Module 10 How To Write Print &

Press Advertisements

In this module, we’ll cover:

The difference between print and press

advertisements

How to write concepts

The 3 elements of any print ad

How to write body copy

How to write strap lines (or tags)

13 ways to improve your ad

How to advertise a service

Questions you should ask your client

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How an advertisement starts

Like brochures, direct mail letters and other advertising material, all ads start life as a brief from the client. If you’re working for an ad agency, the brief will more than likely be created for you by the account service team. If you are freelancing, you will need to create the brief yourself. An advertisement starts life as a brief from the client. Most are rambling affairs; a few provide a proper creative brief – see the module How to Take A Creative Brief before reading this module.

What is the difference between Press and Print Advertisements?

Not much really, but it’s important to understand the semantics.

Press Advertisements refer to newspaper advertisements and Print Advertisements refer to magazine advertisements. Both are created in the same way so there’s no need to treat them differently.

Making the ad work hard

Your press ad has to work hard to get noticed. It may be surrounded by pages of competing ads, it may be smaller than the rest, it might even be in black and white while others are in colour. One of the most important aspects of creating an ad is to convey a ‘single-minded proposition’. This means that you leave the reader with ONE key message. It might be tempting to try to cram more than one message into the ad (and the client will certainly push for this) but the best ads are those that convey one key message. If you try to be ‘all things to all people’, you run the risk of the ad becoming so bland, it’ll be ignored by everyone.

How to write Concepts

If you come across a client who is uncertain about the direction their advertising should take i.e. they can’t make up their mind what the key message should be, or they can’t decide which target market to focus on, you may want to create some ‘concepts’ for them. Concepts are like ‘mini ads’ in that you present to the client a series of ideas rather than fully realised ads. They are also a cheaper option for the client as it lets them have a look at a range of ideas before settling on the one ‘big idea’. It makes the copywriter’s life easier too as you’ll have a clearer idea of whom the target market is and what the key message should be.

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What is a concept?

A concept is an outline or a rough heading for an ad. This is a cheaper option for the client as they won’t pay as much for a concept as they will for a full ad. It also helps you as the copywriter because once you’ve presented the concepts, the client becomes clearer about the direction they would like to take. This makes your job of writing the fully realised ad much simpler as your brief has been significantly narrowed down to a specific target market and a single minded proposition. A concept consists of the following elements:

A headline

A description of the illustration

Possibly a strapline (or slogan)

You don't include body copy, coupons, offers, testimonials, or any other detail. In other words, it’s just an outline of what an ad could look like. We put up concepts to a client to see what kind of ideas they like. Once the client has expressed a preference for a particular idea, you would 'work it up'. In other words, you would write the body copy, refine the headline, and get an illustration. You might also add a strapline (or slogan).

You may also decide to add a pencil sketch showing the illustration that you have in mind. Alternatively, you could illustrate your concepts with photographs cut from magazines, and pasted on to blank A4 sheets of paper.

If you haven’t drafted at least fifteen concepts for an ad, you may have missed a really powerful ad which is just out of reach in your mind. Each concept will trigger another thought, and it may be the 14th or 30th that is the right one.

Once they have been written, the concepts can be grouped into four to six main headings. This will help you organise your thoughts and reduce the options. You can then delete the concepts that duplicate each other.

The three elements of the ad

Having agreed what you are going to say, the next task is to decide how to say it. Every press ad has three main components: the headline, the visual and the body copy. Other components, which are covered in detail in other chapters, include subheads, testimonials, the company’s name and address, a logo, a strapline and possibly a response device.

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Make the headline strong*

*See the full module How To Write Headlines for further guidance.

The headline has two jobs to do. First, it must attract the reader’s attention. And second, it must persuade her to buy your product. It isn’t enough to be strident. Shouting at the reader may attract her attention but it won’t convert her. There are two ways to gain the reader’s attention.

1. Firstly, the ad needs a big, bold headline. The words must leap off the page and be

simple enough for the casual reader to understand. Avoid long, difficult or unnecessary words.

