From the pulpit

On October 23rd, I was invited to talk at the launch of the Direct Marketing Association’s campaign to reignite both interest in and the craft skills of copywriting.

To encourage debate, the DMA’s creative agency, Abundance, shot a nine-minute film called ‘Mad Men vs Mavens’, which you can see at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWTvN0zqiMA

Great writers from the 80’s, John Salmon, Tony Brignull, Barbara Nokes and Howard Fletcher bemoaned the lack of wit and style in today’s press and TV advertising.

Current writers such as Nicky Bullard at Lida, Ross Newton at PAA and Helen Rogerson at CHI argued that copy today covers a range of platforms that didn’t exist when the Mad Men were in their pomp.

The way people consume media has changed. Not just the way they engage with media but how they read has changed. They skim. They click.

But that doesn’t mean to say the writer’s craft has diminished in favour of the video-maker or the art director. Far from it.

As a writer who has made the transition from jingles and slogans to tweets, likes and shares, I see both parts of the story.

I agree with Tim Milne, who, in his thoughtful piece on pages 3-5, points out that the digital revolution has freed print from the burden of carrying information.

It has also liberated writers from the inflexible rules once imposed by media owners. Thou shalt not write anything other than commercials of 30-seconds in length. All page sizes shalt be of standard measurements.

Freedom, however, is a gift with an edge. In online channels, it brings with it an obligation to be interesting. The good news is your creative work has to be fantastic. The bad news is your creative work has to be fantastic.

Anything less is simply ignored.

That said, I believe writers of Brignull’s ilk shared an intuitive understanding of people, which allowed them to construct deceptively charming messages, which sold the product hard.

Just look at some of the old Volkswagen ads that illustrate John O’Driscoll’s article on pages 10-15.