Learn how to brainstorm brilliant ads and copy | You’ll get one practical recipe every two weeks | Free bonus: get 25 creative marketing cheatsheets when you sign up.
Turning comedy into copy
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Hey! A great creative director once told me: “If you wanna learn copywriting, don’t read ads – watch stand-up comedy.” And he was right. I can literally go to just-one-liners.com, pick a random line, add a logo, and voilà! I’ve got an ad. Let me show you 👇 “Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason.” – Jerry Seinfeld “If camping is so great, why are the bugs always trying to get in your house?” – Jim Gaffigan “Swimming is good for you, especially if you’re drowning.” – Jimmy Carr “There’s a fine line between hyphenated words.” – Stewart Francis “I like what mechanics wear, overall.” – Stewart Francis “Best way to get rid of kitchen odors: eat out.” – Phyllis Diller “If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?” – Steven Wright Why do this?Obviously, I’d never steal other people’s work, but this exercise helps me: You made it! 💃Reply to this email if you enjoyed it. I'll write back, pinky swear ;) P.S. Check out my new B2B ads course – Boring Products, Fun Ads (150+ students) |
The Creative Marketer
Learn how to brainstorm brilliant ads and copy | You’ll get one practical recipe every two weeks | Free bonus: get 25 creative marketing cheatsheets when you sign up.
Read in your browser ↗ Hey! Dan Nelken once said, "Great headlines aren't great sentences – they're great ideas expressed in words." So today, I'll show you how a classic ideation method, Osborn’s Checklist, can be used to write headlines. tl;dr Save and print the PDF version here. Now, let's break it down: 1. Adapt 🤔 Ask: • What could I adapt or copy? • Emulate another ad or brand?• Borrow from other industries? • Can I take from the past?• Borrow from pop culture?• Try something else like...
Read in your browser ↗ Hey! Usually, I try to focus my ads on a single product, feature, or benefit. But The Advertising Concept Book made me realize that sometimes, showing the full range of a brand's offerings can really pay off. Here are some great examples: Small captions: Diving Clubs / French Restaurants. Yellow Pages. Let’s try this technique with Salesforce. Step 1: Choose the Range 🧠 Decide: What do you want to highlight? I go to Salesforce’s website and see that they provide CRM...
Read in your browser ↗ Hey! "Pull Back and Reveal” is a classic cinematic technique. An example of "Pull Back and Reveal” from What About Bob. Now, let’s use this technique to make some ads for ExpressVPN. I’ll base them on the “Fake Plane Challenge” trend. Step 1: Close-Up Limit the view to make the audience assume what’s happening. Step 2: Reveal Zoom out and surprise them. Step 3: Brand Message Bonus: Static Pull Back and Reveal works for static ads too.We just need the right visual...