This might turn out to a bit of a long one, so go grab a cup of coffee first if you wish.
Done?
Ok, let’s go.
The other day I was struck by a perspective that I’ve touched upon before. Text. The renaissance of the copywriter. In a world of quick laughs and flashy web, what on earth am I blabbing about? Let me go back to a blog entry by Adrian at one of my favorite agencies in the world – Zeus jones.
In the entry Adrian talks about product launches and contrasts HP’s and Garmin’s launches with those of apple. The insight is that while HP and Garmin are making a lot of mini-launches, Apple boost launches of new categories and merely announce “refreshes” of existing ones. While HP, Garmin and many many others swamp us in a plethora of new stuff Apple save up interest and tell stories when they have a good one to tell. Rather than going on about this in length I will illustrate this with images from Adrian’s Google Reader and from Apple.com:
HP launches:
Garmin launches:
Apple Launch:
Yeah, I know this comparison was not entirely fair, but the point is still valid. If I would have shown you the Google Reader for Apple it would have shown lots and lots of MacBook Air entries. Focus, not abundance. HP and Garmin sound try hard when they’re making big news of everything. When they have truly big news to announce, it won’t stand out.
So what has this got to do with copywriting? I think things have changed around quite a bit. So much information is being passed around in standardized text formats, like RSS-feeds for example. How they’re going to be presented is completely out of your control, except for the story and in some cases the wording. Applying my modified AIDA-model (mine is called AAIIDAA) to this it could look like this:
(A)nticipation: I am looking for news about this particular topic. Why? Because they are constantly mixing up giving me what I thought I was going to get and giving me surprises. That makes me obsessed and fills me with anticipation. We can and should build anticipation! In this respect, Apple are masters.
(A)ttention: Boom. News. Here is where things have changed. My first contact with the news is through text in an RSS-feed. Where before the Art Director played a big part in (A)ttention, now he cannot reach into the RSS-feed. At least not into the title. The copywriter must do this if it’s got control over the post, but if not (which is most often the case) the story must be fed in such a way that the bloggers have obvious compelling headlines to choose from. (i.e. “Apple introduces batteries made of bee-wax” rather than “Apple introduces new organic battery”).
(I)nterest: The post body must get the reader interested. The copywriter again must feed the interest, but here the Art Director may reach in using compelling images, such as Apple’s manilla envelope above.
(I)nvolvement: If the story is compelling enough, I will get involved. I will blog about it, talk about it, discuss it with my friends. The feedback I get will move me to the next level of desire.
(D)esire: Of course I need a bee wax battery! Granted, it’s got a little less juice, but it’s really environmentally friendly, and provided that the story is framed correctly and has been discussed enough, I will get this desire.
(A)ction: Buying the battery. This should be easy to do if that’s what my company is about (like in the case of Apple), and everything surrounding the transaction needs to congruent with the story (i.e. environmentally friendly shipping and packaging). Many companies, including Apple, have not come full circle here.
(A)lignment: The iBuzz-battery is now part of my identity. We are made up of our choices in life, and apparently I choose iBuzz instead of iPollute-batteries. I will align to this in other choices that I make, and should be communicated with based on that.
This doesn’t mean that art directors and designers are less important. Quite the opposite. Their job is more important and more difficult than ever since not only do they need to make things beautiful, they also need to align with amazing precision to certain brand personality traits. But the copywriter must convey the strategy, the story AND the imagery in the pure text situations that are getting increasingly common. To make matters worse, I hear there is a shortage of talented copywriters out there. I hope the blogger generation will help resolve that.
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