2. Secondly, the headline has to make the reader stop and think.

Headlines that don’t work Dull announcement Company or brand name Statement of the obvious Irrelevant benefit Obscure pun Literary reference Ads have to shock the reader, make him smile or make him think. They should make him curious, tell him something he didn’t know or simply make him want to buy. If in doubt, use a straightforward headline that tells the story. There is nothing wrong with ‘15% Off All Beds Now.’ Avoid a headline that jokes simply for the sake of it. If it doesn’t sell, it’s wasted effort. Tips for better headlines Make the headline relate to the product. Make the headline relevant and simple. Make the product the hero of the ad. Beware of headlines that compare your product with something else. We’ve seen a nappy being compared with a colander, and a factory with matchsticks. Unless the comparison is immediately obvious, you will lose a percentage of your readers. Use words that ring bells in the mind: Make a list of words that appeal to your reader. An investment company wrote:

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We venture beyond the capital.

Relate the ad to its context: Knowing how complicated some financial advice can be, a finance company ran an ad in the personal finance pages of a newspaper with the headline:

‘Confused by all this? You needn’t be’.

The ad correctly forecast that the articles on the finance page would raise as many questions as they answered. The Visual Pictures encourage people to read the ad. So whether you are using a photograph or illustration, the visual part of the ad is vital. The visual needs to be just as arresting as the headline. Make it big and bold, and get close to the subject. Don’t be embarrassed about producing a rough visual to accompany your words in the early stage of the ad’s creation. Most people are quite capable of understanding that a matchstick man with a stick is really an architect with a set of plans. How to tell if your headline is strong You can tell whether you have a strong headline using this test: Part 1: • Cover the headline so that the image is the only thing you see.

• Does the image tell the story? Is it clear what’s going on? If so, it means the headline is redundant. • This means the image is probably self explanatory and not that interesting. Part 2: • Cover the visual so that the headline is the only thing you see.

• Does the headline make sense on its own? Does it explain what’s going on?

• If so, it means the visual is redundant.

• This means the headline is probably self explanatory and not that interesting.

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Good ads become great ads when the headline informs the visual and the visual informs the headline. One should not be able to work without the other. They should be intimately intertwined and interconnected and should not make sense when viewed in isolation. Refer to the module The Ad Pack for further reference. Keep body copy to the point If your headline, visual and sub‑headline has attracted the reader, she may decide to look at the small print ‑ the body copy. This is where you explain the headline, confirm the facts and add extra selling points. If you can make people read the body copy, you have a better chance of selling them your product. But because body copy looks boring, few people actually read it. They are satisfied with having broadly understood the ad, and so they turn the page. Even fewer people read long body copy. The exception is where the reader is deeply interested in the product (such as a major purchase, a lifestyle decision or a leisure interest). So before going into great detail about the technicalities of your loudspeakers, ask yourself whether the reader wants so much information. You can encourage people to read body copy by breaking it up with small illustrations or sub‑headings. You can also lay out the body copy in a visually interesting way rather than the usual two columns. So how do you write body copy? Imagine you are on a train, and the person opposite asks about your product. Write the ad as you would talk to him. Not in pompous words, nor with unnatural sales excitement, but in a normal tone of voice. You speak with quiet conviction, listing the product’s benefits and demonstrating how it works. You can’t explain every detail in a press ad, so don’t even try as it will just mean the ad will have to use a small font. If the font is too small, most people won’t even bother reading it. For the sake of clarity and single‑mindedness, some information has to be left out. Keep the ad simple, and leave some detail to be explained in a brochure. Avoid laborious scene‑setting as it takes up too much space. In advertising, space is money so you need to be very judicious in your choice of words. Remember, less is more. Take this sentence which appeared at the start of some body copy:

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The current economic climate has brought increasing pressure on many organisations to cut operational costs, creating a dilemma over the management of their real estate services.

It is impossible to discover what this ad is selling (property management, in fact). Provide a pay-off Body copy in press ads often finishes with a pun, sometimes known as the pay‑off. The copywriter is rewarding the reader for finishing the copy, and making him feel well‑disposed towards the company. Verbal humour isn’t difficult to write, but most puns have been over‑used. For any type of business there is a set of idioms. Clichés about cars include:

Right up your street Drive you round the bend Back seat driver Take you up blind alleys A one way street Drive like a madman

Instead of chewing a pencil for hours on end, you can take a short cut by looking in a dictionary of idioms. But use idioms sparingly: many have become clichéd through excessive use. Include the minor elements At the bottom of the ad goes the mandatories, things like company name, the address and telephone number. They are called ‘mandatories’ because they absolutely must appear in the ad, often for legal reasons. Copywriters and clients have been known to lose their jobs when important detail like this has been left out. If you are selling packaged goods, you will need to include a pack shot, i.e. a photo of your product. If you can’t use a pack shot, the logo will provide a visual reminder for the reader. A list of stockists is important if the product has limited or selective distribution. Some ad agencies put the stockists’ list on the facing page of the publication. This stops the ad looking untidy. Other options include a money‑off coupon, or a coupon to be mailed back to you for more information.

