IN WHICH DOREEN WARNS: IF YOU WANT TO BE A CREATIVE WRITER, WRITE A NOVEL. IT’S NOTHING LIKE WRITING AD COPY.

Am I saying writing copy is dull dry can never be fun?  Unexpected?  Funny?  Attitudey?  High/low brow?  Without style, individuality, its own creative point of view?  Absolutely not.

I’m saying if you want to write short stories, novels, screenplays, poetry – do it at home.  Ad writing isn’t about you – isn’t about what you want to do, say, your style or your vocabulary.  It’s about the Prospect.  Who oddly enough is rarely you and/or your friends.

There’s always a product.  One that needs to be included in the copy.  Not every mention necessarily by name, but mentioned often enough in clear enough terms so the Prospect can see himself in the copy, involved with the creative and the product. (AKA writing visually - not dulling it down with too many descriptors.)

Ad copy is grown-up writing.  Professional.  It’s not always three paragraphs and a headline.  Sometimes there’s no body copy.  Sometimes no headline.  Often, not even an ad. Whatever it has, it's always in Prospect visual, visceral, verbal, current vernacular.

 

There’s always a product. Always a client.  Always someone in the agency pushing toward Product Centricity instead of Prospect Centricity.  Don't fall for it.

Always concept/write for prospect first, product included, not forgotten.  Great copywriters never write for ourselves.

I love writing copy.  It’s easier than Creative Writing.  You know who you’re talking to.  What you’re talking about.  What kind of a result you want.  

How you put it together is from your Creative Strategy, not your wildest imagination.  Concept, Copy, Visual - as original as they may be, are an integral part of a calculated Prospect package.

A package strategically, stylistically, conceptually and contextually for the Prospect.  Not the client.  Not the writer.

If you can’t accept that, work at Mickey D’s, write your novel on the side.  Get your MA in Poetry.  Move to LA, pitch screenplays.  Fight to be that one in a million produced on the Great White Way.

Why am I saying this?  For too long, too many students, writing ad copy has been about themselves.  Written only for those people in their selfies, circles, tweet, buzz and friends lists.  Written only in styles they "feel" like using.

if there must be a product, let’s stick the #, logo, URL at the end.

I was beginning to think it’s time to retire from teaching.  Then my Miracle Quarter happened.  I was challenged by eight of the hardest working, most formula challenging, prospect centric, strategy respecting, conceptual style writing students I’ve had in years.

 

Embarrassing for me, no matter how hard I tried to find a flaw, each and every one of them earned an A shirt.  Eight shirts.  One class.  One entire class.

Why?  More than hard work, intelligence and flat out talent, it was drive and a sense of reality about who the Prospect really was, all the possibilities they’d respond to.

As proud of them as I am, it saddened me when a different class' student told me on no uncertain terms first-person copy written from the point of view of an Adult Depend incontinence wearer is an award-winning creative breakthrough.

Made me want to throw things when I was told there's nothing Sexist about an ad touting low cut blouses and push up bras as the fastest way to the corner office for 35-45 year old female professionals.

It ticks me off when strategies for spaying and neutering pets are all about doggie sex, not the millions of homeless animals killed every year.  

Frustrates me when Prospect is only a word, not the most important part of the process.  

Total creative control? That’s reserved for the Creative Writer, some dreamer who forgets this is a business – creative, innovative – but a business no less.  Who ignores our job to solve a Prospect’s problem by presenting product benefits to them honestly, motivationaly, creatively.  With affection and respect.

  

Our own problems?  Don’t count.  

Our own inclinations?  Just inclinations.  

The Prospect rules and it’s our job as strategic, conceptual copywriters to use all we have to motivate that Prospect – not an individual, really, but a pool of individuals with similar traits, needs, problems.  With some emotional bond.  For the prospect themselves.  For the client.  Never for ourselves.

(c)2016, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative