BEING CREATIVE IS STRAIGHTFORWARD IF YOU FOLLOW THESE STEPS - Part 2

Here's more on getting creative:

Starting with a slant will help you to have purpose and direction. A slant can focus your research by pointing out the information you need to gather. It will focus your headline writing and provide the structure for the ad. In the comparison example, a chart would be excellent, right? Now for the second point.

Be Quick About Things. Just so you can see what I mean, I am going to time this. I am going to develop an ad from beginning to end.

September 26, 2008

Pest Control
Sales point: Do It Right, Kill The Bugs.

Emotion: Embarrassment


John Smith Scenario: You are having a dinner party. There are two other couples that you invited over. You are sitting down to the meal when a big, brown cockroach starts to crawl up the wall. The visitors don’t notice it so you jump up and smash it, but not quickly enough, one guest saw the thing. You know she did and now you are embarrassed. You say something to cover the situation.


Next Level Arguments: ABC Pest Control has the fastest service; ABC Pest Control provides the longest kill time.


Headline: How To Avoid The Embarrassment Of That Big, Brown Roach Crawling Up The Wall During Your Next Dinner Party.

9:34:58 am September 26, 2008

What I want you to understand from this example is that going from point to point in the process is not that hard. It can move fast, if you let it.

Remember: you are not skipping steps if you go fast! You move fast by streamlining the process a bit. You start with the sales point, that general statement of what is most important to the prospect. Then you move into the emotions and develop one common scenario. Then you build a small argument, usually of the “We are the best…” type. Then you write a headline that serves as the backbone of the ad.

Now I threw the headline slant in there as well just for kicks. But the point is both methods will get your creative juices flowing. (I know that sentence scared some, but these are simple and straightforward methods.)

Both methods are designed to get you to a finished product quickly; both methods use the process. There are no shortcuts here, but I will give you one word of caution. These methods work well if you are working from an understanding, not just from the memory of a process. Like a calculator with sophisticated differential calculus functions, if you do not understand the hows and whys, the answers you get will never be right.

So keep these two methods in mind:

• Start With A Slant
• Be Quick About Things

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