Copywriting
Where would
Voiceovers be without a script? How
effective could a Voice Talent be if the
copy they were reading was poorly
written? More importantly, how effective
would the message be?
Effective copywriting is
as much an art as a good voiceover. I
have seen (and read) many scripts for
commercials, narrations, IVRs, etc that
showed little promise for grabbing
someone's attention and getting them to
react to the message. Unfortunately,
most voiceover artists have little say
in the script they're given. They might
question the structure of a sentence or
pronunciation of a word, but beyond that
they are left to interpret the script as
best they can, read it, and move on.
Oftentimes the voice talent and/or
producer may bare the brunt of the blame
when the message or commercial gets
little or no response. When in reality,
it may have been the Copywriter who did
a poor job to begin with. Maybe that
writer was the client, who thought they
knew what they wanted to say but didn't
have the skills to tell their story
effectively. Does this sound familiar to
you? A master of
Adverting and Marketing, William
Bernbach, (he's the B in DDB, one of the
largest, most successful ad agencies in
the world) once said ~
"The truth
isn't the truth until people believe
you, and they can't believe you if they
don't know what you're saying, and they
can't know what you've said if they
don't listen to you, and they won't
listen to you if you're not interesting,
and you won't be interesting until you
say things imaginatively, originally,
freshly."
Therein lies the magic
of effective, creative copywriting!
Bernbach also said ~ "If your
advertising goes unnoticed, everything
else is academic!"
More often
than not, the heart of a good ad or
marketing campaign is a fresh idea and
great copywriting.
Yes, copywriting
is indeed an art and skill. And one
could argue that the quality of the copy
might even be more important than the
talent of the voice artist. We've all
seen movies that were filled with A list
actors, but flopped miserably at the box
office. Why? Bad Story? More likely -
bad script or screenplay.
Don't underestimate the
importance of Copywriting. Before you
spend lots of money on a marketing
campaign, hire the best voiceover talent
for the job, and wonder why you got
little or no response, remember the
words of Bill Bernbach ~
"Advertising
isn't a science. It's persuasion. And
Persuasion is an art."
Please contact us about
our Copywriting services and let us
create your next marketing message!
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