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March 2003 In this issue: >> Intro: 5 Winning Limericks
Buy your own copy of Nick's BOOK, ====================================================== Greetings, First, thank you for all those limericks. You may sometimes be shy about answering some of the surveys, but an invitation to write a limerick seems to have everyone running to their keyboards. The best five, in my view, are now up on my site here: http://www.nickusborne.com/limericks If you're up there, email me your postal address, so I can send you your prize - a copy of "Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank". By Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg and Lisa T. Davis. I'll put some of the other limericks on the site in a few days. (For the observant among you, who see a balance of views on the desired length of online copy, I chose the winners on merit alone. The fact that they represent a balanced range of views is coincidental. Really!) But here's a funny thing - about half of the entries were disqualified, because they weren't limericks. Is it me? Am I wrong in my assumption that everyone knows what a limerick is? Or is it that a lot of people simply didn't read the instructions? The thought of writing to the brief inspired me to write this issue's article. Brief's are good! Also, thank you to everyone who wrote in with comments on the last issue's article on whether *you* are in your copy. I have only room to include one of the emails I received, but it's an interesting one. And although we're back to a regular survey in this issue - please participate! Finally, for those of you who have been reading my Clickz articles over the last four years, my final article for Clickz appears on March 12th. A little cost-cutting has resulted in my being dropped from the roster. I'll miss it. The very first article I ever wrote on the subject of marketing online was written in early 1998, for Clickz, at the invitation of the editor, Ann Handley. And everything that followed, for me, sprang from that first article. Thank you Ann, and Andy. (Clickz was founded by Andy Bourland and Ann Handley in late 1997.) Until next time. Nick >> Feedback: mailto:nick@nickusborne.com ====================================================== USER INTERFACE 7 West A full day with *Nick Usborne* on COPY... PLUS A full day with *Gerry McGovern* on CONTENT. As an 'Excess Voice' subscriber, you can save $60 on a one-day http://www.uiconf.com/7west/index.htm ====================================================== I may have written on this subject before, but where I'm not sure. If I were working with a good account executive, he or she could undoubtedly tell me. If you ever worked in an ad agency, you'll remember the account execs - or 'suits'. Yes, there were good ones and bad ones (same with copywriters). But for a copywriter, a really good account executive was worth his or her weight in gold. Their job description was broad, but what I valued most was the work they put into the creative brief. The best of them understood both the marketing needs of the client, and the creative potential, and constraints, of the creative and production processes. Working from a good brief was a wonderful thing. All the information you needed was right there, in language that was clear and easy to understand. They pushed for the best, but understood the limits also. Whatever my vanity as a copywriter, I know that the best work I did sprang from great briefs. It's hard to do your best work with incomplete direction or information. So now to the Web. In all honesty, I am yet to receive a really outstanding brief for any of the online work I have done. I'm not saying that people haven't tried to give me the information they think I need. That happens all the time - sincere efforts and plenty of work. But there is a huge difference between a sincere effort and a professional job. The best account execs were and are true professionals. The ones I remember best had a genuine gift and talent for really understanding the needs of the client, and clearly communicating them to the creative teams. Is that yet to come for business online? Will the evolution of writing online include the creation of the 'account exec' role? I hope so.
====================================================== READERS WRITE BACK: ARE *YOU* IN YOUR COPY? "Of course you're there! If you've been writing for more than a week, and I mean any kind of writing, you have already begun to develop your own voice. And where does that voice come from if not your own experiences? But is that a good thing? Sorry, I have to vote no. A long, long time ago when I was in going through college journalism the raging debate of the day involved whether or not it was possible or even desireable for editors to stamp out an individual reporter's voice. Vietnam war protests were beginning to creep into "hard news" stories. Today we have no news shows; just news magazines on TV. As I've aged I often think it's unfortunate that that creep was allowed to continue. I seethed the first time Phil Donahue asked a guest how he felt instead of what he thought, and we've seen that the result is Jerry Springer and murdered TV guests. It's the same in our writing. And online...we don't even have complete words to show for our writing anymore (4sur), nevermind complete sentances, or too often sadly, complete thoughts. We have these long, drawn out discussions about where copy ends and content begins that can only end in opinion. Yes, we all have voices, and it's impossible to keep their tone completely out of our work. But perhaps it's time we raise them in defense of sense over sensibility."
====================================================== SURVEY: WHERE DID YOU LEARN YOUR CRAFT? [ ] In an ad agency ====================================================== Don't miss out on future issues of Excess Voice. Sign up now: (Your email address will be used only for the purpose of sending you this newsletter, and you'll be free to unsubscribe at any time.) |
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© 2003 Nick Usborne. All rights reserved. |