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Copywriting Techniques for TVC
Attracting viewers' attention
Before you can write a television commercial, you have to consider the actual act of watching television - what it involves and how it affects the viewer. Our minds constantly process various stimuli. When that ongoing process is interrupted, the brain starts to concentrate on the source of the interruption. In the case of television commercials, when a sight or sound draws attention to itself, the pupil of the eye dilates. This, in turn, causes the lens to focus on the television screen. So a bridge is established between the viewer and the television commercial.
This process of diverting the mind to one specific area of attention takes less than a second to establish itself. During that time, a decision has to be made about whether or not to continue to allow the 'bridge' to stand and so enable more detail from the source of distraction (i.e. the television commercial) to be processed or ignore the stimulus and go on to something more interesting instead.
With so many other possible distractions that demand attention from the viewer (such as an 'itchy' hand or the feel of a warm cup of coffee that, demands drinking), this process is critically impossible to control. However, by understanding which stimuli are likely to arrest attention in the first place, it is possible to influence the viewer's propensity to becoming distracted by a television commercial.
The good news for a copywriter is that providing the commercial is broadcast during a programme that is already of significant interest to the viewer, the chances are improved that he or she will be less likely to be distracted away from the screen during a television break. Likewise, the sooner the commercial falls within the start of the break, the higher the probability that the viewer won't be distracted by something else.
Possible routes to attract attention include:
Material meanings
Colours Vivid colours alert: pastel colours pacify
Sounds Overtly loud or unusually muffled stimulate interest
Movement A moving object is often more 'moving' than a stationary one
Size Unusual sizes and shapes attract interest
Light Contrast stimulates
Social interpretations
Eyes Express feelings and depth (very good for close-up shots)
Facial Expressions Provide further details of such emotions
Hands Accentuate key points
Posture Helps sets the mood - casual, attentive, professional, laid back
Sexual undertones Incredibly strong attention distracters
Children 'Bring out' natural paternal or maternal protective instincts (this also applies to animals or pets)
The 'trigger'
Once you have attracted the viewers' attention and so constructed a 'bridge', you can begin to think about ways to make those images work with copy that ‘triggers’ the right types of emotions associated with a product or service. To do this you must consider the way in which you present the basic attention stimuli, for example:
* movement animated
* size huge shopping trolley
* sound music
* incongruent, novel or surprising ...
* hands expressive
* face animated
* posture lively
Practical creative approaches
Let’s consider some popular creative television genres. Unlike press advertising or direct mail, television - and to a lesser extent its cousin, radio - are both centres of entertainment. Unless totally dedi¬cated to news and education channels, the majority of viewers spend most of their time watching television entertainment. Therefore, your - television commercial has to entertain as well as inform. By doing so, a commercial acts as a catalyst for creative concepts to be embraced rather than endured.
‘How to...’ commercials
If television reflects life, then the sales style or ‘sales spiel’ of a market trader reflects great ‘how to...’ television commercial copy techniques. The trader shows you:
what is for sale
what if does
how it compares
how durable it is
how cheap it is
why it has to be sold NOW
why you’d be crazy not buy it
The sales spiel is confident. The trader will use every sales gimmick from throwing an unbreakable china plate on to the ground to chop¬ping a variety of vegetables with one simple cutting device. The cus¬tomer is repeatedly shown the virtues of the product. One benefit rapidly follows another. It all culminates in an orgy of customer demands to buy that product NOW!
likewise step by step, the ‘how to...’ commercial explains how some¬thing can be done quicker, slower, easier, softer, cleaner, cheaper, and 80 on. Nothing is left to speculation. Everything is assured. In the United States it is commonplace to put market traders in a studio, give them television air time and get them to sell. The problem with this approach is that a good sales pitch needs time to 'warm up' an audience until they are driven into a heated frenzy to buy, buy, BUY! (Which is one reason why sponsored TV programmes are so popular in the United States.)
Get in the driving seat (Automobile Commercials)
Car commercials often embrace one or more of the following aspects:
* Show the car in action;
* Show someone using the car in action;
* Show interior and exterior of the car. (Exterior footage should feature the body highlights, lines and curves of the vehicle);
* Show the type of person who drives the car;
* Show the type of person who typically drives the car, driving the car;
* Concentrate on specific mechanical and technical enhancements (e.g. safety);
It is popular to show the car in action in a suitably dramatic landscape. Such commercials rely more on art direction than copywriting. Here, lighting, music and scenery takescentre stage. The down side of this kind of commercial is that you can spend vast sums of money just searching ('reckying') for a suitable location before you even get to film anything. Also, as you'll want to invest in capturing the glamour, 16 mm or even 35 mm film is often chosen in preference to video: unless the format is Digi-Beta, D1 or D5, video may not capture colour tones as vibrantly as film.
