2008-05-21

I am not a good copy or you can say I am trying to be a good copy, although I am no long a copy since two years ago. The reason why I want to write down such professional topic as how to become a good copy, is just I don't want to forget what I learnt, to write down the skills for back-up in case some day I may go to work as a copy again. Acutally, I did for several times in the last few days, the feeling is good, I have to say it is a much better feeling than it was when I was a real copy.

 

This is the first point, if you want to be a good copy, first to be an account or planner or art, regardless you are good or bad, it helps create total different experience from what you get as a pure copy because it provides the total different angle, advertising is a small industry, it is not necessary for you to be as "professional" as so much, experience will lately tell you how to develop the copy concept, experience will tell you how to write a outstanding line that grape not only consumer's eyes but also client's. That's why I have a better feeling than the period I was a "real" copy. That's why my ex-boss got a rocket speed of promotion in his creative career, except for his intelligence, his experience of being an AE for one year also contributes to his success.

 

The second points is, I should put it as the first one, since it is the premise to be a good copy--having good copy sense. A good copy sense differentiate the good copy and qualified copy, it is nothing related with you have an education of Chinese language and literature, it is all about your understanding of how an advertising works. you see one same word could be putted in this brand with perfection while in another brand which in same category is a disaster, you see why this line should be longer than the next line, you see the subtle difference between two similar wording. This is the most difficult talent to learn because in a certain degree, that is not able to learn come through practice, it is inborn, just like EQ. In fact, I believe that's one performance of EQ.

 

As explained above, a good copy should have a good understanding of human emotion, but meanwhile, a good copy should have rational logic as well. Advertising is about persuasion, and persuasion should be sounds logical and having strong rationale. That's why a good copy could be a good creative team propeller since he/she is holding the creative logic and structure rather than art does in usual. The real ability of one copy is not depends on the how his/her copy could be written so much dazzle, but on the understanding of what an single advertising want to communicate--the invisible logic/strategy behind the visible copy. 

 

Afterwards, I can say something about skill how to write a good copy, the key word are precise, exciting and sexy. There are 4 words summerized the skill of good WRITING (not good copy)--Qi, Cheng, Zhuan, He (起承转合). First you must have a good start that catch every target audience's attention, that's the most important part which requires your understanding about target audience's insight. you may launch a teasing line, you may present the incredible fact to shock your audience, this is the same way that you want to share a story with friends, you say something, then they open-mouthed, and pushing you on arm to say "and then?". The second is connection and shift, each good film doing good at this two points, right? The last one is conclusion, conclusion have many forms, the key is to recall what you said before, you lured consumer to read along with your copies, it is the responsbility for you to give them a conclusion, and make sure they will eventually believe your story. Every and each copy can't run out of two things: the structure and wording, you may training youself consciously on this two part, the first one is how to say, the second one is how to say with becautiful mind.

 

A copy shouldn't have his/her own style, instead, he/she should learn to have one brand's style, you are not a writer, you are a copy writer, you should copy the spirit of brand, and write along with the brand essence. Here I listed several suggestion from my own practice, that's detailed and I believe they are helpful, I use to follow this suggestions and then I no longer interested in to be a copy, coz I think I have no chance to be anymore better as a copy, haha, just a joke.

 

1. Do homework before your start, just idle reading on anything you can get about this brand and category, and make sure you have read the recent advertising of this brand, the more the better.

2. You should convinced youself at the very begining, that you will have a big idea this time, it is difficult I think espicially for those juniors, you should have more sucessful experience to get such faith.

3. If you can't work alone, work with your partner, you come up with one line and he/she come up with another.

4. Keep seeing the good copy reference when you are writing, you need something to stimulate your brain at any time, that's can makes your brain run.

5. Write down the wording you think is good during your routine reading.

6. Try to think the communication strategy of every advertising you see.

7. Don't take client's brief directly depend on what client said, to think what is the behind thinking of them.

8. Don't be narrow-minded and don't be stubborn, there is should a limit to your persistence.

9. Have a good presentation skill, it is crucial for efficient working style, a good presentation is the best way to save your time.

10. Always believe there is a solution in any situation.

 

P.S. Thanks Sophia corrected my grammar mistakes.

