Conrad Winter Copywriter

(Former NYT ad journalist Stuart Elliott shared sage advice for United and YouTube advertisers during The NJ Ad Club’s recent town hall.)

During my formative years in advertising, there were these three guys I looked to for “the way.” Three uncles, each one distinctly different.

One was the omnipresent advertising gossip columnist: George Lazarus of the Chicago Tribune.

Another, Bob Garfield was the acerbic critic from AdAge who had a way of backhanding ad campaigns that struck fear into ad people everywhere.

The last, Stuart Elliott, was the gentleman of the bunch. The uncle you always felt lucky to be around because even though he was a big shot, he’d take the time to share everything he knew with you. His column in The New York Times provided rare insights, and in-depth exposés into the otherworldly strategy and thinking of CMOs and ECDs working on the world’s top brands.

So the New Jersey Ad Club’s April 25th town hall featuring the renowned ad journalist Stuart Elliott felt a lot like home for at least one of us in the audience. Those of us lucky enough to spend the evening with Stuart Elliott were treated to great stories and generous lessons that were both enlightening and grounding—kind of like you’d expect from your cool uncle. NJ Ad Club Board Member and Executive Creative Director at Coyne PR, Rob Schnapp’s informed questions set the tone for a revealing and intimate town hall that kept the content current and electric.

Throughout the evening, Elliott spoke like the sage who’s followed the advertising, marketing and media beat with more than the determination of a journalist—but with an undying passion that anyone in the biz can relate to. The conversation arced from earned media to burned airline passengers. He touched on social, Apple and the very-much-alive New York Times. He didn’t make predictions—he swore off that temptation long ago after the dot-com bust of 2001. What he did talk about left all of us wanting more. In the end, his hour and a half seemed much too short. So what did he talk about?

On branding your enemy. Elliott believes the repetition of negative zingers like Trump’s “The failing New York Times” Tweets can be an effective way of communicating. But you run the risk of the person you’re attacking seizing the nickname and throwing it back at you in a nasty way. Elliott said, “It might serve to actually raise them up—from the people that don’t feel it’s fair that they’re under attack.”

Don’t believe the 3 AM Tweets. “The failing New York Times” is not. According to Elliott, they’re now selling more subscriptions per month than they usually sell in a year. Elliott said, “That’s in direct response to these attacks by people who feel their alternative facts are more valid than the facts that journalists come up with.”

It may actually be a smart move to get your brand involved in politics. Conventional wisdom says it’s smart for brands to avoid politics because of the potential of negative backlash. But Elliott brought up an interesting point: while political comments can be polarizing, the benefits of appealing to one group while alienating another can be a smart strategy—especially when the party you’re appealing to represents a large and lucrative market.

Uncle Stuart’s advice for United Airlines: Having made it through the essential mea culpa phase, like many disgraced brands, United is probably thinking about advertising its way back into the hearts of the coach class. Elliott counsels against doing anything too advertisy like Wells Fargo’s current effort which he described as, “Every round is more pathetic as they try to pull at the heartstrings.” In contrast, he recommends following Firestone’s historic example. The tire manufacturer hired  Jimmy Stewart as spokesperson to help the company navigate around the bad publicity they received after a series of tire-shredding incidents. Elliott’s suggestions for UAL: Sully or a retired Supreme Court justice.

Great things about social media Part 1: coalition building. Elliott sees this as an amazing phenomenon. Not only are people using social media to share news and information instantaneously, they are joining forces and springing to action immediately by arranging boycotts and circulating de facto petitions. The power and potential for organizing the masses is unprecedented and being used to great effect.

Limitations of social media—no long game. Elliott sees the weakness of most social media creative as its lack of longevity. Campaigns are short lived, not really the type of work that builds the foundation of a brand. They light up the Internet and fizzle. One example: Oreo’s 2013 Super Bowl Tweet “You can still dunk in the dark” Tweet was a hard act to follow.

“’Twas Madison Avenue that killed the beast” Elliott’s Tweet weeks ago was a commentary on advertisers’ role in removing O’Reilly from his post at Fox News. Elliott sees it as part of a bigger trend. He co-credits social media and the ease with which people were able to instigate coalitions against O’Reilly online. And he co-co-credits the trend of companies increasingly being pressured to make a stand on important issues. These days staying neutral can be riskier than picking a side.

