The Ever-Evolving Craft Of Copy

As a copywriter starting out in the ’90s, one quote from a true ad legend, Howard Gossage, changed my way of thinking and has stuck with me since that time.

“Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them. Sometimes it’s an ad.”

In my case, radio was the medium in the first part of my career but the same theory applied. An early mentor of mine said, “always care about what you put on the air.” It had its roots in production, but it’s fair to say that good copy could make the difference between something people were genuinely interested in listening to or changing the station.

In recent years, the rise of the visual web and visual communication has continued at a rapid pace. eMarketer, for example, estimates that, by 2018, the US user base on Instagram will top out at over 106M. On an average day, as Econsultancy notes, users post 70M photos and hit the “like” button 2.5B times. But even with its continuing rise, copy still plays a role. To wit, those captions support the beautiful images that were created. So the words truly do matter.

The State Of Copy Today

But what is the true state of the copywriting craft today? Even more simply put, are we, as an industry better writers, worse, or somewhere in between?

“Better and worse are tricky terms,” said Chapin Clark, EVP, Managing Director, Copywriting, R/GA. “A big part of mainstream culture is Internet culture, which used to be kind of a fringe thing, but now it’s really seeped into everything. It doesn’t just influence the references. It’s shaping patterns of speech, slang. It’s altered the way we communicate with one another, so I think now writers also need to have their finger on the pulse of Internet culture and subcultures and be able to draw on that in their work.”

That said, Mike Caguin, Chief Creative Office, Colle+McVoy, thinks that we’re in a bit of a swoon. “I definitely think in some aspects we’re worse writers, and when I say that I feel like part of it is just the speed of our business hasn’t given us the time to craft and really think through the storyline, and what we’re trying to do for a brand or for a project — where getting out there first is more important than getting it right, or getting it done in the smartest way possible. Speed has taken the priority and through that craft has suffered.”

Jeremy Bernstein, EVP, Group Creative Director at Deutsch in New York, sees it somewhere in the middle.

 “I think we’re different kinds of writers. Some of the emphasis has been taken off of the craft of copywriting and that has hurt us in ways, but I also think that there is a survival-of-the-fittest going on in communications these days. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter, and where we’ve really lost is in the beauty of longer form. I don’t know that the media or the marketplace supports a lot of that any of that anymore.”

What Constitutes “Good” Copy Today?

Much like humor, “good” copy is, by its very nature, subjective. Going back to the Gossage quote, it really does come down to the individual, but certain guidelines still apply and are steeped in common sense and simplicity, but with an underlying sense of humanity and emotion, which leads to a need for a more “real” approach to talking with consumers through copy.

“First and foremost, is it relevant?” questioned Caguin. “Good copy feels so simple, yet is so emotive. There are writers out there who have a lexicon that’s ten times a normal human being, but then there are writers that distill it down in a way that feels like they’re having a conversation with you. More and more I think there is increasing relevance for the types of writers who can use everyday language in really inventive ways to convey a powerful story.”

 Within the halls of Deutsch, Bernstein backs up the need for a conversational style.

“We have a mantra: ‘human spoken here,’” he noted. “That basically means, speak in a way that people speak, that’s conversational and colloquial — still well-written, but accessible to whoever your audience is. If your audience is very sophisticated, the language should be very sophisticated, but not complicated. People are people and like things that are easy to understand and smart, intelligent, but don’t use overly complex language to communicate things that don’t require it.”

Passing It On

Looking ahead, words, and copywriting, will continue to inhabit a prominent place in the industry. For those new to the business, the wisdom of professionals is key to perpetuating quality.

“I try and preach or instill an appreciation for the craft, not just the craft of writing, not just the ‘Big Idea.’” said Clark. “I urge young writers to be open to working on lots of different kinds of things. I think as a writer you get better the more you do it — trying things and failing, coming up with lots of different options for things, whether it’s a headline or a script or a social post or whatever. I think with digital media, especially, things come alive and it’s a writer’s job to experiment.”

To Bernstein, there is something bigger than just the words in play.

“I think the crafting of the ultimate scripts or language of whatever you’re doing is the easy part today. It’s really the communication of ambitious ideas and their inception and how to write those things persuasively. It’s not about a TV spot, or a radio spot, or the media isn’t even defined yet, but it’s something experiential. That’s what I think is the hardest thing for younger people to understand and embrace, and that’s what I focus a lot of my energy on in coaching that along.”

As Caguin sees it, everyone in the industry should have a base level of writing proficiency to be able to navigate the world of words.

“We’re pretty siloed in our world but everyone should have basic, good, copywriting skills because it speaks to your competence. You’re finding different ways to say the same thing, and it gives you an appreciation for good copywriting — and when you’re evaluating ideas you’re actually bringing good criticism to the table versus just relying on the discipline experts.”

The Future Of Words

As visual and more compact storytelling continues at its breakneck pace, the simple questions need to be asked: what does the future hold for words? For Caguin, the words themselves can play a role.

“How can we use words in visual ways more often instead of relying on people understanding the definitions of them? We’ve seen great designers do this throughout time,” he said.

In Clark’s view, there are some cautionary thoughts grown out of the rising use of social media.

“There’s certain linguistic patterns or rhythms on social media that have become cliché. Things like ‘dot dot dot, said no one ever’, or ‘dot dot dot, because Millennials.’ There’s sort of a social media pattern or shorthand or slang that a lot of people use as a substitute for genuine wit or originality, and I think that kind of thing is deadly for original expression. Writers have always had to be on the lookout for tired phrasing, old saws and cliché expression, but I think social media has presented a new set of things like that that writers, in particular, need to be suspicious of.”

Bernstein also sees the rise of social as a new challenge, but relevance is a key — where it’s more than just “being there.”

“I think that often we’re using the wrong tools for the wrong job. I see a lot of work that tries to apply the thinking of television to digital, for example. As I think these new formats, like social channels, evolve and mature, we’ll see people get more comfortable and get better — not just checking off a box and saying, ‘Okay, now our brand’s on Twitter. Away we go.’”

This article originally appeared in the Official Advertising Week Guide, which will be released after Labor Day in print and online at advertisingweek.com. Don’t miss Advertising Week in NYC, starting September 28th — register today