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Add a strap line A ‘strap line’ or ‘tag line’ usually appears underneath the logo. (It is called a slogan by those who aren’t in the know and a slogo by the cognoscenti). The strap line summarizes the product’s benefits in a memorable way. When you put the same strap line at the bottom of the ad, on point‑of‑sale material and brochures, it links all the different promotional elements together. Writing a strap line is like writing a headline. You sit down and produce 15 or more short lines (each two to five words long). Try different approaches, and look at the problem through different eyes. How to write strap lines or tags Write down the key words that relate to the industry, and see if there are idioms or sayings that you can capitalize on. Occasionally, a strap line becomes a national saying, but people usually forget which brand it was attached to. Here are some famous straplines: • Which Bank? (Commonwealth Bank)

• When Only The Best Will Do – And Isn’t That All The Time? (Benson & Hedges cigarettes)

• It Gets In (Colgate Toothpaste)

• Picnic. More Like A Banquet. (Picnic Chocolate Bar)

• Coke Is It. (Coke)

• Zoom Zoom. (Mazda)

• Oh, What A Feeling. (Toyota)

• Just Do It. (Nike)

• Go Well. Go Shell. (Shell Oil)

Once you’ve decided on a strap line, you need to stick with it for some time or you’ll confuse the consumer as they won’t know what you stand for anymore. Selling commodity products What about products which have no unique benefit? Take a commodity like a packet of nails, where one company’s product is identical to its competitors. Here the ad could emphasize the

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effective packaging, the reliable delivery, the range of related products, the extended credit terms, the product quality or the friendly service. It could emphasize a generic benefit which other companies ignore: the nails may be sharp, straight, strong, suitable for many surfaces, free from rust, have a flat head or come in a range of sizes. Decades ago, at the dawn of mass‑market advertising, a dairy firm told people its milk bottles were ‘washed in steam’. This impressive hygiene claim was actually standard industry practice. But no other company had recognized that it could make a strong proposition. 12 ways to improve your ad 1. Give it a sub-heading. Give your advertisement an introductory sub‑head if you want to draw attention to a specific market. For example: ‘Attention Teachers’. You can also use the sub‑head to draw attention to a problem that people face. For example, the headline could read: Headline: “I Was The Victim Of Identify Fraud”. The sub‑head needs to expand on this by explaining how the product relates to identity fraud: Sub-headline: Are other people reading your documents? Paper shredders help prevent identity fraud. 2. Use an editorial format. As you can see in the following ad, an editorial format ad takes on the look and feel of a newspaper article. It is designed to ‘catch’ people out so that they get lured into the reading the ad on the pretense that it is a news article. That’s why these types of ads now have to display the announcement ‘advertisement’ across the top of the ad. If it’s done in the style of the magazine in which it appears, it can capture some of the goodwill that people feel towards that publication. (See overleaf)