Advertisers are going back to the 30s. Turns out branded content, branded entertainment and content marketing are nothing new. Elliott points out that modern advertisers are employing tactics used in radio in the 30s and TV in the 50s to overcome today’s ad-blocking tendencies and technologies. Some examples he mentioned:

• Sponsored pre or during-show skits on programs like Jimmy Kimmel
• Programs like FX Channel’s “The Americas” or “Fargo” presented by one main sponsor and featuring limited commercial interruptions
• Cast commercials where the actors in the show come out and deliver the commercials during the show. For example, Tina Fey spoke for Snapple on 30 Rock.
• Online advertisers on sites like nytimes.com are running elaborate short films that are high in artistic value and low on promotional content.

Half of my analytics are wasted; I just don’t know which half. We still haven’t reached Shangri-La in advertising: that mythical ability to pinpoint consumers who actually want to see your ad and are actually in the market for what you’re selling. Elliott said, “The good news is we now have all these ways of doing that. The flip side is that it’s not foolproof. Everyone talks about metrics and data. Because it’s online, it should be easy to measure or good or the data should help you figure out what to do. But in a lot of cases, there’s too much data or people don’t know how to interpret the data or the data might conflict.”

Why is my commercial running on that weird porno or white nationalist video? Maybe this whole idea of turning it over the robots is a little premature. Elliott found irony in the revelation by The Guardian and The Times of London that ads from some of the world’s most respected brands had appeared in some rather unexpected videos on YouTube. These are brands that strain over the proper placement of their ads in traditional paid media, after all. Elliott thinks the fallibility of the algorithms means advertisers will start having to use humans (gasp) to verify potential placements going forward.

The great marketing and advertising are timeless. It’s good to be reminded that boldly authentic advertising that taps universal human truths in clear and compelling ways stands the test of time. The Apple 1984 ad will give viewers goosebumps today the same way it did during the Super Bowl of 1984. And the subversive-sensibility of the original VW beetle ads from the 60s is just as irresistible today as it was then.

What’s the meaning of it all? Or rather, what’s the deal with Super Bowl advertising? Elliott talked extensively about marketers’ undying obsession with Super Bowl advertising. Companies pay millions to run a 15-second spot that will be judged and scrutinized by millions of hungry, ad-savvy unforgiving viewers all at once. Failure to entertain has dire consequences. Elliott referenced the example of shoe retailer, Just for Feet. Their Super Bowl spot was panned as racist and ultimately led to their going out of business shortly after their fail. Yet, the obsession continues. In an era where advertising can be more targeted and cost efficient than ever, why are so many marketers willing to spin the wheel on this ultimate spray-and-pray tactic?

After an inimitable and indelible run at The New York Times, Elliott continues to ponder this and many of life’s other great questions. Follow him here: @stuartenyt, @MediaVillageCom and @cbswatchmag

To Super Bowl or not to Super Bowl? If you’re looking for a spot for the next big game—or you need an awesome case study or campaign—remember I’m here to help. Reach out.

I remember my first official freelance assignment like a dream that never was.

I was working from my kitchen table. Framing my computer screen was a pretty view of the apartment cluster’s courtyard. The smell of coffee mixed nicely with the scent of salt air from the beach a block away. I remember sighing and thinking “this is the life” as I wrote my sell sheet copy for an incontinence product.

There I was typing, revising, sighing and sipping coffee—I was deep in the zone…and then the phone rang.

It was my client.

That was the first of a career’s worth of reminders that there is a lot more to writing than writing. Over the years I’ve embraced the ethic that copywriting is a service, and success depends on how well you serve your clients.

More often than not, that means attending faithfully to the non-writing parts of the job: the picking up the phone and promptly getting back as well as the planning, proofreading, strategizing, discussing, brand-emmersing, presenting, revising, listening, sharing, meeting, researching and reminding.

It’s hard to believe just how much service is wrapped around a little 60-second video script, copy deck, case study or ad concept. The details may seem trivial, but they determine the positive flow of projects, make clients’ lives easier and protect the quality of the writing.

Service determines the success of projects. To me, it’s really just a synonym for good communication—a clear delineation of goals and roles, which promotes efficiency. It also translates to alignment, which ensures the copy syncs with the design, media choices and more.

Service is much more than a nice to have in this business. Besides, who wants to work with a grumpy hermit writer anyway? Have fun. Do good work. Demand great service.

I’m here if you need me: Reach out here.