2008-02-02

2007-10-22

在变化中发现不变,是对这个技术过剩、信息过剩、模式过剩的时代最好的应对方式。真理永远不需要复杂的运算,只需要化繁为简的气概。

 

得益于科技的发展,今天的很多理论正在构筑一个越来越复杂的系统,ALFA值、BETA值、随机漫步理论,我们有时候不得不承认很多象牙塔的教授们在纯粹的科学世界发现了真理和新的突破,但是在涉及人文、商业、艺术这些领域,他们做出的贡献却常常相反。他们仿佛是为自己建造一座理论的教堂,当已经造到没有办法再放上任何一块砖的时候,还要再在教堂的塔尖放上一根针,他们也不低下头来看看,自己的教堂是否建造在流沙当中。我们由此发现了一个有趣的观点:自然科学要求用最先进、有时候甚至是未来的方式用极其精确的方法衡量,且正走在越来越精确的道路上。而社会科学却恰恰相反,它要求的是我们用最古老的方法来审视,社会科学没有分秒必争的精确,只有南辕北辙的错误。正如巴菲特说的那样:近似的正确比精确的错误强。

 

当这个世界的商业体系慢慢在完善的时候,或许会给你一个假象——商业是可以被精确衡量的。几个国家的人可以准时约在上午开一个Conference Call,复杂的人力资源成本衡量我们的办事效率,开发流程系统来促成标准化作业。但,别忘了生意还是生意,它的本质没有变,所有的系统都是搭载在这个本质之上。当今天的大盘冲上新高,当明日的个股遭遇大资金抛弃,当所有人都在预测经济热点,当你的基金跟我的基金比较半年收益率,当机构们不停地调整盈利预期和目标价位(很多时候他们只是站在某一角度看到了一小处人人都看得到的风景),我们是否应该抛弃一些偶然的假象,发现一些必然的规律?

 

最近在翻看JWT的TTI,温故而知新。其实我们知道很多时候一个理论成立与否数字并不重要,推论并不重要,重要的是前提。正如社会学家在考察一家疯人院发现的现象一样:大多数疯子依然具备严密的逻辑,出错的地方在于前提。我看过不少广告公司的策略工具(当然没有仔细领教),但依然觉得JWT的TTI是目前为止最为深刻且长期有效的方法,原因就在于它的前提:世界千变万化,但人性却没有变。有人性就有冲突,所有的广告都在面对如何改变或满足这种冲突。

 

“你付出的是价格,得到的是价值”,几百年来股票投资的本质也一直没有变,那就是发现一门好生意,用具有吸引力的价格去拥有,至于是集中投资还是分散投资,我想是不言自明的,如果有人理解这样的投资理念,那么分散投资的逻辑自然是矛盾的。

 

当常识能够解决问题的时候,就别庸人自扰了。

 

2007-10-10

在巴菲特的投资组合中,可口可乐在1988年被持有到现在已经有17个年头了,1988年的时候我7岁,如果我没有记错,我也是在那一年喝到了生平的第一瓶可乐,从此以后就爱上这种传说是咳嗽药水的味道,到现在还是保留了喝可乐的习惯。

 

根据老巴的投资哲学,我们不难判断当初购买可口可乐股票的理由,排除掉股价因素之外,在此我谈谈3点,我没有看过一份可口可乐的年报,实际上我想这些理由是那么得显而易见,年报只是可供我们佐证的工具。

 

第一,价值投资除了安全边际这一基石之外,另一块基石就是企业的特许经营权,即是企业在某方面的垄断优势——在竞争中产生不平等优势从而轻易赚取利润,如若这一优势得以长久保持形成核心竞争力,那么企业的盈利就获得保障。可口可乐在这方面拥有那个神奇的配方,最关键的是,已经广为全球接受,无论你在中国推出非常可乐还是什么可乐,大家都知道最正宗的可乐是可口可乐,这就是林园说的“红烧肉”、“粉蒸肉”,全国人民上上下下都爱吃,历久弥新,这就是为什么如此多的基金把茅台作为重仓股的原因,投资茅台的人要担心的风险是大家是不是开始不喝白酒改喝红酒了,同样的,投资可乐的人也要注意观察碳酸饮料市场有没有存在萎缩的趋势,只要可乐生意还在,可口可乐就可以赚钱。

 

第二,投资者寻找的企业无非就是投入少、产出高的企业,这样的企业能长期产生大量的现金流,为投资者赚取大量的利润。可口可乐不需要每年巨额的科技研发投入——它的研发已经一次性搞定并且“还不允许改变”,可口可乐不需要庞大的工厂和管理团队——到了哪里就在哪里建灌装线即可。唯一需要它去投入品牌维护和保持销售渠道的通畅——相对起庞大的销售数字,我觉得它不值几个钱(有兴趣的朋友可以把两者的数字找出来做个对比)。

