Copywriting and Design

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Copywriting and Design

• Part 4 Effective Advertising Messages
• Chapter 13 14

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The Writer as an Advertiser

• "I have learned that it is far easier to write a
  speech about good advertising than it is to write
  a good ad."
• Leo Burnett, quoted in 100 LEO's, Chicago, IL
  Leo Burnett Company, p. 27.
• "If you are writing about baloney, don't try to
  make it Cornish hen, because that is the worst
  kind of baloney there is. Just make it darned
  good baloney."
• Leo Burnett, quoted in 100 LEO's, Chicago, IL
  Leo Burnett Company, p. 23.
• "I have discovered the most exciting, the most
  arduous literary form of all, the most difficult
  to master, the most pregnant in curious
  possibilities. I mean the advertisement . . . .
  It is far easier to write ten passably effective
  Sonnets, good enough to take in the not too
  inquiring critic, than one effective
  advertisement that will take in a few thousand of
  the uncritical buying public."
• Aldous Huxley (1923), British author, quoted in
  Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of
  Quotations, 1993, New York, NY Columbia
  University Press, p. 18.
• "The trouble with us in America isn't that the
  poetry of life has turned to prose, but that it
  has turned to advertising copy."
• Louis Kronenberger (1954), quoted in Rhodas
  Thomas Tripp, The International Thesaurus of
  Quotations, 1970, New York, NY Thomas Y. Crowell
  Company, p. 18.

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Copywriting The Language of Advertising

• Four types of ads in which words are crucial
• If the message is complicated
• If the ad is for a high-involvement product
• Information that needs definition and explanation
• If a message tries to convey abstract qualities
• Copywriter
• The person who shapes and sculpts the words in an
  ad

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This Norwegian ad is somewhat copy intensive, but
uses copy for artistic purposes
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Advertising Writing Style

• Copy should be as simple as possible
• Should have a clear focus and try to convey only
  one selling point
• Every word counts space and time are expensive

• Practical Tips
• Be succinct
• Be single-minded
• Be specific
• Get personal
• Keep a single focus
• Be controversial
• Be original
• Use variety
• Use imaginative description

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Copywriting for Print

• Display copy
• Elements readers see in their initial scanning
• Body copy
• Elements that are designed to be read and absorbed

• The Headline
• Key element in print advertising
• Conveys the main message
• Works with the visual to get attention and
  communicate creative concept

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How to Write Headlines

• A good headline will attract those who are
  prospects
• The headline must work in combination with the
  visual to stop and grab the readers attention

• The headline must identify the product and brand,
  and start the sale
• The headline should lead readers into the body
  copy
• Direct-action headlines
• Indirect-action headlines

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Types of Headlines
Headlines Can be Grouped Into Two General
Categories Direct Action Indirect Action
Puzzles
Associations
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How to Write Other Display Copy

• Captions
• Have the second-highest readership and serve an
  information function
• Subheads
• Sectional headlines used to break up a large
  block of copy
• Taglines
• Short, catchy, memorable phrases used at the end
  of an ad to complete the creative idea
• Slogans
• Repeated from ad to ad as part of a campaign or
  long-term brand identity effort

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How to Write Body Copy

• Body copy
• The text of the ad
• Primary role is to maintain the interest of the
  reader
• Lead paragraph
• The first paragraph of the body copy
• Where people test the message and see if they
  want to read it
• Closing paragraph
• Refers back to the creative concept and wraps up
  the Big Idea
• Call to action

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Print Media Requirements

• All media in the print category all use the same
  copy elements
• The way these elements are used varies with the
  objective for using the medium

• Newspapers
• Copy does not have to work as hard to catch
  audiences attention
• Straightforward and informative
• Writing is brief

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Print Media Requirements

• Magazines
• Better quality ad production
• Ads can be more informative and carry longer copy

• Directories
• Use a headline that focuses on the service or
  stores personality
• Little space for explanations

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Print Media Requirements

• Posters and Outdoor
• Primarily visual
• Words try to catch the consumers attention and
  lock in ideas
• An effective poster marries words with visuals

• Product Literature
• Also called collateral
• Used in support of an ad campaign
• Typically a heavy copy format

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Principles of Effective Print Advertising

• By Steve Blom

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Principles of Effective Print Advertising

• Establishing an Objective
• Sell to the Objective
• Designing the Ad
• Evaluate the Ad

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Establishing the Objective

• Main selling idea should be aimed at the
  objective resist the temptation to add more
• Support the main selling idea with all elements
  of the ad
• Headlines
• Visuals
• Copy

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Sell to the Objective

• Sell the merits of the Product or Service
• Whats in it for me?
• Emphasize benefits, not facts
• Fact Birdie Drivers are made of solid unobtanium
  with a unique plasticized hydroid alloy core
• Benefit Birdie Drivers are lighter, faster,
  harder, and cheaper than our competitor Bogie
  Drivers, and they consistently hit longer,
  straighter shots

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Designing the Ad

• Design for Easy Reading
• KISS
• Solve a problem
• Call to action
• Dont try to cram everything in
• Dont overfancify your design
• Avoid
• Dark backgrounds
• Small headlines
• Difficult to read fonts
• Unrelated images
• Atypical layouts

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Designing the Ad

• Illustrate your product in use
• Show what the product can do for the reader
• Avoid static graphics showing whole lines of
  products
• Avoid Humor and Shock value
• Youre probably not as funny as you think you are
• Humor or shock almost never works toward your
  objective

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Evaluate the Ad

• Repeat a Successful Ad Drop an Unsuccessful One
• Repetition is good, to a point
• Good ads wear out a lot slower than you think
• Because you are tired of it doesnt mean your
  audience is
• Dont Blame Ad Placement for Poor Performance
• Design has far more to do with the success than
  getting it on cover 4.

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Designing for Print

• First responsibility of the art director is to
  choose visual elements used in ad or commercial
  to produce a layout.
• Plan that imposes an orderly arrangement that is
  aesthetically pleasing.
• Map, the art directors blueprint.
• Communication tool for others so that the idea
  can be discussed and revised.
• Many ways to lay out an ad different ways create
  different feelings about the product.

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Layout (Handout)
The General Steps in a Layout Are
Thumbnail Sketches Preliminary Sketches
Rough Layouts Ads Done to Size Without Attention
to Looks
Semicomps Layout Drawn to Size, Used for
Presentations
Comprehensives Art is Finished, Designed to
Impress Audience
Mechanical Largely Computer Based and Generated
to Guide Color Separations
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How to Write Radio Copy

• Must be simple enough for consumers to grasp, but
  intriguing enough to prevent them from switching
  the station
• Ability of the listener to remember facts is
  difficult
• Theater of the mind
• The story is visualized in the listeners
  imagination

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How to Write Radio Copy

• Voice
• Music
• Sound effects
• See radio script in handout packet

• Radio Guidelines
• Keep it personal
• Speak to listeners interests
• Wake up the inattentive
• Make it memorable
• Include call to action
• Create image transfer

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How to Write Television Copy

• Moving action makes television so much more
  engaging than print
• The challenge is to fuse the images with the
  words to present a creative concept and a story
• Storytelling is one way copywriters can present
  action in a television commercial more powerfully
  than in other media

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Tools of Television Copywriting

• Video
• Audio
• Voice-over
• Off camera
• Other TV Tools
• The copywriter must describe all of these in the
  TV script

• Talent
• Announcers
• Spokespersons
• Character types
• Celebrities

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Scripts and Storyboards

• Script
• The written version of the commercials plan
• Prepared by the copywriter
• See handouts
• Storyboard
• The visual plan or layout of the commercial
• Prepared by the art director
• See handouts

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Frontier Photoboard