Slice of life Commercials
Television broadcasters have always recognised the power of 'soaps'. Why? Because viewers identify with soap characters. Drama based on real-life situations and real families makes addictive viewing. As you have seen, television commercials take a sales message directly to the heart of family home. They provide a great opportunity to introduce the viewer's family to the product's fictitious family.
Slice-of-life commercials can feature any person in a family: the kids; the kids and mum; mum and dad; mum, dad, and the kids; grandparents; grandparents and any of the above. In addition, they can feature friends of the family, and would-be-lovers.
Being everyday people, your dialogue should be written in a casual tone. Think of your copy as a transcript of a piece of dialogue taken from eaves dropping on people: at work; at the bus stop; at the dinner table; shopping; watching TV, and so on.
In order to write a successful slice-of-life commercial, it is important that the slice of life revolves around the product - not vice versa. So, for example, if you were to produce a slice-of-life commercial for a PenPod, the pen would act as an anchor point for the action.
First commercial
Character B passes by a window of a shop selling a Penpod and daydreams about Character A who is on business 1000 miles away. Character Awnats to write a letter to Character B. Looks for a pen but can't find one. Beautiful Character C enters the scenario and offers to lend Character A her PenPod. End of first commercial. Who is Character C? End title reads: Get the Message with PenPod.
Second Commercial
Character B receives the letter from Character A and writes back a love letter to Character A. Meanwhile, Character C (who is at home) is seen writing with her PenPod, signing a letter and then posting it. Character A receives a letter, opens it and smiles. Character B in her location, smiles. Character C in her location smiles. (Who wrote what to whom?) End title reads: Get the message with PenPod.
And so on...
Intimate moments - handling sex on TV
You may have noticed that I included 'would-be lovers' in the slice-of-life category of television commercials. Television can sometimes be considered as the eaves-dropper's magnifying glass on the world. It demonstrates - often graphically - what can be achieved, given the right tools in everything from business to love to sex. (During the summer of 1995, the US Senate passed a Telecommunications Bill requiring broadcasters to rate television programmes, and manufactures to fit television set with 'V' chips (V - violence). In this way, parents could block programmes that they found objectionable.)
Sex, being taboo, is sometimes seen as seductively alluring yet tantalisingly forbidden. That's why so many products that may be considered lavish, potentially bad for your figure, indulgent, and so on, make great intimate-moment television commercials. Ideal product candidates include: ice-cream; chocolates; bodycare products like foam baths; keep-fit equipment and health programmes.
Sexual undertones can be really subtle yet powerful effective. One common creative 'trick' is to endow a phallus symbol to an inanimate object. For example:
A woman snuggles up against a rolled-up towel and discusses how soft it feels against her skin.
A ruby-red-lipped model takes a long and sensuous 'crunch' into a ripe apple.
A man caresses a female-shaped bottle of aftershave.
A woman drinks from a stream of clear, forthy water cascading out of a long-necked bottle.
Another type of intimate-moment television commercials is the 'secret sex' approach. This can include an intimate confession about: cleavage-enhancing bras; sports and leisure activity supportive underwear; leg caressing tights; passion-arousing perfume; discreet sanitary towels that help you get on with your life.
The big star on the small screen(Brand/Product endorsements by Celebrities)
I'm still as big a star as ever. It's only the screen that got smaller (Gloria Swanson)
If you are going to hire a celebrity to endorse a product or service on television first ask yourself who is going to be the real star of the production, the celebrity or the product?
If, on the screen, that star dominates the product, your creative message won't wash, so don't use the celebrity. Many cases have been known where a television commercial makes the star an even bigger celebrity. That's acceptable. However, the product gets forgotten somewhere along the line. Worse still, the star's new image means that several commercials down the road, the star's agent will demand more money. (A good case for settling fees for all star appearances in writing before embarking on a long-term campaign.)
As with testimonials used in press advertising (see 'Question headlines', page 74) it is important to understand the style of dialogue used by a specific celebrity. Write as the person would speak. If the star is really talented you may be asked to suggest an outline script and allow the celebrity to add the finishing touches. (Assuming you or your client is prepared to take the risk.)
A popular strategic creative option is to use television stars rather than big-screen stars. First, they usually cost less and, second they are more familiar 'visitors' to the viewer's home and therefore, more credible. Such stars may include soap-opera characters. Stars needn't come from the show-business galaxy of glitz and glitter. Industry-specific 'stars' add extra credibility, for example: a policeman endorsing a safety belt; an industrialist endorsing a computer; a cook endorsing a food product; an author endorsing a pen.
