Archive for July, 2008
« Previous EntriesSomeone Didn’t Get The “Reason Why Copywriting” Memo
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008Here’s a couple more current ads from Australian financial institutions that provide illustrations of bad and not-so-bad copywriting.
Let me say, I don’t pick on financial institutions out of spite or some sort of grudge. It’s just that they seem to be so prominent and, often, so poor. As I’ve observed previously, they seem [...]
“The Dark Knight”, The Social Mood And Copywriting
Monday, July 28th, 2008The new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight” is a massive hit and looks like it could challenge “Titanic” as the biggest grossing movie of all time.
I went to see it yesterday and loved it. Best film I’ve seen all year. To paraphrase one reviewer “It’s visually stunning and works both as a conventional [...]
Copywriting Video - More About The “Nitty Gritty”
Sunday, July 27th, 2008Here’s another video from the “Copywriting Checklist” series from John Carlton. Gee, the last one I posted was a month ago!
This is a follow up to that previous video. It’s titled “Nitty-Gritty: Discussion”. In it John hammers home the point that it’s benefits, not features, that need to be emphasised in copy.
I’d go a little [...]
Copywriting Notes - Dealing With Procrastination
Friday, July 25th, 2008Copywriters obviously aren’t the only people who struggle with the demon of procrastination. But, as I said in a previous post about dealing with “resistance” it’s something that anyone involved in a creative endeavour seems to struggle with.
Procrastination comes in various forms. One is the idea that you don’t know enough just yet to get [...]
Quick “Public Service” Announcement For Copywriters…
Thursday, July 24th, 2008Ace copywriter John Carlton is about to withdraw all of his current copywriting programs from the market ahead of launching new versions (“Say Bye-Bye To The ‘Bag Of Tricks’”).
It’s likely that the new versions will be significantly higher in price. Can’t say I’m surprised. The current prices are absurdly low.
I have pretty much all of [...]
Now Is When Direct Response Copywriting Is Needed Most…
Thursday, July 24th, 2008The chill winds of hard economic times are blowing across the world and hitting some places more than others.
I’ve refrained from commenting about the economic situation so far, but I will be posting about the implications for copywriting and sales messages.
The “social mood” definitely has implications for sales promotions.
However, that’s not what I’m going to [...]
Why Do Big Financial Institutions Have Such Dumb Advertising?
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008In the City today I couldn’t help notice a new advertising campaign from BT Financial Group, one of the big local funds managers.
It’s promoting their superannuation (retirement savings) products and the part that I saw was the outdoor display ads.
There’s a whole series of these advertisements and they all have a question theme along the [...]
Wonderful Example Of An Intriguing Headline
Monday, July 21st, 2008Had to share this wonderful example of the use of intrigue that I came across in today’s UK “Daily Telegraph”.
“The Sticky Toffee Pudding Mystery”
The article leads off…
Thoughts On Traffic…And Copywriting
Monday, July 21st, 2008I’ve commented in the past about the importance of traffic for any business and observed how some businesses are very vulnerable to changes outside of their control. I mentioned the impact on my local Starbucks and a small bakery shop of the relocation of a big corporate headquarters away from the area.
Fortunately, business seems to [...]
“Scientific Advertising In The 21st Century” - Part 7 “Being Specific”
Sunday, July 20th, 2008“Our prices have been reduced 25 per cent”
“Our net profit is 3 per cent”
“The final result of testing and comparing 130 formulas”
The 3 claims above are all drawn from chapter 7 of “Scientific Advertising”, called “Being Specific”.
The point that Claude Hopkins makes throughout the chapter is that when you make a specific claim in your [...]