to spend.
18.  If you’re freelancing for a living (no job), never let one client become more than 40% of your total time available to work.  If a client wants you on long term Retainer/Contract, that’s something else.  But a real freelancer will work for many different clients.  Individuals, entrepreneurs, start-ups, small businesses, the Forbes 100, ad agencies, digital shops, non-profits.  B2B, B2C, Social Media.  Stuff and people you never dreamed existed.    Let one client take all (or even most of) your time, where will you be left when they go in-house?  Hire an agency that doesn’t want project work going anywhere else?
19. This also means you should always be working new business in some way, no matter how busy you are.  If we learned anything from the last recession, it has to be diversity is safer ground.  New business efforts get you remembered later, hired sooner, with less dependence upon a single client/industry.
20. One more point about freelancing with a fulltime job.  Your job must be priority one, no matter how much fun, much money, much future the freelance may represent.  Your agency – no matter how you feel about it – is paying your taxes, health insurance and other benefits.  Unless you’re ready to take all that on yourself – and freelancers do pay higher taxes than corporate employees – your first loyalty is to the steady job.  Let your freelance client know that.  If he’s a good client, he’ll respect you for it.

ONE TO GROW ON

21. What happens when someone doesn’t pay?  It’s up to you.  Here are some of the techniques I’ve used to collect from deadbeats:
1. Sicced a lawyer on an out of state client.  High fee but the b**@ards paid the bill.
2. Harassment.  Sometimes feels good for your soul, but the truth is the person who’s telling you she can’t issue your check probably can’t.  I’m sure she’d rather pay on time, but clients – especially agencies – hold up payment for many reasons.  They want to get paid before they pay you.  Cash flow problems.  Corporate process.  The only person who can sign the check is in Argentina.
3. Creativity.  After several months of lies (check in mail/on Friday/yaddayaddayadda), one very hot, very humid August day I dressed in my dirtiest barn clothes, neglected to put on deodorant and mucked 24 horse stalls.  I then positioned myself in front of the agency receptionist and politely waited for my check.  To go in or out of the main door you had to pass within nose range.  Amazing how little time it took.  I ran to their bank, cashed it immediately.  Never worked for them again.  Warned everyone I knew to keep away

LAST ONE, I PROMISE

22.  Build your network.  Swap books with other freelancers, no matter what they do.  Keep in touch w/friends and classmates working at agencies fulltime.  Use your college/university alumnae list, instructors.  Follow up with favored AEs, Clients, Project Managers, Production people.  Be respectful of all – you never know where your next freelance job is coming from.

Once again, Blogger is messing w/my word outline.  Hope it's not to difficult to follow without the proper spacing, etc.  If any of you have a fix for this, please let me know.

As all posts in this blog ©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative ©

Category vs. Brand: In which Doreen expresses surprise at the apparent ignorance thereof

Sorry about the title but couldn’t stop myself.  

As I gear up for Thursday’s drive to Atlanta and the first class of the Circus’ summer term, I’ve been thinking back to last quarter’s panels.  For those of you who aren’t Creative Circus students, each quarter ends with a review of every student’s work from all his classes that term.

 

I met many of this term’s students in last term’s panel.  Took notes about trends I saw in two days reviewing copy students’ work.  Since I only saw writers, I thought it’d offer guidance for what they’d need this term.

Most did not know the difference between writing for one distinct prospect and writing for one entirely different prospect.  Work which should have been targeted to other groups was all concepted/written for their own age group.  This one’s quite scary to me, but why I offer the Come One Come All Creative Strategy workshop at the beginning of each term.  If they haven’t attended one yet, whose fault is that? (You don’t have to be a Circus Student to attend.  PC, GA State, GA Tech, Emory, Arts Center and all other students interested in advertising are welcome.  It’s this Friday, 7/12, 9:30 a.m. in the Carol Vick Bynum Theater.  Tell the security guard you’re my guest.  If you can’t make it, read my blog entries from 9/28/10, Love Poem to our Prospect, 5/8/12, Sway – it’s also discussed in relation to other subjects in many other posts.)

I also saw a decided lack of creative risk taking.  Lots of good, safe work.  Very little that snapped my head around in envy, made me think Now he/she’s gonna be a star.  It’s about time students stopped worrying about being good and took the kind of risks that create lots of bad work – until it turns genius.  My husband’s boss repeats “Good is the enemy of Great,” usually coupled with other inspirational clichés.  This time he’s right.  (For this one, read any blog post that discusses the Kamikaze Key Fact.)

