So a rep comes to you to talk about their client – “I need a commercial for their HUGE once a year sale… but they can’t think of a name for it. Can you come up with one that they can use?”
I reply “That’s a pretty heavy thing to lay on the head of a copywriter – but sure, I can do that… ummm… isn’t this business in a business category with 4 other businesses in town?”
“Yup, you can do it…” they say as they walk out the door, leaving a Copy Brief with 2 bullet points on it for me to base the script on.
‘How the heck do I do this?’ I think to myself.
This was a few years ago, and I can tell you know that it doesn’t get any easier when this happens (and it does about 3-5 times a year – every year).
So where do you even start?
Well usually, if I have the other business’ old ads on file – I will look through those first. So I know which ones I CAN’T USE! write them down and put a great big RED CIRCLE around them.
Secondly I look at the Copy Brief – just what have I been given to work with? That’s useful… 40-50% off everything some items excluded. No description of what is excluded or what EXACTLY I am advertising. Right…
Next I jump online and see what their Facebook and website has on it – maybe I can get an idea from that – nope nothing but badly done print ads converted to Facebook ads, no actual content… oh look a pets birthday… scroll… scroll… a client who won a competition. Nope nothing on Facebook, and their website is just a landing page with their opening hours and a map to find them, and their phone number.
Okay… ((CRACKS KNUCKLES)) …now to start a deep dive into the business category.
I usually do this in several stages, and I will walk you briefly through those now.
- Use SWURL – its a search engine that shows you the latest news stories, YouTube videos, links, Instagram posts and more. Just to see what is happening in the world of that business category. I have a brief read of some of the top posts and note any words down on your list that seem appropriate.
- Next I head to another search engine ANSWER THE PUBLIC it’s a pretty unique search engine to help you discover what people are talking about online. It’s VERY useful. I do a bit of a dive into those results (check out the visualization and raw data) and then… write those choice words onto the list.
- Now, I do a Google image search (yes I know – weird right?) and type in the business category name and then the words “Sale” or “Annual Sale” and see what comes up – sometimes you will get old print ads, posters, sometimes photos of banners, people in front of stores, and the best of all – sometimes a word or two will stand out that will give you some more contextual ‘words’ to put onto your list.
- If I am really, really stuck, I head to one of my favourite slogan/blurb/tag line sites on the web – Brandon Gailles site – and search for the business category there and add ‘slogan’ after the business category. Finding a couple of words or phrases that spark something in me.
- And finally I head to Thesaurus.com and type the word, or a series of words for the sale or based on what I have on my list, into the search and see if any synonyms come up that work for me.
So now I have a list of seemingly random words or phrases, plus a short list of ones that I can’t use.
Looking through them I tend to try to match them up and write down a 2-3 word phrase or idea based on those, or that work with the business name. For example if you had a Jeweller as the business category, then the words that match that would be sparkle, diamond, priceless, precious, deals, gold, bling. You get the idea.
So in this example I have matched Bling with Thing ‘The Bling Thing Sale’ nope that doesn’t work.
How about ‘Luxury Sale Time’, it’s a possibility… ‘The Jewellery That Rocks Sale’ has a great ring to it…
Or my favourite ‘The Priceless Sale at ((BUSINESS NAME))” I like that one!
So now I contact the client and read to them over the phone my top choices (I only EVER give them 3 to choose from) and I always start with the worst one of the 3, building to the best – this makes them agree with me 90% of the time.
Sometimes I can’t reach them by phone, so I email them and let them know (in the same order) and then write a basic generic script to see how the sale name works in script format. Most of the time there is no problem – only rarely have I ever had to change it as it is too much of a tongue twister for a voice artist to get their mouth around.
So with sale name in hand, a demo script and the clients approval – I then start to build a series of ads based on that sale name… and well, you know the rest – Approvals? Changes? Corrections… getting final sign off and then making the ads before putting them on-air.
So how long does this process usually take me?
About half an hour to an hour to come up with the name if I am really stuck. Otherwise about 15 minutes. Because I have refined this process over the years (as I said I get lots of practice at this type of thing) I can fairly fly through it.
So there you have it. Next time you have a client or a sales rep hand you a job where you have to come up with a sales event name – you can use this handy 5 step guide to choose the name that will work for them.
Have a go and see what you can come up with.
This is the final post for COPYWRITERS on this Blog – thanks for reading everyone. Stay tuned for more copywriters downloads and resources when we return at the end of next month with a new look site.
Earl.P.