You really couldn’t ask for a better panel for a 2017 outlook discussion. The NJ Ad Club’s panel was lively and their views were all over the place. The candid descriptions of the ways their outfits are operating and the projects and mindsets driving them were pure gold. Bunch of people at the top of the game, kind of telling it like it is. What more could you ask for? I’ve provided a wrap-up of the key points and opinions shared. (Scroll down if you want to get right to the good stuff.) Here’s a little context on the panel.

Starting with Irene Chang Britt who is the consummate client and marketer. She currently sits on a bunch of boards for big companies—Dunkin’ Brands being the largest—but in a past life ran the marketing for brands like Pepperidge Farms’ Goldfish and clearly was a close collaborator with the people on her agency teams. She had an enlightening take on the qualities and capabilities agencies need to bring to the table now—not what you’d expect in today’s world.

Dave Edwards represented R/GA, the foremost creative agency today. Per Dave, R/GA reinvents itself every 9 years. I think it’s more like every single year. They innovate, they change, they test creative boundaries, and Dave was very candid about what they’ve learned from the experience. If I hadn’t just witnessed Trump being elected, I’d say these guys were running the world.

There’s no agency like VaynerMedia. One of the things their COO, James Orsini, explained to Wednesday’s audience was that Gary Vaynerchuk, the agency’s always-on leader, believes there is no distinction between social and the Internet. It’s all one and the same. Also, in this day, each and every one of us is a broadcaster and personal media outlet. That sounds wacked, doesn’t it? But to do the things they do, grow the way they’ve grown and just reinvent the game as they go along…I think you have to be plain wacked. James told us come pretty cool stuff.

Hafeez Saheed, Head of Production at Nickelodeon Creative Advertising, demonstrated the potential of a nimble, versatile and entrepreneurial in-house creative Seal Team like Nickelodeon’s. In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk among marketers and leaders of in-house agencies about the chargeback model, where in-house agencies restructure to become profit centers. Hafeez’s outfit provides a stellar example of how that might work. Legacy brands like Popsicle that have gone dormant have been special beneficiaries of their work.

The four panelists’ diverse viewpoints took the discussion in flurry of directions. Key insights seemed to be flying in every direction. Here are my takeaways from what they said:

Stop whining about ad-blocking already. “Produce better content” was the consensus from the people in the high chairs. James Orsini said that today’s short attention-span set will willingly and wantonly watch 3-minute sponsored videos if they’re good enough. User-created advertising is block-proof advertising, according to Irene Chang Britt. She gave the example of a campaign she led for Pepperidge Farms’ Goldfish that was based on goldfish-inspired stories submitted by consumers. The campaign ran for 7 years. She never worried about ad blocking because, “they’d be blocking their own stories.”

Agencies bringing clients in-house. Through an accelerator program hosted on their properties, R/GA is attracting clients like never before. Their 3-month mentoring program for startups takes 10 at a time. Part of the arrangement is that R/GA receives an equity stake in the companies, which number 70 at this point.

And vice-versa. R/GA is also taking on a deeper consulting role with established companies. Through their Business Transformation arm, they go deep with the C-Suite much like a McKinsey or Deloitte would, “To help companies with what is their biggest struggle, how they innovate,” per agency founder Bob Greenberg.

Gary Vaynerchuk is going to get you hooked on cool free stuff then figure out a way to monetize it. You already knew this, right? But did you ever wonder what really makes people pay for something they were previously getting for free? VaynerMedia’s James Orsini gave three reasons:

1. Velvet ropes
2. Better experience
3. The opportunity to co-create the content

Skip the shiny objects, agencies. That advice from Irene Chang Britt who advises agencies to bring consumer insight and understanding to the table, not shallow stunts, technology tricks and clever-for-the-sake-of-being-clever work. When pressed by an audience member, Irene explained she doesn’t expect agency partners to bring data. Rather, a deeper understanding of her consumer’s passion-points, who they really are and how best to reach them.

Who’s embedding in the flyover states? VaynerMedia, that’s who. They just opened an office in Chattanooga, TN. They moved dozens of creative people from their NYC offices to staff it. James Orsini said their reasoning was simple, “Most of the consumers are in Middle America.”

The TV spot still matters. You’d think that VaynerMedia, gods of all things social, would distain the 15 and 30-second TV spot. Not Orsini. In fact, he thought a recent client made a big mistake betting it all on social video. Sure, they saved on media, but their messages were hidden from a core client segment.

Because, yes, people still watch TV. That from our R/GA panelist, Dave Edwards, who believes more people are watching more TV than ever. For proof, he cited the popularity of shows like the Crown, and coming enhancements by Nielsen that expand consumer tracking beyond the cable box.

Improvements in programmatic will continue to sharpen effectiveness (and creepiness.) Don’t worry, or do worry, Dave Edwards assures us Facebook and Alexa will make sure we get the right ads for the things we want.

Depth beats reach. Getting a few white bread consumers (hopefully influencers) to engage deeply and passionately about your brand of bread and their favorite sandwich is way more valuable than spraying your message out to the masses, according to Irene Chang Britt. An authentic brand story supported by a social campaign that engages the passionate few goes a long way today.

The irrefutable advantage of bringing the studio inside. VaynerMedia’s new partnership with Vimeo gives Vayner access to over 4,000 award-winning directors. The relationship gives them a huge advantage in creating episodic work for clients and in reducing the hurdles and time it takes to create campaigns. In contrast, R/GA started in film production and grew from there. The integrated full stack of production, media and creative that gives R/GA their advantage today has been evolving for decades. According to Dave Edwards, this fusion of services enables them to succeed on high-speed creative projects like one they did for Beats after the VMAs several years ago.

Clients want one-stop shops but…With so many service providers and specialties to manage, marketers appreciate working with a big AOR that spares them from managing relationships. Irene Chang Britt questions whether companies are receiving the most innovative work under such arrangements. She explained that the way agencies grow to become 1-stop shops offering traditional, digital, social, etc. is by buying smaller agencies that specialize in those disciplines. The problem is that they don’t always buy companies at the top of the game, often settling for a #2 or 3.

Trend: publishers want to get into the agency space. And you thought it was the other way around. That according to James Orsini.

Facebook is for Boomers. As they retire, they have lots of time to figure things out. Irene Chang Britt believes it’s an ideal way for grandparents to follow their grandkids.

The agency model is still the one to beat. “Agencies bring more to clients by cross-pollinating ideas,” Irene Chang Britt said. Largely because they work in multiple industries.

Leveraging little events to reach large audiences. James Orsini said that VaynerMedia is injecting influencers into 2,000-person conferences with the real payback of reaching millions through the compelling content produced.

Predictive and R/GA’s AdWords hack. Those darn AdWords can get so expensive these days. Dave Edwards said that for client McCormick Spices, rather than throwing down for pricey picks like “food,” “spice,” “seasoning” or “cooking”, they just bought “Ryan Gosling.” For many women, I guess they’re sort of the same thing.

Enough already. Speaking of predictive, Dave Edwards hopes they come up with an “Okay, I bought that” button on banner ads that cookie you mercilessly long after your searched for that 5-pack of printer ink, Disney package or whatever.

Interested in attending the New Jersey Ad Club’s next event? Look here. And be sure and check out upcoming events from the New Jersey Art Directors Club while you’re at it.

My house backs up to a cemetery and fronts up to a small but busy cul-de-sac maintained and plowed by our town.

During a snowstorm, the cemetery side is where all the action is. Without exception, the guy who plows their roads has theirs cleared and salted hours, sometimes days, before the city sends someone to dig me and my neighbors out.

My reason for telling you this isn’t to get you to sign a petition. Rather, it’s to illustrate an important point when it comes to contracting for freelance copywriting services: the city’s snowplow operators are paid hourly, while the cemetery’s is not.

What’s true in the snow business is true in other areas, too. Whether you’re paying for snowplowing or copywriting services, project fees—or fixed fees as some like to call them—work best for clients in every case. My city’s snowplow drivers provide a classic example why, and it’s only the beginning of the reasons to favor fixed fees.

Paying hourly actually rewards inefficiency.

It’s twisted, but true—the longer our city’s snowmen take to clear our streets, the more money they make. Conversely, the faster they go, the less money they make. That’s the main problem with paying hourly. On the other hand, paying a project fee rewards freelancers for working hard, smart and fast because the emphasis is on doing the job, not the hours.

When you go project fee, the freelancer carries the risk, not you.

With hourly, you never really know what your final bill will be. Sure, it could be less than you expect. But it could also be more than your budget. With a project fee arrangement, it’s up to the copywriter to manage their hours; if they go over their estimate, it’s on them—not you. And you don’t have the risk of running out of hours because fixed fee projects are all-inclusive.