The other big problem was the one I’ll talk about today.  Category vs. Brand.  Sounds simple and it should be.  Like just about everything else, the answer to the problem can be found in a smart KCWP (Kamikaze Creative Work Plan – what I’ll be teaching Friday morning)

  

Before we get into the solution, let’s talk problem.  When asked, many students genuinely did not know the difference between Category and Brand.  As they were mostly lower Qs, I suppose I should cut them some slack.  Still, Category vs. Brand is a basic tenet of advertising creative.

Category is the general type of goods/products/services your client offers.  Banking and finance, fast food, fashion, retail, travel, breakfast foods, baby toys, furniture, copiers, printers, computers, software, beer, wine and spirits, automotive - all are Categories.  The list is endless.  Most have sub-categories as well.  In the travel category, sub-categories include trekking (on foot and on horse), cruising, resorting, camping, road trips, RVing, guided tours, etc.

Brand is one particular company, bank, brokerage, fast food joint, fashion line, retail store, travel destination or operator, toy, furniture line, named computer (Apple, Lenovo, HP, etc.), software (Microsoft, In Design, whatever), beer label, named resort, individual designer, etc.  A printer is something you need to produce hard copies of what you write with your computer.  A Hewlett Packard printer is a particular brand of printer, with many different models you usually discuss one at a time, or as one series of products/printers with similar attributes you promote as a group, at one time.

In other words, a category is a group of similar products/services, with many different Brands represented.  A brand is one particular make of the product/service, usually with many different models.  If we’re talking cereal and you sell category, you’re selling the need for/benefits of eating a good breakfast.  When you sell the Kellogg Brand, you’re selling the name Kellogg and all it represents (taste, USA, product variety, quality ingredients, history/heritage, brand within brand (Special K, Rice Crispies, etc.) on the parent brand’s merits.  When you sell Special K, you’re selling something even more specific – a specific product – on its own merits, under the brand umbrella.

Category = Breakfast foods

Brand = Kellogg’s

Product = Special K

Capice?

There are valid reasons to sell category – usually when it’s one you’ve invented (smart phones, for example).  People have to learn what the category is, does and why they should pay attention to it.  The problem, even if you try to position your brand within the category, or sell category over your brand’s name, the consumer isn’t motivated to any particular brand/model smart phone.  Just gets the idea it’s a product category that bears watching.

 

Most of the work I saw sold category, even when the problem should have been one of brand.  But you’re rarely hired to sell just any old banana.  You’re hired to sell Chiquita bananas, Dole bananas, Mom’s Organic bananas, etc.

If your category is bananas, your brand could be Chiquita.  But unless you give your prospect a reason to prefer Chiquita, they’ll buy any old banana they find in the supermarket.

This harks back to the KCWP (Kamikaze Creative Work Plan).  The Kamikaze Promise and Reasons Why.  What promise/claim of benefit can Chiquita make over its competitors?  How about the Chiquita brand IS bananas.  Any other brands of bananas don’t take the care, have the growers, the varieties, health awareness, food handling safety, etc., your family deserves. 

Why can Chiquita make that claim?  It’s the oldest US banana brand (I made that up, but it may be true).  They’ve been buying and selling bananas for x years, so they know what works, what doesn’t, what varieties taste best, last longest, how to get them to market faster.   Those are your KCWP’s Reasons Why.

 

What I saw in the student work was, for conversation’s sake, an ad for Chiquita that gave me no reason to seek out Chiquita branded bananas.  Lots of reasons to eat any old banana, with no mention of brand other than the logo.  Maybe mentioning it once in body copy.  This can also be solved in the KCWP’s Kamikaze Competition section.  There, you should not only give the various competing brands (Dole is the only one that comes to mind, I’m sure there are others.)  The competitive info should always be a direct comparison to your client’s product (Chiquita Bananas):

Dole – widely distributed, depending upon where purchased can be lower priced than Chiquita but the brand is not as well known for fresh bananas as Chiquita.  Dole is usually sold in discount stores and supermarkets (Wal-Mart, Food Lion, convenience stores, etc.) vs. the more upscale markets (Harris Teeter (in Charlotte, the deluxe supermarket) and specialty food stores, which usually trade on the Chiquita brand.  Perceived as quality canned goods, Dole fresh foods have yet to attain the cachet of Chiquita.

