I consider myself to be pretty lucky. My parents have a home in the South of France that I get to visit at least once every summer. I get to chill in the sun reading a good book, drink lots of local wine and sample the great cuisine. I call it my rehab time.
It takes less than 2 hours for me to get to my parents’ place. Cheap air fares and easy access to flights has made the world feel very small indeed. Yet it always amazes me just how different everything feels when I get there. Not least in terms of the advertising. Read more…
There’s something quite compelling about the lonely hearts section in newspapers and magazines. It’s like people watching in miniature. The ads are like windows into other people’s lives. And I must confess I’m quite nosy, so for me they make compulsive reading.
It’s mainly because I think they must be really hard to write. For a start, there’s the stigma. Letting the world know you’re (oh God) single and looking for love seems like an admission of failure – as if you’re saying “yes, it really has got this bad.”
Plus, it’s a pretty tough copy brief when you think about it: sum yourself up in 30 words, in a way that makes you irresistible to your target audience. I mean, where do you start?
Well just like writing a commercial ad for a real product, it’s no use resorting to tired old clichés or standard lonely hearts acronyms. For one thing you’ll just sound like everyone else that’s advertising themselves. But for another no one will believe you anyway.
There has been a scandal at the World Cup and no it doesn’t involve a dodgy penalty decision or some kind of WAG swapping saga. Instead it centres on a group of around 30 scantily clad Dutch ladies who were removed from a game and arrested. Yet it wasn’t their lack of attire that got them into trouble… the crime was them taking part in the dark arts of “ambush marketing”. So what exactly is ambush marketing? Basically, it’s a marketing campaign that takes place around an event but does not involve payment of a sponsorship fee to that event. That means companies taking part in such sneaky tactics benefit from free association while also reducing the effectiveness of any rival brand’s connection to the event.
Okay, I know what you’re probably thinking; geeky sounding TV show recommended by one of your geeky colleagues – but you are most definitely wrong – at least on one of these assumptions. And for those who are old enough to remember the cheesy 1970s version of the show please leave your preconceptions at the door. Battlestar Galactica is a revamped drama series that deals with terrorism, genocide, politics and religion. It has the weight and intelligence of the West Wing; enough dysfunctional and intriguing characters to engross any Sopranos fan; and a series of relationship issues that would fascinate any Sex and the City addict. Simply look past the spaceships and give it a chance – and you will be treated to one of TVs greatest triumphs.
If I had a pound for every time a client asked “Are we emailing our customers too much?” I would be a very rich man. However, if I had a pound for every time a client asked if we were sending too much direct mail or are we broadcasting our TV or radio adverts too much then my bank balance would be no different.
Did the marketing team behind the infuriatingly more-ish Go Compare campaign debate whether their adverts were being shown too much during peak times? I very much doubt it. On New Years’ Eve 2008 did Pepsi worry that they were going a little over the top when they launched their new logo with a week-long ‘promotional extravaganza’ in Times Square. Of course they didn’t. So why do email marketers continually question their strategy when it comes to frequency and volume?
Sometimes the best ideas are done down the pub scribbled on the back of a fag packet. Or at least that’s what I was told when I started in this business. Who would have thought that someone would take that idea and turn it into a lucrative business… well that’s just what Hugh MacLeod did back in 1997.
When he first arrived in Manhattan to undertake a 2 week freelance Copywriting gig he had no friends and spending an evening back at the YMCA where he was staying did not appeal. So he basically sat in bars doodling on the backs of business cards just to give himself something to do.
I don’t think many copywriters enter the ad industry believing they’re going to be paid millions, never mind millions every year, but in 1907 one copywriter came along demanding just that… and he got it too!
That man was Claude C. Hopkins, a legendary copywriter who worked in the early 1900s on behalf of many companies, including: Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company, Swift and Company and Dr Shoop’s Patent Medicine company.
It was only after making some very successful ads for Schlitz beer that his fortunes grew astronomically. He was 41, and was approached by the advertising agency, Lord and Thomas. He agreed to work there full-time after being offered a wage of $185,000 – the year was 1907 – by today’s standards that comes in at a whopping $2 million. Nice if you can get it eh?
Saturday morning, whilst tucking into my crunchy nut cornflakes, I watched a rather interesting news piece on the BBC about how newspapers are essentially suffering from a failing business model; and are looking at new ways to raise income due to the falling numbers of people buying papers… mainly because of the Internet.
Their immediate solution is to start charging readers a subscription fee for looking at content online, an initiative that is being championed by Rupert Murdoch, and admit that one day, newspapers will no longer be around.
As an ‘Ad Man’, I find something incredibly sad about the migration of newspapers away from traditional print and on to online. Especially as it seems very real that one day newspapers will no longer exist… especially with the rise of e-readers… meaning we could one day say farewell to the beautiful art-form that is the ‘long-copy advert’, which these days is a rare beast, but when it appears it’s a compelling and persuasive one.
Monday at the Red C began like any other. Employees were pulling themselves into the office for yet another busy week, priority for most of course being a beverage before the start of their working day.
This particular morning was different though. The kitchen was brimming with a variety of delicious cakes that staff at Red C had spent their weekend baking. This change in morning ritual came about in support of ‘Time for a Cuppa’, an event that raises awareness for those affected by dementia which was organised by ‘for dementia’.
Shirley Polykoff is a legendary advertising personality whose copy revolutionised both the fortunes of Clairol and the lives of women in 1950s America.
A ballsy girl from Brooklyn, Shirley battled her way up the ranks at Foote, Cone & Belding agency from the position of junior copywriter to vice president and creative director, to finally, inductee of the Advertising Hall of Fame. On her way up, this flamboyant and brilliant woman gained a reputation as ‘a dynamo in selling and advertising’, with her copy for Clairol hair dye famous not only for its explosive cultural and commercial impact but also for persuading David Hockney to go blonde.
I consider myself to be pretty lucky. My parents have a home in the South of France that I get to visit at least once every summer. I get to chill in the sun reading a good book, drink lots of local wine and sample the great cuisine. I call it my rehab time.
Monday at the Red C began like any other. Employees were pulling themselves into the office for yet another busy week, priority for most of course being a beverage before the start of their working day.
