Here's an interesting post from UK copywriter Dave Alston on his blog
www.aceofwebs.co.uk/rssIt's so good I thought I'd publish it in its entirety.
Hi all,
I love radio, getting into the new Internet radio as well but the old fashioned ‘wireless’ still gets my ear first thing every morning. What a beaut we had this morning from Radio 4 as usual. Good for business, especially if you need to set your copywriting on fire…
Martin George from British Airways was eulogising about the company being so excited about the current English cricket craze (as if…) sweeping the nation (England meet the Aussies in the final ‘Ashes’ Test tomorrow) that they were entering into the spirit of the game by…
offering a special set of return flights to Sydney.
Nothing unusual in that, but here’s the twist that makes this superb PR marketing.
1. They are going to price the tickets according to how many runs Australia score in their first innings. Considering an average economy BA flight is roughly £600.00 this will mean a very good deal if England manage to bowl them out for say… 275 runs. Ticket cost will be £275.00 therefore.
2. The amount of tickets sold at this low price will equal how many runs England can get in their first innings ie, if they get 500 runs, 500 tickets will be available at the special price set by the Aussie first innings total.
Let’s analyse what British Airways have done here and then see how to apply it to our copywriting for maximum dazzling impact.
a. For a few hundred (or possibly thousand, giving away these low cost flights) pounds BA have got their advert out to prime time targeted audiences by piggy backing on a current hot news item. They grabbed the journalists eyeballs with a raving, red hot now newsworthy item (even though it was a heavily disguised advert!)
b. They may have just redeemed themselves from a nightmare PR mess last month due to striking BA workers over their catering supply colleagues at Gate Gourmet being laid off.
c. They’ve probably got everyone talking about them (including us) to their friends over coffee at work if they are interested in the Ashes at all “Here Fred, did you hear what BA are doing…”
d. They’ve made themselves heros to UK fans because obviously the more runs England get - the more special tickets are available. It appears as if they are alongside their target market cheering on ” our boys” with them - BA stand alongside us with a beer at the Ashes etc.
e. With this careful positioning they don’t even appear to be marketing - very clever, they are simply entering into the ‘fun’ of the occasion. Or as Martin shrewdly put it this morning “oh, it’s just a little bit of fun” (yeh, sure Martin! Brilliant…)
These days folks filter advertising so powerfully this is a perfect way to get under the radar and reach them. This isn’t an advertising campaign, it’s “just a little bit of fun”. (We know otherwise)
f. People will stay riveted to the scores and keep referring back to BA’s special deal (and be texting their friends no doubt with updates etc - think viral) if they’ve any interest in visiting down under in the near future. Brilliant repeat exposure and irreplaceable ‘feel good factor’ to undo last months PR fiasco over their catering supplier strikes.
g. They’ve built in urgency to drive a sales frenzy the second the Ashes finish by making it ‘first come first served’. People will be flocking online to book this deal.
h. There’s bound to be a follow up story here. Imagine along the lines of… “We were shocked when England bowled Australia for only 150 runs and then went on to score 600 runs themselves. Our call centre was over run with enquires, the switch board crashed, the servers were down. As a result, and to celebrate our famous victory, we’ve decided to extend the offer to… etc, etc.”
Now let’s think about how we can use these very same tactics in our copywriting for low cost, high impact results.
1. Scan the news, future events, sports fixtures etc to see if there is a way to tie your copywriting to current hot topics. Try to place it as a main punchline right up front
in your headline.
Here’s a classic example doing just that by one company that does over one hundred million dollars a year using pure copywriting power.
http://www.aceofwebs.co.uk/agora.htm (It’s mindblowing isn’t it, how do you think I felt being on the receiving end reading it and currently being charged nearly £5.00 a gallon!)
2. Next also pick your headlines and intros, lead paragraphs, main theme of your direct sales letters, adverts with an eye on PR and in particular with a view to getting journalists interested by your piece being newsworthy in its own right. If you look at Agora’s letter above, it’s a gripping story of intrigue any journalist could spin off of into a great newsworthy item.
That’s what you want happening to your piece.
3. So produce a PR new release version of your letter and submit it to someone like PR Web to get exposure aimed at being picked up by these same eagle eye journalists, as well as raising your profile all over the net as cutting edge commentators in your niche. When the media grab your ’story’ your ‘advert’ will get out everywhere.
3. Not only will any hot topic (petrol/gas today as I filled up is nearly £5.00 ($8.50) a gallon) grab your prospects attention, it will keep them there for your entire piece becuase it’s what really get’s under their skin right now. (Cricket battles, oil crisis etc)
4. Look deep into your own industry niches to find what’s the current ‘hot topic’ pertaining to it and see if you can’t write up your adverts, letters, press releases etc to answer the deepest concerns raised by it. This will really allow you to pin point your piece at people very likely to respond to what you offer, you already know what’s making them mad, sad or glad. Good places to discover this pulse is subscribing to rss news feeds, forums etc in your industry.
RSS is best, because you won’t waste too much time chasing the current hot topics, they come to you, live as they happen. You can beat everyone else to the punch long before it becomes main stream.
5. Be imaginative when you run your final copywriting offer, bonuses and premiums along the lines of a special, time limited punchline just like the BA offering. A little bit of imagination has done wonders for them in this instance, so use your creativity to come up with a slam dunk offer to die for tied into the ‘news’ of the day. If an event is running which lasts two weeks you could time your deal to finish then. It’s seems natural to end the deal this way and not as if you’re selling using a clunky “this deal will automatically expire at midnight etc” type close.
6. Think in terms of follow up adverts, letters, web pages that continue the story to extend your sales. One great example of this was Joe Sugerman’s classic November 1978 Advert headlined “SOVIET CHALLENGE” at the height of the cold war, a subject often in the news. Joe piggybacked off the ‘proxy war’ fought between the super powers via their oft televised chess challenges. This is the lead intro paragraph which follows the above headline…
“Can an American chess computer beat the Soviet Chess Champion? A Confrontation between American space-age technology and a Soviet psychological weapon”
(Can you spot the story angle…)
The follow up headline in March 1979 is a reply…
“KARPOV ACCEPTS”
Tapping into the days hot news pulse/fear/fascination via a story written for the masses this way produced over twenty thousand sales for Joe of a computer chess game priced then at $99.95.
7. So in short make your adverts a story - be sure, by making your sales writing into a story you’ll immediately find a new way past prospects defences, because story telling is actually the foundation of civilisation itslef. Why do you think the soaps have such massive viewing figures on TV? We all love a good story, so make yours is one or if you can’t come up with your own then FIND ONE (from current news) and use that instead!
If you want your copywriting to gain credibility, bypass advertising resistance and get folks cheering with you enough to buy, then simply tap into the days hot topics and theme your adverts, PR and sales letters accordingly. The results will speak for themselves.
I hope this helps.
Bye for now.
Regards,
Dave Alston
UK Copywriter
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