Know that + the perceived value of the Chiquita brand, its history (I’m Chiquita banana and I’ve come to say…) and perceived quality difference over other banana brands = a compelling concept/campaign/individual marketing piece that motivates people to seek and buy Chiquita, no matter where they shop.

Granted, this is all pretty elementary and far from a treatise on branding (a huge subject in itself).  It does, however, illustrate how to deal with Brand in product advertising.

 

Back in the dark ages, McCann hired Bill Cosby to sell PCs.  It was the advent of the PC revolution, long before Apple and IBM owned the category.  Cosby had to sell category – back then, people didn’t know what a PC (Personal Computer) was for, techno fear was rampant.  He did it under the Texas Instruments brand, but because the market had to be educated as to why they needed a PC before telling them why the TI machine would be better for them, he talked personal computing, not why TI made a better product.

Those kinds of opportunities are rare in this business.  Sure there are new tech products and brands coming out all the time.  But the PC and computing are now engrained into our collective consciousness.  No need to sell people on the idea of a home computer at all.  But they would like to know which brand computer is best for their needs.  Today, we can talk brand.  Back then, even if you were IBM (known for mainframes), brand was a second thought. 

There you have it.  No excuses, now. Time to sell brand, assuming the Prospect understands the category.  If your assignment is for a Toshiba laptop, you sell it on the merits of that particular product – not on the merits of having a laptop, period.  As in everything else, knowledge is power (4/6/12, Do your own input).  The more you know about your own product and its brand, the more you know about the competition in comparison to your product, the more specific to it you can be.    

A little historic perspective.  In the 60s, Alka Seltzer and Bromo Seltzer were neck and neck in the ad wars.  Both had some great spots – RA Blechman’s (sic) arguing stomach, prisoners in the dining room banging on tables after a meal, chanting “Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer” in time.  Problem was, even with great ads, no one remembered the brand.

Bromo Seltzer ads sold Alka Seltzer and vice versa.  Today, w/many parity products, communicating the brand name and proprietary message/positioning is more important than ever.  Do a smart KCWP.  Sell the heck out of the brand/product.  With so many imitators out there, so many products with no real difference, pushing brand over category is more important than ever.

FOR ALL YOUR KAMIKAZE CREATIVES WONDERING WHERE I AM: In which Doreen explains the concept of Spring Break.

Like you guys need to know about Spring Break.

Working on a new post.  Will be online asap, promise.  D.

FOR HEDDY’S GRAMMARIANS: Kamikaze Copy Sins vs. Proper English. It’s not a book report, it’s Ad Copy. Doreen explains why she often advocates bad grammar.

Many thanks to Heddy’s Miami Ad must-be-smart/maybe ex-English teachers who pointed out many of the Kamikaze Copy Sins aren’t cited as proper usage in the NY Times Style Book. 

I know.

Ad copy (web copy, brochures, yadda yadda), like much of the best modern literature, isn’t written in the language of Quirk’s Comprehensive English Grammar.  It starts there – but like everything else we do, good ad copy is targeted to the Prospect.  It’s a sad day for America, but the majority of people we write for read at fifth grade level.  They may have degrees, but I cannot tell you how many college graduates I’ve taught who needed a good remedial grammar class (not all of them from Mississippi or the Carolinas). 

These people (our Prospects) may have advanced degrees, write themselves, may know the rules.  At least enough to send a memo/email.  You’d think.  If you’re read commercial, business or personal emails lately, you know the majority of people don’t use spell check – let alone proper English.

Ad copy is many things.  Mostly, it’s conversational.  One of the reasons I spend so much time on the Prospect section of the KCWP* is the need to enter into a meaningful dialogue.  Not speak at them.  Concept, more than anything else, is how we draw them into the conversation.  Once they enter – once they start reading – it’s our job to keep them there.  To become so engaged, they remember what they read.

Unlike mystery, romance, fine lit, comic book and graphic novel fans, people don’t volunteer to read ad copy.  We have to trick them into it.  Keep them reading, almost against their own will.

 

Any excuse we give them – language elevated above the Prospect, technically correct but ad-excessive commas.  Long, complexly structured lines and paragraphs, run-on and compound sentences.  Excessive/poorly spaced implied subjects, repeating words too closely boring verbs too many descriptors - right down the Kamikaze Copy Sins list – is a direct invitation to stop reading.  (Good thing this isn’t an ad.)

