Copywriting Archives - Page 4 of 5

10Apr 2006 by Bob Cargill

A New Marketing Commentator Wins NEDMA Gold

Blogging, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing

I’ve been blogging for more than two years now, and I can’t say there haven’t been days when I’ve wondered if all the time and energy I put into A New Marketing Commentator is worth it. But last Thursday wasn’t one of them. That was when the 25th Annual New England Direct Marketing Association’s Awards for Creative Excellence were handed out, and this blog was honored with gold. Yes, this labor of love of mine was the first blog ever to win a NEDMA award, and that award just happened to be first place in one of the Interactive categories (Other Interactive, B-to-B: CD-ROMs, Videos, Interactive Kiosks, Blogs). How cool is that? Not to toot my own horn, but I was also fortunate to receive three awards for the direct…

03Apr 2006 by Bob Cargill

Lose the Vowels, Gain a Following

Advertising, Branding, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Marketing

I suppose I could change my name to BB CRGL. And as for my blog, that could be reinvented as NW MKTNG CMNTTR, or some other such cryptic arrangement of letters, sans vowels. That, at least according to an article I read in the March 19 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe (“Merchants X out A, E, I, O, and U” by Jenn Abelson), would make me hip to what the author characterizes as “a phenomenon that stems from the growing acceptance of shorthand in text-messaging, communication that encourages users to get as much said in as little time and space possible.” The article begins with the following… Vwls R so ystrdy. From Motorola’s SLVR phone to Levi’s DLX jeans, merchants are unveiling new products with compact names that feature…

20Mar 2006 by Bob Cargill

Web Marketing Association’s Study Scores PR Web Sites Low

Advertising, Blogging, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Public Relations

In case you missed it, the Web Marketing Association (WMA) recently released its Internet Standards Assessment Report (ISAR), which “provides industry benchmarks for Web site development and is based on data collected from 9,748 Web site evaluations since 1997.” You can sign up to get your own free copy of this report here. In his summary of the report, Adrants’ Steve Hall said “public relations sites ranked low across all categories,” a finding that prompted the following comment from another Steve in my blogroll, Micro Persuasion’s Steve Rubel… When I read this my gut says that the adoption of blogging and other social media technologies on agency sites will separate the men from the boys, the ladies from the girls. As agencies begin to blog (or not), their writing skills…

07Mar 2006 by Bob Cargill

Using Direct Mail to Land a New Job

Advertising, Blogging, Branding, Cause-Related Marketing, Client Service, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing, Public Relations

If you’ve ever been between jobs, you know how much of a challenge it is to stand out in a crowd of those who are ambitiously jockeying for the same gig. After all, chances are you’re just one of dozens, if not hundreds, with relatively similar credentials in line for that one plum position. And unless you know someone in a corner office who can grant you the inside track, the odds of your resume getting past the gatekeepers and in the hands of the top dog are slim to none, never mind getting your foot in the door for an interview. With that said, in addition to going about my new job search in all the usual ways – posting my resume on online job boards such as Monster…

20Feb 2006 by Bob Cargill

A Career Imperative at the Crossroads of Change

Advertising, Blogging, Branding, Cause-Related Marketing, Client Service, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing, Public Relations

If you know of an organization that’s looking for an experienced direct marketer and enthusiastic, entrepreneurial creative director, copywriter, blogger and public speaker, I know of someone who fits the bill. Moi. Yes, I’m here to tell you that even though my employment with one company has just recently come to an end, I have no intention whatsoever of letting even a few blades of grass grow like a contagion under my feet. Given such urgency and resolve, I have already touched base with my network of friends and colleagues in the terrestrial world, letting them know of my availability and desire to land a new full-time job – or contract assignment – as soon as possible. And, of course, I've been wading my way through Monster, Talent Zoo and…

21Jul 2005 by Bob Cargill

The Cure for the Common Headline

Advertising, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Marketing

If you were a neighbor of mine, you’d know what I mean when I say my lawn isn’t going to win any beauty contests. It’s so thin, brown and malnourished, it’s embarrassing – especially during the dog days of summer. So when The Scotts Company wrote to me recently about growing a thicker, greener lawn, its timing – and targeting of me as a potential customer – couldn’t have been better. After all, like any other proud homeowner in this day and age, I need to be doing everything I can to keep up with the Joneses, no? Which reminds me of a direct mail package Scotts sent out a few years ago, bearing the words, “Now the grass can be greener on your side.” While these folks didn’t earn…

23May 2005 by Bob Cargill

One of the Habits of Highly Effective Marketers

Copywriting, Direct Marketing

All experienced copywriters know how advantageous it is to establish common ground from the get-go with those on the receiving end of our messages and offers. Whether we're selling products and services or raising funds for charitable organizations, like ambassadors of goodwill, it behooves us to speak the same language as the constituencies before us, it pays to strike a chord to which almost everyone can relate. For instance, in the early '90s I wrote a direct mail package for Science News magazine that featured the following copy on the outside envelope: "Electricity so powerful it shocks a heart-attack victim back to life... Whales so hungry they take a bite out of the beach... Grasshoppers so smart they change coats to beat the heat... And other things that will make…

18Mar 2005 by Bob Cargill No Comments

Humor in Advertising: Two Funny Case Studies

Advertising, Copywriting

People "do stupid things" and "don't always use common sense," according to two different ads – for Vonage and UnitedHealthcare respectively – that appeared in the latest edition (March 11-13, 2005) of USA WEEKEND, the Sunday newspaper magazine supplement.If I hadn’t laughed out loud when I first saw these ads, I might have been insulted.Coincidentally, both ads use similar headlines and are able to get away with poking fun at their audience by breaking one of the cardinal rules of copywriting: Anyone who writes headlines in advertising knows to address customers and prospects in the second person, “you.” It’s one of the easiest ways to command the immediate attention of your readership.But in these two instances, the headlines were purposely impersonalized by using the indefinite pronoun, “people,” as the subject,…

28Oct 2004 by Bob Cargill

Guaranteed Indeed

Copywriting, Direct Marketing

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was an extraordinary philosopher, renowned to this day for his words of wisdom, but if what he said about life's uncertainties were to still hold true, 21st century consumers might even be more reluctant to part with their money. “In this world,” he once opined, “nothing is guaranteed except death and taxes.” Of course, Ben wasn’t around when L.L. Bean guaranteed the first pair of boots its founder sold in 1912. But seriously, the world in which Ben lived was obviously far, far removed from ours today, a world in which almost everything is guaranteed – and rightly so – by those in sales. As Dean Rieck, President of Direct Creative, writes in a recent (October 18, 2004) issue of DM News, “If you really have a…