What does it take to write great copy in a world under a siege of content?

The answer, according to Linda Button, brand personality expert at Tooth + Nail, and Jens Hertzum, executive creative director at TVNZ Blacksand, involves an unprecedented sneakiness. At Wednesday’s PromaxBDA: The Conference 2015 session “Evil Genius: How to Reel Them in with Writing,” the duo laid out a five-point plan for mastering the dark art of crafting promo in the modern age.

Step 1: Go for the Guts

“Don’t bore us with background,” said Button. “That would be criminal.”

Evil Geniuses don’t mess around. They go for the guts. Every James Bond film ever made can serve as in inspiration for copywriters, said Button, because the “begin with a chase scene,” dropping viewers “right in the thick of that action… Let’s take Bond’s lead.”

Spots like NBC Sports “Lovin’ You” promo for NHL Wednesday Night Rivalry, for instance, pack a literal punch by dropping the viewer directly into a hockey fight. From there, exaggerated swelling music and slow-mo inverts expectations, which brings us to…

Step 2: Blend (Become Masters of Disguise)

“Knowing what your audience loves is half the battle,” said Button, because then you can make your spot blend into their world view. This amazing Nike spot voiced by Bradley Cooper, for instance, understands that the brand’s customers have been taught (by Nike itself) that anyone can be an athlete, including them:

On social media, it’s even more important to blend into your audience, said Button. “You can’t fake it. You have to talk the talk.” One of the best in the business at this, she continued, is the NBA social media team, who are “like the teams they post about – fast, strong and quick to rebound.”

Step 3 Lure or Entrap

“Your brain craves treats,” said Button, likening the act of luring the viewer along in a spot to the scene in E.T. where young Elliott puts out a trail of candy to lure the titular alien out of the shed. “We have to do that with our clients and pull them along, give them pockets of fun,” she said.

Outstanding spots that have achieved this goal include the YouTube sensation “First Moon Party” (which “crushes it with pockets of fun,” said Button, “it keeps rewarding us every step of the way”) and the amazing Rainforest Alliance spot “Follow the Frog.”

Step 4: “Gateway”

“We have to make sure the content lives elsewhere,” said Hertzum. An Evil Genius writer crafts content that seeps out into the digital universe, infiltrating every platform it finds.

The Simpsons, for example, “have a rich tradition of letting people play in the sandbox,” said Hertzum, as evidenced by the show’s ever-changing opening couch gag opening sequence. It takes extra effort to change up main titles week in and week out, but the result is content that not only generates buzz but has cross-platform appeal – particularly when the guest creator is an entity like Adult Swim:

“I love the idea of reaching across the aisle to create your own axis of evil,” said Button.

Step 5 – “World Domination”

By now, “we have the audience right where we want them,” said Button, and Step 5 to becoming an Evil Genius of copywriting is a foregone conclusion.

Photo credit: Image Group LA

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