Bank copy used to sound like lawyers wrote it.  Today’s most effective bank copy is casual, conversational.  Insurance companies, legal firms and investment come-ons are moving the same way.  Why?  It won’t work if the Prospect doesn’t read it, can’t understand it, doesn’t feel it.

Lest you think I’m a grammarphobe, I invite you join a Sunday morning newspaper read at Casa Doreen and Bruce.  My engineer hubby and I despair at the state of the English language, the stupidity media shows laying off proofreaders and editors.  Granted, we’re proudly word nerds.  Own several library dictionaries (my favorite, a Webster’s New International from the 30s).  It makes us – and a lot of other people – wonder how closely they check their facts (don’t get me started on Fox News, Dan Rather, even CNN).

More than once, I’ve threatened to leave North Carolina without him over the language we hear daily.  I seen it, thems policemans is ebbewar, no tense but the present, on and on – from day laborers and college grads (some with MBAs) alike.

You have to know the rules to break them.

Tellingly, most people don’t know when I’m using improper grammar.  I’ve written for markets, complex products as intellectually challenging as NYC, Chicago, Boston, banks, insurance, investment high tech luxury medical, dozens more – B2B** and B2C***.  Except for the occasional stickler who thinks they need complete sentences, even C level (CEO, CFO, COO, ECD, etc.) clients breeze through my consistently improper copy and compliment me on a job well done.

 

How do I get away with it?

Besides the fact sentence diagramming is rarely – if ever - taught (unless you count when I use it to give students a visual read on exactly how complex and clunky their lines are), the fact is I write targeted, motivational copy.  I spend so much time getting into the Prospect’s heads, hearts and lives, I use language tailored expressly for them.  Not for the client.  Not for my CD.  Not for my high school English teacher.

I know “…just lies there” is correct.  Why do I consistently use “…lays there?”  It’s what my Prospect – and just about everyone else – uses.  I guarantee using the proper form of the verb will confuse annoy alienate the reader to point they’ll stop reading.

Eliminating Kamikaze Copy Sins, as improper as many fixes may be, is how to keep your Prospect reading.  How to move them along through whatever length copy to your carefully drawn conclusion.  I’ve had MBA+ CEOs approve copy with no commas between lists of items, before ands (which I usually take out anyway, replaced by another comma - never a foreign-looking semi-colon), between modifiers.  Most don’t even notice.

Why?  Read Burr by Gore Vidal.

 

Vidal (who died earlier this Century) was an Ivy League word (and every other kind of) snob (his memoirs are titled Palimpsest – Bruce and I had to look it up – you should do the same).  His feuds – often about language and style (not to mention politics, economics, life) with Norman Mailer (Armies of the Night, The Naked and the Dead, The Executioner’s Song – read him, too) are literary legend.  Yet Vidal's the guy who gave me the courage to try the no comma trick.

 

I noticed how quickly I’d breeze through some of his lists, modifiers, etc.  How I’d pause, think, consider my way through others.  The reason?  The fast lists had no commas between items/descriptors.

 

His writing is so seemingly correct (in some cases it is - obsessively so), the historical fiction so accurate, no one I know who reads him for pleasure notices anything but how well written his work is.  (Mailer has his incorrect grammar tricks, too.  Try to find them.  So did On the Road’s Jack Kerouac, but his are far from seamless.)

The best writers are readers.  Read enough, study how it’s written, you don’t need a degree in English.  I always take my lead from authors, poets – not Grammarians or other Copywriters.  Authors and poets push the language envelope, live in the language of their characters, don’t think puns or clichés are worth writing down.

Thank you, Heddy’s budding Copywriters but I already knew.  I wish I could take credit for all the unseemly grammar I advocate.  Alas, I cannot.  More to the point, to find my improper grammar, you had to read it.

 

The Kamikaze Copy Sins aren’t about correct/incorrect.  They’re about things that slow your Prospect down, make them stop – or keep – reading.  About communicating in a Language of Concept**** that gets into their gut, says you’re one of them.  Even the most radical errors and omissions won’t be noticed as long as you know the rules, break them accordingly.  

Memorize the Kamikaze Copy Sins, kiddies.  Keep a list of your own.  When you're a Creative Director, maybe one day you'll pass them on like Heddy.

*KCWP:  Kamikaze Creative Work Plan

**B2B:  Business to Business

***B2C:  Business to Consumer

****Language of Concept:  tone, vocabulary, style chosen to carry the Concept to the Prospect.

As with all my posts, ©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative