Writer, Reader, Rascal
About this blog...To be a successful copywriter you need 8 key things. Fingers. Chortle.
This is the kind of massively unhelpful and entirely spurious advice you can expect from Andrew Boulton, copywriter at Together and all round scoundrel.
Having smashed his increasingly chubby copywriting fingertips against keyboards for many years – starting life as copywriter for Egg before moving on to top Midlands agency Together – he’s learned a thing or two about how to deliver a captivatingly brilliant piece of copy.
Sadly, he’s forgotten all of that and all we’re left with are his shambolic, often scurrilous, ramblings about whatever has caught his wild copywriter’s eye that week.
Enjoy his words, say nice things to him and send him free biscuits. This is all he asks.
You can venture into the world of Together at www.togetheragency.co.uk and follow him on Twitter @Boultini
Nothing wrong with long – championing the long copy ad
Nothing wrong with long – championing the long copy adMy wife wants a rabbit. She would call it Ethel, it would live inside our house and she would buy it tiny woolly hats.
I, on the other hand, would seize the first opportunity to fling Ethel at a low flying owl and tell my bereft wife that the little rascal had ‘ran away’.
I am not telling you this to incur the wrath of rabbit lovers across the nation (ok, maybe a little bit). I am telling it to illustrate the fact that I have no love for pets.
Instead, I have a love for words, and it is this love that has landed me in the rather splendid world of copywriting. And as a copywriter, word enthusiast, and rabbit flinger I am a dedicated champion for the medium of long copy ads.
All too often, the world of marketing tends to eschew long copy in favour of the concise and (God help us) ‘punchy’ headline. Many times I have heard people within the industry criticise an advert for being ‘too wordy’.
This is so wrong it makes me want to fling such people at an owl, although this would take a fairly enormous owl and far more upper body strength than I am ever likely to have.
‘Wordy’ should not be a term of denigration. Some of the most poignant, witty and memorable ads I have ever encountered have been of the long copy variety.
Admittedly a rambling, uninspiring piece of long copy is unlikely to be read from start to finish, and is certainly not going to linger in the reader’s mind. But a clever, well constructed and evocative piece of long copy advertising can captivate an audience in a way that, I believe, pictures and imagery simply cannot.
I am perfectly happy to acknowledge that a clever and beautiful photograph or image, without a single letter copy on it, can have a similarly dramatic effect. But I’m a copy monkey and I’m arguing for long copy – let those design fiends state their own case for pretty pictures, shapes and colours. If they can spell. Which they can’t. Stupid designers.
What concerns me as a copywriter is that the marketing world we live in has never been so fast and fluid. From a marketing perspective, attention is incredibly difficult to acquire.
People live their lives at speed and persuading them to slow down is tricky enough, never mind encouraging them to absorb, consider and act upon a marketing message.
In a way this is a threat to the long copy medium. Campaign decision makers are increasingly losing the courage to run with a message that cannot be fully digested in more than three to five seconds.
However, those that are bold enough to still believe in the effectiveness of an engaging piece of long copy can at least demand that what they produce is something genuinely remarkable.
Long copy ads may decline in quantity over the coming years, but those that do appear will need to be astounding enough to stop the modern audience in their busy, busy tracks. The art of long copy may well be entering its finest hour.
And, in case of any of you were worried let me assure you that I would never hurl my wife’s beloved pet at an owl. I actually took it to the zoo and threw it at a bear. Cheerio Ethel.
Andrew Boulton, currently under investigation by the RSPCA, is a copywriter at the Together Agency
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Comments
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Started reading, got half way down, got bored. Too wordy for me.
Cheers Anon Designer
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You're right, Andrew – people live their lives at speed these days. But rather than trying to persuade them to slow down with a long copy ad, the key is to hit them when they've already come to a stop. Tube posters, urinal posters, press ads in hobby mags that they've bought to digest in their spare time and the like are perfect for long copy messages.
As a fellow writer, the only thing I'd champion is the right type of communication in the right place at the right time. Could be an image with a logo and not a single word. Could be 500 words of copy. If it's the latter, you're also right in stating that every word needs to count. Nobody will read your ad for the sake of it, even if they have three minutes to kill until the next train arrives. (Unless of course you tell them that if they don't, the bunny gets it.)
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In the world of direct response advertising, long copy is acknowledged as key to success. It helps filter out the mere browsers - such as Darre16772 - from the customer 'ready to buy' and gives them the means to transact. It all depends upon the role of advertising - to build awareness, to change attitudes, to evoke a direct response etc. Read Ogilvy On Advertising - brands can make a virtue out of long copy ads. PS: Andrew - lose the Pipe mate
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I don't know about filtering out browsers, Chris - I'd rather try to persuade them to buy too, or at least make a lasting positive impression. But I know what you're getting at.
There was a great example of long copy filtering a few months back in a recruitment ad for MI5, titled 'What are you waiting for?' If you don't have the patience and curiosity to spend five minutes reading the ad, you certainly don't have the patience to spend months doing nothing in particular until called upon. Class. @chriswood
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Nobody does long copy ads any more. All the more reason to do them. When you do come across one, it stands out and makes you look simply because it's different. Long copy is the new short copy. But yes, every word needs to count. I'll nearly always start reading a long copy ad, but I don't always get to the en
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For the time-poor, darre16772's post translates into TL;DR.
It really does all boil down to results. However beautiful the copy, if it doesn't hit the spot, it's pretty useless - long or short.
Each has its own merits as far as job satisfaction goes - the challenge of composing a concise message, the pleasure of writing a longer piece.
Our needs (as writers) come last. I think that's one of the things that keeps us hungry. Imagine if we were let loose, unfettered by client briefs and audience needs.
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Ah, words. Tricky buggers.
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Anyone who would intentionally harm a rabbit in the way you describe is hardly capable of loving anything... including words.
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Nothing wrong with long copy. It just has to be interesting. If it's good writing, a reader will be two-thirds down the page before they realise they've even read 200 words. This article, however, proves why long copy doesn't work much these days. It's boring.
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