If you really want to add public credibility to a product or service, you could always get 'ordinary people' to endorse it. This approach makes a product appear practical but not as aspirational as a star endorsement. One way around this is to feature 'ordinary people' using the product and 'stars' introducing the product to the 'ordinary people'.
Other creative techniques to try include:
* On-the-street interviews/door-step interviews (in which the star interviews people outside their homes about a specific product or service);
* Extreme close-ups of people discussing the product (known as 'talking heads');
* Ordinary people acting like stars - because of the glamour associated with the product in question (e.g. one taste of ScotdaleNorthside ice-cream makes an ordinary woman enter a fantasy world where she takes on the appearance of a well-known 'sexy' actress or singer);
* Company directors demonstrating their own product and confidence in that product (see 'Appearing in your own advertising', page 86)
That's all folks - animation
Animated characters are cute. The question you must ask yourself before enlisting the help of an animator is, 'Just how cute' is the image that you wish to convey?' Cartoon characters can make:
* a weighty subject lighter
* another 'me too' item lively
* a toy more desirable
* a boring subject interesting
* a brand name person-friendly by becoming the spokesperson for the brand
Beware of writing an entertaining commercial that just happens to sponsor a product rather than entertaining sales commercial.
Animated commercials should be uncomplicated. The best animated characters have 'human' expressions. Indeed, the more 'human' the qualities, the more charming the character appears.
Take as much care over choosing suitable soundtracks as you do in choosing an animator. Music soundtracks feature the great classics or can be parodies of existing pieces of music. The band The Beatles for bad advertises to use their lyrics. Even if the band did not endorse anything. In 1987 Yoko Ono was prevented from allowing Revolution to be used in a sportswear advertisement.
When you write copy for a cartoon character, watch the clock. (Notice how the script for The Adams Family showed how long it took for each piece of action to be 'acted out'.) In the case of a 30-second commercial, reduce your word count from 60-70 (for live-action commercials) to 40-50 for cartoon commercials, unless it is sung. This allows the cartoon to animate into life without being shackled by too many words. As with all television and radio commercials, act out your animated sequence to see if it fits within your allocated time slot.
Not all animated commercials feature cartoons. You can consider animation as part of a live commercial to demonstrate the mechanics of a product, enliven a company logo or add emphasis to a sales message.
Animation can also be used as a special effect. For example, you could stretch a person's face in awkward directions using part live action and part animation. You could use stop-frame animation to transform an ordinary scene into a Keystone Cop style 'flickered' image. You could fly people on a magic carpet or even have them dance with an animated product.... The possibilities are endless.
The Last Laugh(Humor/Comedy in Commercials)
Humorous copy in television commercials can help give a fading brand a bit of shine. (Where possible, you should not apply overt humor to new brands as there is a danger that the humor will distract from the sales benefits.) Viewers like to laugh. So if you can make them laugh, hopefully they will pay greater attention to your message. Of course, if your humorous message is too hilarious, its overall effectiveness will be impaired as the viewer will spend too much time laughing at the gag rather than thinking about the product or service! On the other hand, a great joke can distract the viewer's attention from any arguments involved with making a purchase, such as cost.
With so many possible directions it is not surprising that this type of commercial is one of the hardest to write. Even if you do get the gag right, there is only a finite number of times that you can broadcast the same joke.
One of the main difficulties with managing humour for a television commercial or even cinema commercial is that a good joke needs time to make an impact. Most television commercials are 30 seconds in length. Seven of those seconds are taken up with establishing a scene and the end-of=sequence logo branding. A gag with bite calls for:
* a well-structured plot
* an easily accessible set-up
* an interesting character
* a precision-timed delivery
* an unexpected punch line
All in 30 seconds!
Assuming you are convinced that a humourouscommercials is the best way to sell a product or service, you still have to consider upon what to base the humour. One of the best ways to look for something funny is to look at yourself. This is very hard as you have to observe your own frailties and shortcomings, then list them, honestly - warts and all.
You could consider making your character talk to inanimate objects or treat awkward objects (such as something incredibly large like a grand piano, or tiny like a microchip, or absurd like a false leg) as if they were alive. You could place your character and product or service in unfamiliar surroundings: a different country, different time, different place, different planet. You could mingle new technology with traditional ideas. You could use 'upside-down' logic– Instead of hitting a nail into the wall, hit the wall into the nail. You could draw illogical conclusions from logical summations, and so on.
Consider introducing your character with peculiar afflictions, like a nervous twitch or a compulsion to 'squawk like a parrot' – the stranger the better. Consider exposing an unspoken social neurosis or depression. (However, keep in mind that your viewer may suffer from such an illness.)