 

第三,可口可乐是食品消费行业,食品消费行业是不容易受到宏观经济的影响,无论宏观经济是好是坏,可乐还是要喝的,面包还是要吃的,受到宏观经济影响的波动少更适合长期价值投资,消费的力量是无穷的,在这里扯开去谈一点银行业的话题,这两天研究银行比较多,大家都说招商银行是中国最优质的银行,但是能说出个所以然来的不多,我个人觉得招行1000多万张信用卡是招行区别于其他银行在质上面的不同——这一数字是兴业、民生、浦发这些成长性良好的中型股份制银行的10倍左右,这两年银行业依赖整体经济环境持续向好增长势头强劲,我们看到增长势头良好的时候要分析它能持续多久,因为银行业是跟宏观经济关系比较密切的行业,宏观经济一下去,银行的不良贷款就在一两年后反映出来了。所以我们看到虽然这两年非利息收入大家都在增长,但是其中30%~50%是依靠牛市的证券中间业务收入拉动的,招行在这方面也同样逃不出这样一个比例区间,但是招行的非利息收入中信用卡的收入也占了很大一部分——收入超过10亿。假设宏观经济下滑,我觉得招行是最具有抗风险性的银行,因为信用卡收入的影响不会太大,大家还是要刷卡消费。同样的道理我们也可以用在券商上,大家现在对券商的担心主要就是盈利的可持续性上,所以像中信这样的大券商就越来越注重收入不要依赖手续费,慢慢地展开收入上的结构调整,前不久拿到了直投业务的许可证。

 

最后要谈的是可口可乐这么多年来一直坚持在做这么简单的一件事情,在非碳酸饮料业务上的扩张也算是谨慎,这也降低了投资者的风险。可口可乐这么多年经营围绕的核心就是如何经营这个品牌,努力经营长久积累下来的最大资产也就是品牌,我们可以设想一下,如果可口可乐的品牌价值完全消失,我在前面说的3点哪一点还能成立?在这个角度去看,可乐的品牌是投资的前提条件,可乐的品牌维护者担负着相当重要的角色。

2007-08-30

Bates Asia recently claimed their new advertising approach named "Change" to replace the well-known "USP"(Unique Selling Proposition), which recalls me the famous song "it's not the situation that I can't understand, the truth is world changes faster".

In new "Change" approach, "Brands that want a future must embrace change, because change inspires ambition. And since a brand with no ambition isn't really a brand at all, helping brand stakeholders discover and articulate their ambition is one of the most important jobs we've got".

"So Bates Asia have looked at change in 3 ways:
Where in the marketplace is meaningful change going-on?
Based on this, which business situation should we try and change?
Finally, are the changes we've agreed to drive really happening?

The changes of brand must changes people as a result, their hearts, heads, feet and wallets.

In this industry, the most agreed mission is how to capture consumer's mind, the question is how to? Now the answer given by Bates said that a ambitious brand who wants to change can change consumer's mind, while earlier JWT's "TTI" advised that "Time is new currancy, we have to make our brand more meanful in consumer's life in order to wins their heart from chaos." Bates see the consumer as a persuasible people therefore more emphasize on brand end, comparing JWT more intend to think brand should cater to consumer's like.

In current China market context, I may agree Bates' point, thinked that China market as recognized a most amazing developing market in the world, consumer still in the status that need to absorb more and more new knowleadge from outside, they are learning thus they are not assuring, little of them have belief, most of them are hesitating and hard to make choice, Chinese traditional culture influenced us not to pursuit your chioce but just accept what you got, in a word, Chinese people is not confident enough, especially when they make decision to choose a brand, In this kind of context a strong statement made by brand is like lighthouse, a bright direction for consumer's mind, which leads people to follow. To apply Luxun's logion, that's can be expressed as there is no consumer's mind at first beginning, the advertising made it. (世上本没有什么消费者心智,广告做得多了,也就有了消费者心智。)
2007-04-30

2007-04-26

已经有专门负责完善广告主和代理商关系的咨询公司出现了,这个世界真是越来越复杂了...

