Question For Copywriters

J.S. Gilbert · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008, 23:37 (GMT) Post subject: About Blind Pigs

Actually some studies indicate that blind pigs may be better at finding truffles. The pig relies on it's sense of smell to find the truffle, but can easily be distracted by visual commands that might cause it to be distracted.

I'm going to go write a proposal up and see if I can't get some government funding to further research this. And lack of sight in a truffle hunting pig may be an asset, but I'm pretty sure sight is fairly necessary to a flying pig.

word count: 86
time to read: 23 seconds (spoken in conversational tone)

Melba Sibrel · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008, 23:55 (GMT) Post subject:

J.S., I commend your ontopicloquacity.

Doug Parks · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 227

Melba,

That's a good word for Scrabble Blast, I'll have to remember it, now let's see. O...N? Oh, forget it...Oooh, I can play "onto"! Four points! That's a decent audition score! Wahooooo!

Allison Scussel · **Voice Talent** Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 928

Late to join in...... so sorry. But I want to add my 2c. The old school rule of thumb for writing :60 copy is no more than 16 lines. Don't abbreviate and use a 12 pt font.
When mentioning a website, write out "dave's car show dot com." Don't mention the "www". That's self-explanitory. When giving out a phone number, write it out. IE: Five, Five, Five, One Two, One, Two.

Think foward momentum. Instead of saying, "Call 555-1211 for more information", say "for more information, call five five five, one two one two."

I've been writing copy for radio for 20 years...ooops, I meant to say "twenty years." d'oh!

The old school rule applies: Keep It Simple Stupid, or KISS. Tell me what you want to tell me, tell me, then tell me what you just told me. They key is to do that in :60.

Reading the copy outloud helps alot, but you have to read it the same way you want it to be heard. Write out every point you want to address, and then after you realize the copy is too long, it's easier to cut out what you don't need.

Good luck!! If I can be of further assistance, don't hesitate to ask me.

TTYL Allison

Ed Gambill · **Voice Talent** Joined: 04 Jun 2007 Posts: 585

140 word per minutes that is the golden rule.

Bell telephone did some research years ago and found that for maximum retention of information that a speech rate of 140 per minuets was optimum.

Over the year I have used 70/75 for :30 and 140/150 for :60 as my guide.

I have also noticed when I've seen good copy from national accounts that hired well qualified agents that the 70/140 rule holds up. Also listen to the spots that you really think are good and you will notice that the less is said the more the message is retained. Why was I privy to this bit of info? In an earlier live I worked in the reservation office of an airline, and they didn't was us to talk too fast. They brought in Bell to teach us some good things. Same thing applies to commercials and any other narrative. If you really want the listener to get and retain the message keep the content in check.

Got a spot with 109 words the other day, they called it a :30, I called them amateurs. I couldn’t resist, I edited it down and did the demo on the correct word count, even sent the new copy. I may be atrocious at spelling and grammar but I can hold my own when it come to penning copy that needs to be spoke out loud.

It’s the art of conversation that matters most. Every one can write a novel, but not everyone can tell a story.

And it never hurt to have a good stop watch; you know the one that goes tic tic tic like on 60 min.

Don Randall · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008, 04:40 (GMT) Post subject:

Try this:

http://www.davediamondprovo.com/sb/

J.S. Gilbert · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008, 15:35 (GMT) Post subject: this got old really quick

Stupid me, I thought it was the job of the properly trained voice actor to make the copy sound terrific.

Perhaps a little more time spent on evaluating copy and learning how to act and a l;ittle less time on "pretending" to be a copywriter might work well.

But hey, you want to do re-writes to the audition, be my guest.

Hey who needs any training to be a voice actor anyway or a copywriter? Just follow the immortal words of Nike:

Just Do It.