Don't just settle for small problems – give your character vast problems. Exaggerate the predicament: exaggerate a solution by finding the answer using the most convoluted of routes. If things have to go wrong, make then go disastrously wrong – allowing the product or service to act as the catalyst that saves the day.
Above all, remember that its okay to see the funny side of life as long as that image does not insult the integrity of a product or service nor the viewer's instinctive perception of what is politically, socially and morally acceptable.
TV jingles
Contrary to popular belief, jingles are not meant to 'sing out' the end of a commercial. If that was their sole purpose, they would be self defeating. Every jingle, no matter how melodious, would serve only as a sign to the viewer that it is time to lose interest in the commercial. All jingles, including radio jingles, provides instant recognition of a brand. It is a musical aide memoire which combines the evocative pull of a musical score with the selling clout of a persuasive piece of copy. The craft of jingle composition may sound quite easy and even trivial. However, catchy jingles like catchy headlines are not that easy to write. A jingle has to reinforce a product or brand name.
It has to inform, add personality as well as amuse.
It has to make sense while rhyming.
It's the only one I'll ever need - a written guarantee
It has to summarise everything in one simple statement.
Get the message across.
A popular product category to use jingles is the toy industry. Jingles can have an important role in children's play time. Each time a game is played, the child could think of the jingle associated with the toy character involved in the game. Even everyday tasks can be turned into play. Every time 'mum' or 'dad pours out the breakfast cereal, so the child could recall a character on a television commercial who uses the jingle, especially if there is a free model of the character inside the box.
Finally, a jingle should be enduring. In the United Kingdom, the 'ovalteenies' jingle was still going strong in the late 1980s - some 50 years after first being broadcast. The oldest reputed US jingle, for a cereal called 'Wheeties', still in use in the 1990s was first broadcast in the 1920s.Writing a script
As a script layout, please refer to the scripts that I have included in this chapter. Don't worry too much about technical jargon. If you like to use 'buzz words' the following list should be enough to ensure that in terms of mechanics, your final 'picture' is seen and understood by everyone. If you want to describe a more complicated camera angle or technical aspect, do so in wrods, but never forget a director should be accredited with the imagination to take your words and turn them into a moving experience.
Buzz words
ad lib spontaneous dialogue - not scripted (ideal for on-the-street interviews)
animate to arrange an inanimate object or graphic in a way that, when seen as part of a finished film, gives the impression of movement.
CU close-up
cut change camera angle or scene
dissolve fad out of one picture or scene into another
fade in brighten the illumination of a scene (usually at the start of the scene)
fade out darken the illumination on scene (usually at the end of a scene)
freeze stop the action by 'freezing' it in time.
FVO Female Voice Over
lead-in initial words spoken by the VO at the start of the action
MCU Medium Close-Up shot - the person is seen from the chest upwards
MS Medium Shot in which a person on screen is seen from just below the waist upwards
MVO Male Voice Over
SFX Sound Effects
super superimpose one action or scene on top of another
track shot horizontal camera movement which zooms in or follows something
VO Voice Over
wipe change of scene from 'A' to 'B' using a graphic device (e.g. scene 'B' 'wipes' diagonally across scene 'A')
zoom in/out increase/decrease magnification of a subject
If you are going to hand over your script to a director eventually, then you have two possible ways to write it:
1. If you are totally confident in a director's abilities, just write the dialogue and describe the action;
2. If you want to have greater control over the actual interpretation, also include the camera angles.
Pros
1. The director has the chance to enhance a production by giving the commercial an 'angle' that you may not have considered;
2. You know what you put down on paper will end up in 'the can'.
Cons
1. Are you seriously going to leave your 'baby' in another person's hands?
2. How would you like to have your creativity shackled and, more importantly, how do you think that will affect the final results?
TV commercial advertising quick tips
* Commercials have to entertain as well as inform.
* Demonstration commercials work well with extreme examples.
* Special effects should enhance rather than distract from a single thought message.
* People like people 'slice-of-life' televions.
* 'Sexy' commercials can make viewers turn guilt into desire.
* A celebrity may be a star in his or her own right, their appearance is that of a guest - the product or service plays the lead.
* Animation can be cute. It must be relevant.
* Cartoons 'speak' clearer if you make them say less.
* Never laugh at a product or service. Laugh with it.
* Television graphics of copy make messages more memorable.
* Television jingles should say 'buy me' rather than signify the end of a commercial.
* Story boards can capture only the essence of a commercial. Not the soul.
* DRTV sells off the screen as you would sell off the page; make sure you can handle the response.
* DRTV repeatedly informs the viewer how to respond.
