Monday, January 12, 2009

Spec work... Happy Hearts Video Dating




Wow.. talk about selling antiques. This spec campaign is for "Happy Hearts Video Dating" Service. The idea being you are interviewed on video telling about who you are and what you want, and then you get to likewise view tapes of others who have done the same. With any luck you find your match. Simple enough. However, personal ads were so much cheaper, and then there's the old traditional methods of finding someone to compete with.

This campaign was designed to show off the benefits of video dating and the pitfalls of the competition.

Obviously, this spec work was created long before online dating (eHarmony, Match.com, and 1000's of others) took over. Hell, Video stores still rented video's back then. Still this is something I did that I was proud of at the time. Created the strategy and kept the creative "on strategy." (Print campaign) Click on images to see them bigger, and clearer

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Spec work... Tan Cuff






"Tan Cuff" is a simple idea... Put sunscreen into a colorful tube that links around into a bracelet-like ring that can be worn on the wrist or ankle. Figuring one is more likely to wear sunscreen if it's convenient. And one doesn't usually wear a lot of clothing when one is at the beach. Nor is one likely to fumble with sunscreen if one is involved in active sports.

In this post I'm showing you that there is more than one way to creatively communicate the product benefits.

In the TV presentation I utilize sex appeal. Literally stripping things down to showing the product as hero.

Then I put together two print presentations. Version one is a somewhat traditional headline/image presentation. And version two is headline/tagline ("Put your lotion in motion") campaign but with the tag line graphically echoing the sport.

This is not a complex product and dozens of on strategy presentations are possible. (TV and Print) Click on images to see them bigger, and clearer

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Spec work... Save The Rainforests



A Rainforest is a beautiful thing. But that's not a good enough reason to preserve it. This spec ad series was designed to influence people into seeing beyond the cuteness of the frogs and the beauty of the flora and fauna into the broader value of one of our planets last great resources. (Print campaign) Click on images to see them bigger, and clearer

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Spec work... Goof Off



A simple, classic, and very useful product... "Goof Off - The Ultimate Remover" Use it to clean up dried paint, glue, adhesives. This spec work simply explains the uses of the product and talks about it's ease of use. (Display ad and point of purchase display) Click on images to see them bigger.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Spec work.. Arthur Murray



This is one of my favorite advertising ideas and some of my favorite spec creative. First up is of course identifying a problem that advertising itself has a chance of solving (This was done in a Advertising Workshop.. thus the focus was on using that tool. If advertising is the wrong tool for solving a marketing problem, my philosophy is use a different tool. Duh.)

Anyway, A quick visit to an Aurthur Murray Studio, a "sample lesson", some conversation with the staff, and my analysis revealed a key reason some seek out dance lessons: people (mainly men) being afraid to look foolish at a upcoming social function (wedding, reunion, etc.) So I chose to tackle that point head on. Inferring that if you didn't come in to Arthur Murray for dance lessons you were a "chicken." And wrote a tag line to emphasize how easy the learning would be: "If you learned to walk, we can teach you to dance" (TV, Print) Click on images to see them bigger, and clearer

Friday, January 2, 2009

How Copywriters write... Paul Silverman

Paraphrased from "the Copy Book"

Paul Silverman

    1. A Copywriter is like a lawyer building a persuasive case by selecting positive truths and omitting negative truths.
    2. Copywriting is not about pace. It's about brilliance. Don't waste a word.
    3. Break through to the reader is problem one.
    4. Consider your headline your first sentence. Then keep going.
    5. Visualize one reader and write to that one person.
    6. Pay attention to paragraph transitions. Don't break, corner.
    7. Anything brilliant can break any rule. (even the rule against puns)
    8. Verbs make faster pictures than adjectives.
    9. The greatest act of a copywriter would be to conceive of a scene in which no words appear.
    10. When presenting your work, don't let the copy sell itself. Sell your passion.


(more to come...)