Make them shout “BASTARDS!” Three ways to win a D&AD Writing For Design pencil.

This year, I was asked to be on the Writing For Design jury at the D&AD awards, which was pretty damn cool. So I jumped on the train down to London and spent a fascinating day with 5 clever, passionate writers from all sorts of different backgrounds. The day gave me a few insights into the judging process and I thought I’d share a few bits of advice on the sort of work you need to be doing if you want to pick up an award.

Winning a pencil actually boils down to one simple thing: Making the judges shout “BASTARDS!”

 Your ultimate aim is to make judges so insanely jealous that their only logical and rational reaction is to punch a nearby wall and swear at the top of their voices. You need to be doing work they wish they’d done. You need to be doing something so clever, simple and “just right” that they can’t believe no one has come up with it before.

It’s also relatively straightforward to describe the sort of work that’s going to achieve that, because it falls into 3 broad categories:

1 - Find a technique no one has seen before.

If you can find a visual, verbal or structural approach that uses words in a completely new and original way, then you’re really on to something. This is the sort of work that’s going to make judges angry with envy and get you graphite or yellow pencils. These two previous award winners do this for me:

Another side to the story (Publicis London) A really simple idea in theory, but this must have been devilishly difficult to craft.

 See more executions from this fantastic campaign here.

Hold your breath and read this ad (CLM BBDO) Another simple structural idea that keeps you reading right to the end.

See the D&AD award page here.

2 - Create a completely original tone of voice.

Another way to stand out is to define a tone of voice that doesn’t feel like it’s been done before. This isn’t easy, especially if you’re dealing with a well-established product. But you’ve got several elements to play with: tone, vocabulary, context and subject matter. So it can be done, as these three bits of work show:

Dear world (Johnson Banks) A simple, flexible structure that feels fresh and interesting. But it’s the charming, funny, intriguing lines that really make it work.

See more of this work here.

West Coast Tasmania (For The People) Admitting your faults and making them a positive is always a gamble, but it works brilliantly in this tourism campaign that takes Tasmania’s rugged remoteness and uses it to appeal to your sense of adventure.

 See more of this work here.

Innocent packaging (Innocent in-house) God, these felt brave when they first appeared. Some of the most imitated packaging of the past 20 years. Sorry about the ropey image, but it’s from the D&AD website, believe it or not.

See more terrible photos of this great work here.

3 - Do a distinctive tone of voice brilliantly.

Failing the previous two types of work, there’s still room for taking a distinctive brand tone of voice and doing it really well. No, make that REALLY, REALLY well. If you can find new, beautifully crafted ways to talk in a totally distinctive way, you can still be in with a shout of a pencil.

Simple Value (The Partners) Straight talking has been done a thousand times. But by having the balls to make it integral to the packaging, this felt really fresh and different.

See more of this work here.

Hardee’s (Arnold Worldwide) The “honest, no compromise approach” angle has also been done a thousand times, but when it’s coming from a major burger chain and when it’s done this well, you can’t help but be charmed.

The book even included this page written on foil.

See the cover of this (but not much else) here.

Chromebook/Game of Thrones (Arts & Letters Creative Co.) Sometimes switching a tone of voice into a totally different context can create something really fresh and interesting. Here, the corporate tone of company orientation documents smashes into the world of Game of Thrones. Read the whole document. It made me laugh from start to finish.

 Go here and click “See the slides”.

So, all you have to do now is:

·     Find a technique no one has seen before.

·     Create a completely original tone of voice.

·     Or do a distinctive tone of voice brilliantly.

Yeah, I know. Easier said than done. But if D&AD judges were easy to impress, winning one wouldn’t feel so special. Good luck

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Joe Coleman is a freelance copywriter based in Manchester, UK. You can see his D&AD award-winning website here and the full list of 2019 D&AD Writing For Design winners here.