Attracting viewers' attention
Before you can write a television commercial, you have to consider the actual act of watching television - what it involves and how it affects the viewer. Our minds constantly process various stimuli. When that ongoing process is interrupted, the brain starts to concentrate on the source of the interruption. In the case of television commercials, when a sight or sound draws attention to itself, the pupil of the eye dilates. This, in turn, causes the lens to focus on the television screen. So a bridge is established between the viewer and the television commercial.
This process of diverting the mind to one specific area of attention takes less than a second to establish itself. During that time, a decision has to be made about whether or not to continue to allow the 'bridge' to stand and so enable more detail from the source of distraction (i.e. the television commercial) to be processed or ignore the stimulus and go on to something more interesting instead.
With so many other possible distractions that demand attention from the viewer (such as an 'itchy' hand or the feel of a warm cup of coffee that, demands drinking), this process is critically impossible to control. However, by understanding which stimuli are likely to arrest attention in the first place, it is possible to influence the viewer's propensity to becoming distracted by a television commercial.
The good news for a copywriter is that providing the commercial is broadcast during a programme that is already of significant interest to the viewer, the chances are improved that he or she will be less likely to be distracted away from the screen during a television break. Likewise, the sooner the commercial falls within the start of the break, the higher the probability that the viewer won't be distracted by something else.
Possible routes to attract attention include:
Material meanings
Colours Vivid colours alert: pastel colours pacify
Sounds Overtly loud or unusually muffled stimulate interest
Movement A moving object is often more 'moving' than a stationary one
Size Unusual sizes and shapes attract interest
Light Contrast stimulates
Social interpretations
Eyes Express feelings and depth (very good for close-up shots)
Facial Expressions Provide further details of such emotions
Hands Accentuate key points
Posture Helps sets the mood - casual, attentive, professional, laid back
Sexual undertones Incredibly strong attention distracters
Children 'Bring out' natural paternal or maternal protective instincts (this also applies to animals or pets)
The 'trigger'
Once you have attracted the viewers' attention and so constructed a 'bridge', you can begin to think about ways to make those images work with copy that ‘triggers’ the right types of emotions associated with a product or service. To do this you must consider the way in which you present the basic attention stimuli, for example:
* movement animated
* size huge shopping trolley
* sound music
* incongruent, novel or surprising ...
* hands expressive
* face animated
* posture lively
Practical creative approaches
Let’s consider some popular creative television genres. Unlike press advertising or direct mail, television - and to a lesser extent its cousin, radio - are both centres of entertainment. Unless totally dedi¬cated to news and education channels, the majority of viewers spend most of their time watching television entertainment. Therefore, your - television commercial has to entertain as well as inform. By doing so, a commercial acts as a catalyst for creative concepts to be embraced rather than endured.
‘How to...’ commercials
If television reflects life, then the sales style or ‘sales spiel’ of a market trader reflects great ‘how to...’ television commercial copy techniques. The trader shows you:
what is for sale
what if does
how it compares
how durable it is
how cheap it is
why it has to be sold NOW
why you’d be crazy not buy it
The sales spiel is confident. The trader will use every sales gimmick from throwing an unbreakable china plate on to the ground to chop¬ping a variety of vegetables with one simple cutting device. The cus¬tomer is repeatedly shown the virtues of the product. One benefit rapidly follows another. It all culminates in an orgy of customer demands to buy that product NOW!
likewise step by step, the ‘how to...’ commercial explains how some¬thing can be done quicker, slower, easier, softer, cleaner, cheaper, and 80 on. Nothing is left to speculation. Everything is assured. In the United States it is commonplace to put market traders in a studio, give them television air time and get them to sell. The problem with this approach is that a good sales pitch needs time to 'warm up' an audience until they are driven into a heated frenzy to buy, buy, BUY! (Which is one reason why sponsored TV programmes are so popular in the United States.)
Get in the driving seat (Automobile Commercials)
Car commercials often embrace one or more of the following aspects:
* Show the car in action;
* Show someone using the car in action;
* Show interior and exterior of the car. (Exterior footage should feature the body highlights, lines and curves of the vehicle);
* Show the type of person who drives the car;
* Show the type of person who typically drives the car, driving the car;
* Concentrate on specific mechanical and technical enhancements (e.g. safety);
It is popular to show the car in action in a suitably dramatic landscape. Such commercials rely more on art direction than copywriting. Here, lighting, music and scenery takescentre stage. The down side of this kind of commercial is that you can spend vast sums of money just searching ('reckying') for a suitable location before you even get to film anything. Also, as you'll want to invest in capturing the glamour, 16 mm or even 35 mm film is often chosen in preference to video: unless the format is Digi-Beta, D1 or D5, video may not capture colour tones as vibrantly as film.