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3. Don’t write for more than one person. Always write as if you were writing for one person. Try to get a snapshot of the person you’re writing for and then write as if you were talking to them. 4. Don’t leave out body copy. Many advertisers produce ads that look like posters. They think that it is enough to have an image of a model, a pack shot and a banal headline like ‘The subtle difference’. Record companies, film distributors and publishers believe that the name of a pop group, film star or author is sufficient to attract sales. Yet all consumers need to know why they should buy the product. Without body copy, the ad is deprived of its sales points, and the product is only bought by loyal fans. 5. Always include a headline. Sometimes there are ‘headless’ ads for products. In such cases, the reader is expected to plunge into the body copy (if it exists) to understand the ad. Give them the benefit in the headline or they may skip your ad altogether. 6. Don’t make the headline difficult to understand. Tell them about your client’s product simply and directly. 7. Don’t use the company name as a headline substitute. The purpose of the headline is to convey a benefit ‑ it is not there to draw attention to your name. Yet many headlines just say ‘J Bloggs’. Using the company name suggests a lack of creative thought, and over‑reliance on the strength of a brand name. An advertisement should enhance a brand name, not rely on it. 8. Ask for the order. All the people who reach the end of your ad are receptive to your product. So push them to the next stage. Tell them where they can buy your product. Ask them to ring you, or fill out a coupon, or send some money to you. 9. Keep the benefit simple. Be single‑minded, and go straight to the most important point. If you want to add other benefits, keep them for the body copy, and only refer to them after you have explained the main benefit. Some ads try to say too many things in the headline, and in so doing they make the ad less dramatic and powerful.

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10. Offer a comparison: ‘Knocking copy’ needs to be used carefully. In naming a competitor you give him a free advertisement. Aggressive ads also risk alienating your customers. On the other hand, comparison ads are a good way to get exposure for a small brand that out‑performs the well‑established market leader. 11. Tell them a story Everyone loves to hear a tale. Real‑life case histories make great reading, especially if the case tells of a person with a real problem. 12. Give it drama. To engage the reader’s attention, you have to involve her. Make your ad stand out by giving it impact. Never write a worthy but dull ad. No matter what the market, every product deserves commitment and emotion in its ad. One way to do this is to give it a human angle ‑ bring real people into your ad. How to advertise a service Service companies face a special problem: their activities are intangible. A superannuation policy that matures in the year 2035 doesn’t offer the instant gratification of a bottle of wine or a chocolate bar. The task is even more difficult for middlemen like financial advisers, since their services are not unique. Like a retailer, they are merely selling other companies’ products. In an effort to overcome this problem, companies often resort to imagery. Rothschilds use horses, Optus uses polar bears and all manner of other animals. Some corporate ads use photos of athletes to suggest co‑ordination, persistence or courage. Banks and other financial service providers always struggle to promote their home loans because one of the main buying factors is the interest rate and most of their competitors have the same rate. So the question becomes: how can we be seen as different? The solution to this is that they can differentiate themselves by promoting what the home loan will give the customer, i.e. security, independence, peace of mind. Interest rate percentages are common. These are an appeal to price, showing what good value the investment is. But someone will always offer a better price, so interest rates are rarely enough to make people buy a financial service. Another benefit is needed. People don’t buy savings accounts. They buy a nest egg or they save for a rainy day. They buy to help a charity, or because the company is environmentally sound.

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They buy for easy access to an ATM machine, for the large number of branches, or the extended opening hours. They buy because the company looks friendly, is upmarket, or because it understands young people. In short, there are dozens of propositions for a service company, and hundreds of ways to express that proposition in a creative way. The same applies to all other services. See the module How To Write Brochures for more information on how to write for service companies. Questions a copywriter should ask a service company 1. What service do you want to promote?

2. What does your service stand for? What values are important to you?

3. What would you like customers to say about you?

4. What are customers really buying?

5. What fears do they have?

6. In what way are you different from your competitors?

7. How are your competitors promoting their service?

8. What benefit does your service offer the consumer?

9. How can you express that benefit in a way that is different from your competitors?

10. How can you express the benefit in a way that all can understand?

A service company should seek to create a brand. A brand is a consistent collection of values, often built up over many years. People buy brands rather than companies or products. Customers trust a brand because it matches their mood or aspirations. For a service company, the branding would manifest itself in the letterhead, logo, and tone of voice used in ads and literature. Business to business advertisements Try to make sense of this gobbledegook:

The highest level intelligent programmeming environment today. Multi‑paradigm support for: frames and object orientation, rule‑based logic programmeming, dynamic hypertext, inexact reasoning and visual dialogue creation, as well as links to traditional programmeming languages.