 

Anyway,这篇来自胜三公司创始人的文章,对于理解目前广告公司所处的窘境多少make sense,只可惜没有提出多少可行的解决方案,而只是象羞涩的少女一样在结尾暗示了一些未来的可能性,一开始提到什么广告高管比高盛银行家的腰包还鼓这样的说法,吊人胃口之余多少还是有点失望。

 

不过很开心看到有这样的咨询公司出现,帮助广告主如何更好地选择广告代理商,如何跟他们更好地合作,如何评估广告的投资回报。看他们近期的研究,可访问http://www.rthree.com/ 以下就是R3创始人Greg Paull的大作。(转自Madisonboom)

 

这是2007年的12月,年终奖发放的时候。
这一年,广告公司优秀的高管腰包比高盛银行的银行家们还鼓。
这是异想天开吗?
确实,或许是异想天开…但如果广告业能够继续繁荣20年的话, 这个行业的未来将比梦想中的那一幕更加绚烂。


发生了什么?
这样的状况也并非古而有之。在 “过去那些黄金时代里” ,在那些采购开始前,在广告咨询公司出现前,在年度新业务比稿前……广告公司也一度颇为受人尊敬(尤以美国最为明显),甚至董事会的成员都对他们敬而有加。然而,多种因素综合作用之后,情况却每况愈下。

 

- 营销影响力的下降 – 营销在行使其职能时,花费了太多的时间用于变戏法,而没有足够的逻辑思考。因此它逐渐在董事会上削弱自己的话语权、反倒是那些销售主管、财政主管以及采购头目都在凭借自己的经验对营销指手画脚。为了筹集资金,营销的费用被不停的压榨,所以很难在营销上带来任何创新。
- 全部拆散 --- 随着对收入流的持续需求,广告公司放手了一些其原本具有的功能。首先是最重要的调查研究功能,随后的是媒介代理,促销,客户关系管理等,失去了这么多的战略支持部门之后,一些广告创意公司几乎成了个空壳,试图证明他们也可以与人共谱完整乐章。看看日本市场状况吧 – 电通和博报堂地位岿然不动。在您跳脚抱怨日本广告公司在媒介业务方面远胜创意时,然而根据去年的Gunn全球创意报告,电通获得的奖项比亚洲地区排位二至八的七大广告网络加起来的数目都要多。
 

我们现在在哪?
现在的广告代理商所面对的是一个奇怪的处境 – 品牌成功的重要箴言是“消费者创造内容” – 无论百事在中国,还是Doritozai在美国,每个市场都有这样的范例。那些快速发展市场以外的消费者抱怨太过于广告化了。国际咨询公司明略行Milward Brown 能够证明电视广告关联测试目标变得越来越艰难了。由于广告公司的不断肢解,使得客户们可以更为灵活的把他们的市场传播业务拆分成不同部分分别进行比稿。(我相信这是一个成为比稿咨询师的绝佳时机)。

 

我们应该朝哪个方向前行?
永远都不能忘记市场行销业务是一项创造性的生意,创意的力量再重要不过了。据一个澳大利亚去年12月发生的例子 – 一个缺少现金的农民,决定他的创意是让人们领养一只羊。交35美金的价钱(足够100天的喂养费),城里人可以得到一张照片和获领一只羊的证书。他建立一个博客,进行了新闻发布。5天了什么事情都没有发生。之后有一份报纸刊登了这个消息。那周晚些时候,两个电视节目组采访了这家农场。到两周的时候,这个消息已经成为了热门新闻,有一万多个报道。10家广播电台打了电话和他联系。报道范围越来越广了。领养证书印刷了出来。德国和日本的报纸也刊登了这个消息—这个博客被翻译成了多种语言。农民协会要求要把这项活动全国化。领养证书后来成了炙手可热的圣诞礼物。最后,他的3000只羊全部卖出。而媒介花费是零!公共关系花费是零!生产成本也是零!

 

这个例子要传达给我们的信息其实很简单。创意至关重要。广告公司该为他们的业务成果收费,而非其业务投入(时间)或者业务量(佣金)。这种基于结果的结构有些极端。一些广告公司因此失去的要比他们得到的更多。这就要求进行投资回报率的跟踪。要求一种全新的,更严格的方法来测量市场传播效果。目前美国那些最优秀的广告公司已经在尝试这种方法了。现在,你准备好了吗?