Slice of life Commercials
Television broadcasters have always recognised the power of 'soaps'. Why? Because viewers identify with soap characters. Drama based on real-life situations and real families makes addictive viewing. As you have seen, television commercials take a sales message directly to the heart of family home. They provide a great opportunity to introduce the viewer's family to the product's fictitious family.
Slice-of-life commercials can feature any person in a family: the kids; the kids and mum; mum and dad; mum, dad, and the kids; grandparents; grandparents and any of the above. In addition, they can feature friends of the family, and would-be-lovers.
Being everyday people, your dialogue should be written in a casual tone. Think of your copy as a transcript of a piece of dialogue taken from eaves dropping on people: at work; at the bus stop; at the dinner table; shopping; watching TV, and so on.
In order to write a successful slice-of-life commercial, it is important that the slice of life revolves around the product - not vice versa. So, for example, if you were to produce a slice-of-life commercial for a PenPod, the pen would act as an anchor point for the action.
First commercial
Character B passes by a window of a shop selling a Penpod and daydreams about Character A who is on business 1000 miles away. Character Awnats to write a letter to Character B. Looks for a pen but can't find one. Beautiful Character C enters the scenario and offers to lend Character A her PenPod. End of first commercial. Who is Character C? End title reads: Get the Message with PenPod.
Second Commercial
Character B receives the letter from Character A and writes back a love letter to Character A. Meanwhile, Character C (who is at home) is seen writing with her PenPod, signing a letter and then posting it. Character A receives a letter, opens it and smiles. Character B in her location, smiles. Character C in her location smiles. (Who wrote what to whom?) End title reads: Get the message with PenPod.
And so on...
Intimate moments - handling sex on TV
You may have noticed that I included 'would-be lovers' in the slice-of-life category of television commercials. Television can sometimes be considered as the eaves-dropper's magnifying glass on the world. It demonstrates - often graphically - what can be achieved, given the right tools in everything from business to love to sex. (During the summer of 1995, the US Senate passed a Telecommunications Bill requiring broadcasters to rate television programmes, and manufactures to fit television set with 'V' chips (V - violence). In this way, parents could block programmes that they found objectionable.)
Sex, being taboo, is sometimes seen as seductively alluring yet tantalisingly forbidden. That's why so many products that may be considered lavish, potentially bad for your figure, indulgent, and so on, make great intimate-moment television commercials. Ideal product candidates include: ice-cream; chocolates; bodycare products like foam baths; keep-fit equipment and health programmes.
Sexual undertones can be really subtle yet powerful effective. One common creative 'trick' is to endow a phallus symbol to an inanimate object. For example:
A woman snuggles up against a rolled-up towel and discusses how soft it feels against her skin.
A ruby-red-lipped model takes a long and sensuous 'crunch' into a ripe apple.
A man caresses a female-shaped bottle of aftershave.
A woman drinks from a stream of clear, forthy water cascading out of a long-necked bottle.
Another type of intimate-moment television commercials is the 'secret sex' approach. This can include an intimate confession about: cleavage-enhancing bras; sports and leisure activity supportive underwear; leg caressing tights; passion-arousing perfume; discreet sanitary towels that help you get on with your life.
The big star on the small screen(Brand/Product endorsements by Celebrities)
I'm still as big a star as ever. It's only the screen that got smaller (Gloria Swanson)
If you are going to hire a celebrity to endorse a product or service on television first ask yourself who is going to be the real star of the production, the celebrity or the product?
If, on the screen, that star dominates the product, your creative message won't wash, so don't use the celebrity. Many cases have been known where a television commercial makes the star an even bigger celebrity. That's acceptable. However, the product gets forgotten somewhere along the line. Worse still, the star's new image means that several commercials down the road, the star's agent will demand more money. (A good case for settling fees for all star appearances in writing before embarking on a long-term campaign.)
As with testimonials used in press advertising (see 'Question headlines', page 74) it is important to understand the style of dialogue used by a specific celebrity. Write as the person would speak. If the star is really talented you may be asked to suggest an outline script and allow the celebrity to add the finishing touches. (Assuming you or your client is prepared to take the risk.)
A popular strategic creative option is to use television stars rather than big-screen stars. First, they usually cost less and, second they are more familiar 'visitors' to the viewer's home and therefore, more credible. Such stars may include soap-opera characters. Stars needn't come from the show-business galaxy of glitz and glitter. Industry-specific 'stars' add extra credibility, for example: a policeman endorsing a safety belt; an industrialist endorsing a computer; a cook endorsing a food product; an author endorsing a pen.