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This passage consists entirely of product features, without a benefit in sight. But it needn’t be so. When you buy a car, you buy an image of power, styling, convenience, economy or luxury; and the manufacturers give you reasons to believe the image. They focus on real benefits, like smoothness and fuel‑efficiency. Similarly, business‑to‑business organisations must talk about the benefits of their product, not its features. Don’t assume your reader knows as much about your product as you do. Don’t imagine that he is interested in the technicalities. And don’t presume that your product is his prime area of responsibility. The only exception to this is when the reader is an enthusiast, hobbyist or expert and knows a great deal about the technicalities of the product. For any business‑to‑business organisation, some benefits are derived from the product itself, and others are extrinsic benefits which stem from the service provided. The benefits of many business‑to‑business products are common. Computers offer faster processing or a networking facility. Disks offer reliability. Software offers database, programme writing, or word processing. Few products maintain a competitive advantage for long. So you need to analyse exactly what your customers are buying if you want to produce ads that offer more than standard industry benefits. Hints for better business to business ads Try to avoid cluttering up the ad with too much text. Some ads are so fussy that there is nowhere for the eye to rest. In others the headline is no larger than the body copy. A recent full page ad contained 5 headlines, 7 logos, 3 phone numbers, and 21 ‘bullet points’. Because of the clutter, readers were left uncertain as to what the ad was actually selling. Be careful about negative ads. One ad was headlined ‘Hidden Extras’. It aimed to tell the reader that the product had more functions than its competitors. But readers took the ad at face value and worried about hidden extra costs. Include any quality marks such as membership of trade associations. They are valuable endorsements and create a perception of reliability and credibility. Make it lively: Business ads needn’t be dull: there is a place for amusing or challenging ads. Business people are ordinary human beings who like to be entertained or wooed. Your ad needs to stand out; cartoons, unusual photos or a different proposition can help you achieve

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that. Weigh up the staid offering of your competitors, and ask yourself whether your ads could stand out more clearly. Writing successful small ads Small ads are found in every publication, from the Yellow Pages to the classified ads in the local press. The rules about advertising apply just as much to small ads as they do to their bigger cousins. Your ad has to get the reader’s attention, provide a benefit, and get a response. Because of its size, the small ad poses a challenge. How do you squeeze all the information into such a small space? The answer is: you don’t. With small ads, you have to be selective about what you include. Here are some great examples of small space advertising from the Yellow Pages.

1. Yellow Pages category – Air Conditioning:

The ad for E and S Trading contains all the elements of a good ad.

It lists the benefits:

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2. Yellow Pages category – Building Here are three ads. They are all of similar size but one company, Sherbrooke Constructions, has used the space wisely to tell the consumer how they’re different. They’ve utilised the ‘which means that’ technique so that readers know exactly how the features translate into benefits. They’ve listed their awards. This is the Proof of Claim which shows readers that they have been successful in the past. The Hilles Home Extension ad is good as it also tells the reader what’s in it for them but it could have been improved by starting each benefit with ‘You’ instead of ‘We’. It shows they belong to industry bodies which is Proof of Claim and builds credibility with the reader. It also says how long they’ve been in the business – 40 years – which is another Proof of Claim – which demonstrates they are a quality builder and not a ‘fly‑by‑night’ company.

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Proof of Claim

Guarantee

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Proof of

Claim

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Hints for a better small ad

Allow enough ‘white space,’ i.e. blank paper around the edges of the ad. This attracts the eye because it looks easy to read. It also ensures that the reader isn’t put off by dense type.

• Use a picture. This is an important way of gaining the reader’s attention. Look in Yellow

Pages and see which ads catch your eye.

• Don’t simply list your products. Lists are boring. If you have an extensive range of products, summarize them or indicate that you offer a complete service.

Give the reader reasons to use you, rather than the company in the next ad. Do this by communicating advantages not products. Example: e Both companies offer the same product but one has listed a tangible benefit in the headline, i.e. fully installed for $299. Be specific about what you are offering. Call

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Assignment Module 10: How To Write Print & Press Advertisements

Task: Write a small space advertisement for the Yellow Pages

Your client is an interior decorator. She provides colour consultations, structural advice on how to make rooms appear larger, suggestions regarding curtains and fabrics for lounges and sofas and overall advice on how to create a beautiful home or apartment. As part of her service, she offers a free one-hour consultation and gives out a free booklet entitled ‘How To Turn A House Into A Home’. This booklet contains 101 tips on how to make your house more beautiful. Your task: Write a small space advertisement for the Yellow Pages. The ad can only be 7cm x 7cm in size. Your objective is to make this ad stand out from the others.