the role words play in the digital age
TRANSCRIPT
1 © 2013 PETER MAYER © 2013 PETER MAYER
PETE Creative ideasworth spreading
IF NOBODY READS COPY ANYMORE WHY ISN’T YOUR HEADLINE LOREM IPSUM?
THE ROLE WORDS PLAY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
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Back when most of you were just a glimmer in your daddy’s eye (the 1980s), copy was important.
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With it: • Great shopping • Easier access to porn • The death of print pubs • And, some would say, the
demise of the golden age of advertising copy
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Back in the golden age, nobody counted characters. It was the idea that counted.
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The answer to the question, “how long should a headline be?” was “as long as it needs to be and no longer.”
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The award books were filled with long headlines. It was called, “the Minneapolis style.” Let’s take a look.
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So what happened to the Minneapolis style? Joe Alexander of the Martin Agency put it this way.
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He said, “The Almighty Headline kept many a copywriter in business for a long time. Until, suddenly, it didn’t.”
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“That little thing called the Internet arrived and the world of cranking out lines in your office disappeared.”
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“In this new world, a copywriter had to venture out of his or her comfort zone and—gasp!—not even write a headline. Maybe let the art direction lead a campaign.”
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So where does that leave us?
Is the headline really dead?
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NO WAY, JOSE. (I’m a writer. Sometimes we rhyme.)
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A writer on ihaveanidea.org noted: • Most of the industry’s biggest
awards go to headline-free ads.
• Most advertising blogs are dominated by purely visual concepts.
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He said when he tried to convince his copywriting students of the relevance of headlines, he had to dust off 15-year-old annuals to prove his point.
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Let’s look at a few more ads from back in the day.
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A poster should contain no more than eight words, which is the maximum the average reader can take at a single
glance. This, however, is for Economist readers.
The Economist
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Those were great ads, weren’t they? TOO BAD NOBODY READS COPY ANYMORE, RIGHT?
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I think famous copywriter Howard Gossage had it right:
“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it's an ad.”
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So here’s the challenge:
Whether we’re writing a Google text ad, a Facebook tile ad, a postage stamp size banner or a blog, we need to write copy that’s compelling, entertaining and relevant.
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Was John Pucci onto something when he asked, “are hashtags the new headlines?”
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Maybe so. But they’re not the only kind of headlines.
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Headline-driven concepts are a tool – and an inexpensive tool at that. You can do great work without animation or even photography. Let's not forget that.
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And just because you’re writing a blog or a social post, that doesn’t mean it can’t be crafted. Brands should sound like your friends talking, but not your stupid friends.