If you really want to add public credibility to a product or service, you could always get 'ordinary people' to endorse it. This approach makes a product appear practical but not as aspirational as a star endorsement. One way around this is to feature 'ordinary people' using the product and 'stars' introducing the product to the 'ordinary people'.
Other creative techniques to try include:
* On-the-street interviews/door-step interviews (in which the star interviews people outside their homes about a specific product or service);
* Extreme close-ups of people discussing the product (known as 'talking heads');
* Ordinary people acting like stars - because of the glamour associated with the product in question (e.g. one taste of ScotdaleNorthside ice-cream makes an ordinary woman enter a fantasy world where she takes on the appearance of a well-known 'sexy' actress or singer);
* Company directors demonstrating their own product and confidence in that product (see 'Appearing in your own advertising', page 86)
That's all folks - animation
Animated characters are cute. The question you must ask yourself before enlisting the help of an animator is, 'Just how cute' is the image that you wish to convey?' Cartoon characters can make:
* a weighty subject lighter
* another 'me too' item lively
* a toy more desirable
* a boring subject interesting
* a brand name person-friendly by becoming the spokesperson for the brand
Beware of writing an entertaining commercial that just happens to sponsor a product rather than entertaining sales commercial.
Animated commercials should be uncomplicated. The best animated characters have 'human' expressions. Indeed, the more 'human' the qualities, the more charming the character appears.
Take as much care over choosing suitable soundtracks as you do in choosing an animator. Music soundtracks feature the great classics or can be parodies of existing pieces of music. The band The Beatles for bad advertises to use their lyrics. Even if the band did not endorse anything. In 1987 Yoko Ono was prevented from allowing Revolution to be used in a sportswear advertisement.
When you write copy for a cartoon character, watch the clock. (Notice how the script for The Adams Family showed how long it took for each piece of action to be 'acted out'.) In the case of a 30-second commercial, reduce your word count from 60-70 (for live-action commercials) to 40-50 for cartoon commercials, unless it is sung. This allows the cartoon to animate into life without being shackled by too many words. As with all television and radio commercials, act out your animated sequence to see if it fits within your allocated time slot.
Not all animated commercials feature cartoons. You can consider animation as part of a live commercial to demonstrate the mechanics of a product, enliven a company logo or add emphasis to a sales message.
Animation can also be used as a special effect. For example, you could stretch a person's face in awkward directions using part live action and part animation. You could use stop-frame animation to transform an ordinary scene into a Keystone Cop style 'flickered' image. You could fly people on a magic carpet or even have them dance with an animated product.... The possibilities are endless.
The Last Laugh(Humor/Comedy in Commercials)
Humorous copy in television commercials can help give a fading brand a bit of shine. (Where possible, you should not apply overt humor to new brands as there is a danger that the humor will distract from the sales benefits.) Viewers like to laugh. So if you can make them laugh, hopefully they will pay greater attention to your message. Of course, if your humorous message is too hilarious, its overall effectiveness will be impaired as the viewer will spend too much time laughing at the gag rather than thinking about the product or service! On the other hand, a great joke can distract the viewer's attention from any arguments involved with making a purchase, such as cost.
With so many possible directions it is not surprising that this type of commercial is one of the hardest to write. Even if you do get the gag right, there is only a finite number of times that you can broadcast the same joke.
One of the main difficulties with managing humour for a television commercial or even cinema commercial is that a good joke needs time to make an impact. Most television commercials are 30 seconds in length. Seven of those seconds are taken up with establishing a scene and the end-of=sequence logo branding. A gag with bite calls for:
* a well-structured plot
* an easily accessible set-up
* an interesting character
* a precision-timed delivery
* an unexpected punch line
All in 30 seconds!
Assuming you are convinced that a humourouscommercials is the best way to sell a product or service, you still have to consider upon what to base the humour. One of the best ways to look for something funny is to look at yourself. This is very hard as you have to observe your own frailties and shortcomings, then list them, honestly - warts and all.
You could consider making your character talk to inanimate objects or treat awkward objects (such as something incredibly large like a grand piano, or tiny like a microchip, or absurd like a false leg) as if they were alive. You could place your character and product or service in unfamiliar surroundings: a different country, different time, different place, different planet. You could mingle new technology with traditional ideas. You could use 'upside-down' logic– Instead of hitting a nail into the wall, hit the wall into the nail. You could draw illogical conclusions from logical summations, and so on.
Consider introducing your character with peculiar afflictions, like a nervous twitch or a compulsion to 'squawk like a parrot' – the stranger the better. Consider exposing an unspoken social neurosis or depression. (However, keep in mind that your viewer may suffer from such an illness.)