2006-11-24

http://www.madisonboom.com/uploads/200607/27_234250_bbhlogo.png

上海的创意青年们又多了一个朝圣地,继W+K登陆中国以后,国际又一创意热店BBH在中国赶上了外商独资成立广告公司的集,昨日在上海宣布正式成立。目前BBH China共有18名员工,主要服务的客户有Baileys(百利酒), Bose(Bose音响), Johnnie Walker(Whiskey), Mentos(糖果) 和the World Gold Council(世界黄金协会)。根据Madison Boom的八卦消息,前BBDO中国区ECD Johnny Tan陈奕俊任创意总监,前W+K日本MD ArtoHampart Soumian任CEO,Christine Ng吴淑芳任董事总经理,来自伦敦的Peter Heskett目前将加入上海担任BBH看家的战略策划部门的主管。

 

更多创意热店进入中国,无疑将为中国更加成熟的创意环境作出贡献,同时也将影响着中国的广告主们向更高的创意标准看齐。对于业界来说,不仅是本土的一些小广告公司,根基稳固的合资国际4A巨头们也将受到一定程度的挑战和冲击。

 

BBH成立于1982年,去年该公司年营业额达11亿美元,在英国排名第三,Leo Burnett持有一部分公司股份。在开设上海分公司之前,BBH在伦敦、新加坡、东京、纽约和圣保罗设有其他5家分公司,总人数在800人左右。Johnnie Walker的Keep Walking就是代表作之一。与其他国际4A严谨的作业程序稍有不同的是,BBH始终保持着“When the world zigs, zags”这种特立独行的精神。在广告沟通理论满天飞的情况下,BBH抛弃了流水线——没有固定的策略思考工具和研究方法,所有的策略都是基于对自由的考量和对客户的量体裁衣。另外,BBH Writers部门宣称拥有105名文案,为50个市场使用40种语言服务,以此确保对本地市场的理解与全球沟通概念的一致。

 

NB的公司总是有NB的做法,既然广告公司没有办法继续把规模做大,为什么不做点不一样的事情呢?我尊敬这些敢于不同的广告公司,他们保持着对广告清教徒式的认真执着,尝试着广告的奇妙之处,广告公司的年营业额?并不代表成功的全部。

 

BBH公司网站:http://www.bartleboglehegarty.com/

2006-10-19

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当“信息时代”这个称谓出现在我们的教科书里时,我们的感觉并没有象现在这样强烈。在当时的理解,“信息时代”的意义也就是在于我们能比以往更方便快捷地获取信息,而电脑——这个信息时代的工具,当时依然是神秘莫测的代名词。更方便快捷地获得信息似乎并没有对我们构成多大的吸引力,因为在那时人们习惯对实际的事物,比如房子和食物,更有直观的感受把握。

正如蒸汽机之于蒸汽时代,发电机之于电力时代一样,信息时代的核心技术互联网1991年8月6日诞生在英国物理学家伯纳斯◎李的手里,当时互联网只是用于科学家分享最新成果的工具,在以后一段时期内,上网分享信息只是计算机高手的专利。然而在之后网景公司的成立和网景浏览器的推出,互联网就开始以指数幂的方式增长,按照网景公司创始人的说法,这是一个可怕的循环,一旦有人开始使用和在互联网上分享,这种趋势就难以阻挡。

另一个革命的策源地依然是在加州,在盖茨的家乡西雅图,微软公司正筹划着推出他们的革命性产品——Windows 95,这个颠覆以往DOS晦涩的操作方式的产品,微软打算叫它“视窗”,人们可以更简单地把自己的想法、观点、文章数字化,在书桌上、在卧室里,在汽车上。比尔◎盖茨在创办微软时曾经说过,公司的使命是让每个人获得“手边的信息”(Information at your fingertips, IAYF)。诚然,从原始社会和古腾堡时代开始,人们就学会把信息刻录在山洞和书卷上,然而,当人们的这些信息一旦被数字化而更利于快速传递时,一个时代的改变就开始了。试想一下,在我们的学生时代,当自己的文章被印成铅字,是一件多么困难而因此显得了不起的事情。

微软并不甘于提供数字化手边信息的作用,他们同样意识到了互联网的重要性。IE成了Windows 95的一部分,并通过捆绑销售,很快在浏览器领域大挫网景。而超文本转换协议(HTTP, HyperText Trans-fer Protocol)和超文本标识语言(HTML, HyperText Meta Language)从伯纳斯◎李创建第一个网址的时候被一直继承了下来。如托马斯◎弗里德曼在《世界是平的》一书中提到那样,柏林墙的倒塌和Windows系统的推出真正启动了平坦化世界的到来,前者使极权主义摧毁,自由经济回归;后者则改变了世界的书写和分享的方式,但最关键的是,他们给世界提供了自由融通的标准平台。

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