The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

The Thinker: let’s see more copy that takes a moment to ‘get’

By Andrew Boulton

November 3, 2014 | 3 min read

What are the common critiques you tend to receive for your copy? It’s not punchy enough? It’s been done before? It contained a cunning anagram for ‘Your mum smells like a wet spoon’?

Or is it this particular favourite: I had to read it twice.

Typically this piece of feedback implies that the phrasing isn’t especially natural, or that the structure of the message has been overcomplicated. Both legitimate concerns.

But a lot of the time it can relate to a piece of copy that simply bears re-reading. And for some reason, to some clients, this is unpardonable.

I disagree. Yes copy that demands a simple message but delivers it through anything other than simplicity is poor. It’s also ammunition for anyone who questions the value a professional copywriter adds – if we make simple things difficult then what are we contributing?

But surely there is still room for copy that intrigues? Often we’re asked for copy that stops the reader ‘in their tracks’. This is mostly taken to mean we arrest our audience with something punchy and immediate. But the same effect can be brought about by something that tickles at their curiosity rather than donkey-punching them in the gullet.

Subtle, even faintly abstract copy has a purpose. What’s more that purpose is commercial as much as it is aesthetic. We can’t assume, though we are often told to, that our readers/prospective customers do not respond to thoughtful or challenging copy. The imperative to make things quickly and easily digestible leaves little room for something that takes time to absorb. What I would argue is that good copy that takes a moment to comprehend, will take far longer to forget.

Again though, it is the gnarled and greasy finger of ‘The Market’ that jabs relentlessly into our clients’ ribs. The sheer volume and profligacy of marketing copy demands a certain competitiveness. Unfortunately that has been translated into the loudest voice rather than the most persuasive. Exclamation over illumination.

The digital revolution, unfeeling scoundrel that it is, has played its part too. It’s a world where immediacy of action drives the principles of online content. And in this ‘click now’, ‘do this’, ‘watch me! watch me! watch me!’ digital monkey fight, the idea of prompting thought and building up to a reaction has been entirely bypassed.

It takes a brave client to approve a message that may take a moment to land, while all others around it are flung into a thousand faces each and every mili-moment. But rather than always looking for the fastest way to sell what we’re selling, we should sometimes consider the slower way to say what we mean.

You can follow Andrew Boulton on Twitter

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +