JAMES kELSo        oPYWRITER

For hire, by the day, by the job, by the light of the silvery moon.

You no doubt give thorough briefings to your copywriters but, just in case,  I use a check list. It’s all rather obvious and no more than you’d expect any decent ad agency account exec to carry. Please feel free to download and use it yourself if you want to. I probably pinched from it from someone else in the first place!

CHECK LIST

Client/Brand/product/service

Media

B2B

B2C

Budget

Objective

Strategy

Target audience? (name a person)

Target audience categories

What is the offer?

What proof offer is worthwhile? (testimonials)

Is there a price story?

How is brand/product/service perceived?

What impression do you want to leave?

What response do you want to elicit?

Is there an ongoing brand/product/service proposition, or market position consideration?

If so, what is it?

Any funny, unusual, ‘go the extra mile’ stories?

Any must-not mentions?

Who is to say yes or no to the ideas? Do they know the brief?

What is the question to which the only answer is this product/service?

May I present work you may not like?

Do you have a checklist of the criteria the creative work must fulfil?

Do you use a checklist to judge creative work?

Are personal likes and dislikes the only criteria for acceptance?

If direct mail, a sales letter, what will go with the letter? What envelope? What form of personal address? Can letter be more than one page?

What is the purchaser’s financial commitment: cost, lease, rental, buy?

If website work, are keywords established and regularly reviewed?

Is site optimised for search engines?

Is the site’s architecture ‘fit for purpose’?

Do you use social networks?

Do you use pay-per-click?

Who are the competitors?

May I see competitor’s work?

Description, including must elements of copy

I complete the list for my own use and, if you wish, call-report a copy to you. I also update the briefing with future meeting and phone call reports. All very obvious and no more than you'd expect from your current supplier I’m sure.

I also use another checklist to judge my own work, especially ads.

JUDGING CREATIVE WORK

Is the proposition clear?

Is it accurate?

Does it fulfil the criteria of the brief?

Is there any reader-reward? Intrigue? Drama? Humanity? Warmth? Humour?

Does it engage readers, give them a thought to complete, an idea to complete?

What impression will it leave?

What response will it elicit from readers?

Will it make readers our accomplices?

What aspiration of theirs will it fulfil?

What will readers sacrifice if they don’t buy?

Does it contain any negatives?

Can it be done in time/budget?

Is it worth affording?

Do I like it?

REMINDERS

1 Telling isn’t selling.

2 Your first response is all-important. You can’t regain your innocent eye.

3 Messages are like tennis balls. If you throw one to me, I’ll catch it. If you throw two, I may catch one. Throw me six and I’ll drop them all. The same applies to the number of messages in ads.

4 I’m judged by my creative work but I don't judge clients by the quality of their brief. Instead, I regard solving the brief as part of my job. It's the first part of solving the creative.

CREATIVE JURY

I also use an imaginary list of creative jurors. I imagine them looking at the work. What would she think of it? What would he make of it? It helps me look at the work through other eyes and anticipate questions and objections before I present it to you. My current jury is:

Mrs. Kelso

Bill Bernbach

Claude Hopkins

David Abbott

David Ogilvy

Drayton Bird

Jakob Nielsen

Socrates

Homer

Homer Simpson

Vlad the Impaler

ONE MORE THING, DIPADA

Dipada, as you may know, is an acronym for a sales technique. To a certain extent we live in a post-Dipada world, but it’s a useful armature to hang copy on. Many copywriters follow the principle even if they don't know it. Others ignore it and still write brilliant work. There are other acronyms, Aida for example - attention, interest, desire, and action. This is the discipline.

DIPADA

Define customer's needs

Identify those needs with the product being sold

Proof - prove the product works

Agreement - get agreement the product meets the customer's needs

Desire to find out how the product can work for you

Action to take

DIPADA IN THE REAL WORLD - A TRUE STORY

This story is a bit long so I’ve put it on a separate page. It’s worth reading especially if you have, say, an important letter or document to write. Hit this link to go there. There’s a return link on that page if you want to come back here.

HOW TO READ COPY

If you only read one thing on this website, I’d like it to be this. It’s also a bit long, and somewhat delicate, so it too has its own page. Anyway, you probably know the rules for how to read copy. But in case you’d like a reminder, hit this link. You’ll find a return link on that page if you want to come back here - if you’re not spitting with indignation!

WHAT EVERY COPYWRITER NEEDS IS...

This is another long haul  so I’ve put it on another page. Click here to read it, but only bother if you’re seriously ambitious about becoming a copywriter.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT

That's how I work. If you'd like a full presentation (translation: a meeting to find out in the first 30 micro-seconds if my face fits) please call me, Jim Kelso, on 01491 613003. 'Ideas are the currency of the future', the current mantra says (as if they weren't the currency of the past). And it is ideas I sell. Ideas backed by my principles. And, as Groucho Marx said: 'If you don't like my principles, I've got others'.

MY FAVOURITE AD

A poster outside a suburban church:

'This way up.'

MY FAVOURITE PIECE OF COPY

Instructions on a jar lid:

'Pierce with pin and push off.'