Don't just settle for small problems – give your character vast problems. Exaggerate the predicament: exaggerate a solution by finding the answer using the most convoluted of routes. If things have to go wrong, make then go disastrously wrong – allowing the product or service to act as the catalyst that saves the day.
Above all, remember that its okay to see the funny side of life as long as that image does not insult the integrity of a product or service nor the viewer's instinctive perception of what is politically, socially and morally acceptable.
TV jingles
Contrary to popular belief, jingles are not meant to 'sing out' the end of a commercial. If that was their sole purpose, they would be self defeating. Every jingle, no matter how melodious, would serve only as a sign to the viewer that it is time to lose interest in the commercial. All jingles, including radio jingles, provides instant recognition of a brand. It is a musical aide memoire which combines the evocative pull of a musical score with the selling clout of a persuasive piece of copy. The craft of jingle composition may sound quite easy and even trivial. However, catchy jingles like catchy headlines are not that easy to write. A jingle has to reinforce a product or brand name.
It has to inform, add personality as well as amuse.
It has to make sense while rhyming.
It's the only one I'll ever need - a written guarantee
It has to summarise everything in one simple statement.
Get the message across.
A popular product category to use jingles is the toy industry. Jingles can have an important role in children's play time. Each time a game is played, the child could think of the jingle associated with the toy character involved in the game. Even everyday tasks can be turned into play. Every time 'mum' or 'dad pours out the breakfast cereal, so the child could recall a character on a television commercial who uses the jingle, especially if there is a free model of the character inside the box.
Finally, a jingle should be enduring. In the United Kingdom, the 'ovalteenies' jingle was still going strong in the late 1980s - some 50 years after first being broadcast. The oldest reputed US jingle, for a cereal called 'Wheeties', still in use in the 1990s was first broadcast in the 1920s.Writing a script
As a script layout, please refer to the scripts that I have included in this chapter. Don't worry too much about technical jargon. If you like to use 'buzz words' the following list should be enough to ensure that in terms of mechanics, your final 'picture' is seen and understood by everyone. If you want to describe a more complicated camera angle or technical aspect, do so in wrods, but never forget a director should be accredited with the imagination to take your words and turn them into a moving experience.
Buzz words
ad lib spontaneous dialogue - not scripted (ideal for on-the-street interviews)
animate to arrange an inanimate object or graphic in a way that, when seen as part of a finished film, gives the impression of movement.
CU close-up
cut change camera angle or scene
dissolve fad out of one picture or scene into another
fade in brighten the illumination of a scene (usually at the start of the scene)
fade out darken the illumination on scene (usually at the end of a scene)
freeze stop the action by 'freezing' it in time.
FVO Female Voice Over
lead-in initial words spoken by the VO at the start of the action
MCU Medium Close-Up shot - the person is seen from the chest upwards
MS Medium Shot in which a person on screen is seen from just below the waist upwards
MVO Male Voice Over
SFX Sound Effects
super superimpose one action or scene on top of another
track shot horizontal camera movement which zooms in or follows something
VO Voice Over
wipe change of scene from 'A' to 'B' using a graphic device (e.g. scene 'B' 'wipes' diagonally across scene 'A')
zoom in/out increase/decrease magnification of a subject
If you are going to hand over your script to a director eventually, then you have two possible ways to write it:
1. If you are totally confident in a director's abilities, just write the dialogue and describe the action;
2. If you want to have greater control over the actual interpretation, also include the camera angles.
Pros
1. The director has the chance to enhance a production by giving the commercial an 'angle' that you may not have considered;
2. You know what you put down on paper will end up in 'the can'.
Cons
1. Are you seriously going to leave your 'baby' in another person's hands?
2. How would you like to have your creativity shackled and, more importantly, how do you think that will affect the final results?
TV commercial advertising quick tips
* Commercials have to entertain as well as inform.
* Demonstration commercials work well with extreme examples.
* Special effects should enhance rather than distract from a single thought message.
* People like people 'slice-of-life' televions.
* 'Sexy' commercials can make viewers turn guilt into desire.
* A celebrity may be a star in his or her own right, their appearance is that of a guest - the product or service plays the lead.
* Animation can be cute. It must be relevant.
* Cartoons 'speak' clearer if you make them say less.
* Never laugh at a product or service. Laugh with it.
* Television graphics of copy make messages more memorable.
* Television jingles should say 'buy me' rather than signify the end of a commercial.
* Story boards can capture only the essence of a commercial. Not the soul.
* DRTV sells off the screen as you would sell off the page; make sure you can handle the response.
* DRTV repeatedly informs the viewer how to respond.