New Age Copy

I often get asked where does my inspiration come from when trying to generate ideas for new online marketing campaigns, and my answer usually is “It depends.”

If I am honest, many things inspire me: watching a movie, listenting to adverts on the radio, looking at other companies marketing strategies… seeing others at work and analysing what is or isn’t working in their campaign helps me to assess what I should do myself.

Now I won’t name the website where I saw this, but when I was browsing the other day I came across a product that was heavily sales focussed. Not that this is a bad thing, but the copy they used listed all the features you could acquire from this product but none of the benefits.

They did not follow the cardinal rule of copywriting where you match these features to every day applicable benefits and as a result were producing few leads.

Admittedly this strategy is nothing new in the world of copywriting. Any good copy writer knows to do this, yet the number of campaigns I come across every day that do not do this is always a good reminder for making sure that I adequately pair these benefits in mine.

Then are such things as the previews you see at movies. In less than 5 minutes they have introduced enough imagery and voice overs to make you want to watch the film. I went to see the new Star Trek film based purely on the sales pitch they provided in the preview.

And this is applicable of any movie – good or bad. Produce the right preview and you can draw people in, get their money and if at the end they do not like it – so what? They have achieved exactly what they set out to do – to get you to see the movie.

Okay, now back to the whole point of this point: inspiration, inspiration, inspiration…

Like I said at the beginning, every one has got their own sources for idea generation, but the best ones that I have commonly found include:

• TV adverts
• Movie previews
• Radio adverts
• Music
• Magazines
• The Internet
• What is happening in the media

Even the time of year can affect the way you structure a campaign. A weight loss campaign in the summer, if targeted at holiday goers who want to look good on the beach, can produce more sales than a general campaign about eating right.

Get the theme, you get the sale… simple

Rowena xx