You get what you pay for with a project fee.

With fixed fee assignments, all the details are laid out in the contract, which sets the expectations for all parties. It establishes deliverables and deadlines for both the client in terms of approvals and provision of source materials, and for the copywriter in terms of when the copy is due. The contract supports an orderly revision process and delineates how services over and above the agreed-upon scope will be handled.

Fixed fees inspire efficiency.

With their clear details and parameters, fixed fee contracts help clients stick to their own timelines and provide a framework that ensures success. In essence, there are rules that guide everyone to do what they agreed to do, which encourages the project to go the way it’s supposed to go. In contrast, hourly agreements don’t usually have contracts. The lack of defined parameters can lead to loosey-goosey workflows, false starts and unrealized project objectives.

Hourly creates a psychological disconnect from value.

Hourly arrangements lead to hourly mindsets that can distract you from the big picture and the value of the project to your business. That may lead you to treat the project with less care than it deserves. Let me put it this way, is it “just an email that will take a few hours of work” or is it really a message that’s going to thousands of prospects that could net you millions in sales?

Hourly rates defy logic and cause discomfort.

Let’s be honest. It is impossible to look at someone’s hourly rate and not compare it to other, completely unrelated rates—be it your lawyer’s, your plumber’s or even your own. It is best not to go there. What difference does it make, anyway? With project fee, the focus is on the value of the work to your organization—as it should be.

Negotiating a project fee keeps you in the driver’s seat.

With project fee, you control the cost and the deliverable. But with hourly, the cost can vary. It’s just the nature of creative work. Sure, you can try and impose a cap on the number of hours a copywriter can use, but that can lead to varied results. Every creative person has their own process and pace. When you mess with their way of doing things, you do so at your own risk. It’s better to just agree on a price you’re comfortable with and let the copywriter deal with how much time it takes.

Project fee relationships bring unexpected value-adds.

With project fee, when an hourly copywriter exceeds the expectations of the project, it’s an unexpected gift, and it’s free—as it should be. Not so with hourly. When your copywriter goes over and above the call of duty, they’re exceeding the project scope. That means you the client end up paying for something that you didn’t ask for, budget for or really even think you needed.

Fixed fees work on any project you can imagine.

It’s possible to propose project fees for everything from the biggest jobs to the most piecemeal ones. That includes projects like website prompts, headline projects, tagline explorations or amorphous copy editing jobs. That said, it’s true that working on a project fee requires more work up front for the copywriter in estimating. It’s also more work for clients because they have to articulate their needs clearly. But I’ve found the extra planning to be well worth it in the end because it helps ensure clients get what they need without going over budget.

Remember the tale of two snowplow drivers on your next project.

One was fixed-fee driven and focused—the other was last seen texting his girlfriend in front of the Bulldog Deli.

And don’t forget, if you need help digging yourself out from a mountain of work, I’m here to help. Email me anytime to set up your free consultation.

On the morning of November 9th, I found myself searching the faces of my neighbors as they drove by. “Friend or foe?” I worried. I wondered if my sprinkler contractor was going to show up—or anyone was going to show up to work for that matter. People who rode the morning train into Manhattan described railcars so quiet you could hear an election pin drop.

I think that I, and many, many other people on both sides of the election just didn’t think that we knew the other side…that we were just too different to even coexist.

Research supports this. A recent poll published in the Times Union indicates that political prejudice is now more prevalent than racial prejudice in the United States.

So here we are all looking at the other side as “the other.”

With the holidays closing in all around me, I realized I had a problem. Not only was I massively distracted, I needed to get my head straight or there was going to be war around the dinner table.

I searched for a mental trick to get me out of this negative frame of mind. Would the old rubber band around the wrist that I snap whenever my thoughts go acid work? Probably not. I’d probably break it; furthermore, I couldn’t think of a single affirmation I could use to mantra my way to peace-of-mind.

Salvation came to me in the form of a Ted talk with Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. After a brainy explanation of the three things that have led to our society’s bitter division, he concluded with a truism that was so simple and common-sensical that I knew it would work. It goes like this:

The key to breaking a personal stereotype is personal.
If you want to smash your beliefs that “they’re all the same”, find an exception to the rule. In other words, listen to one person from the other side with the aim of understanding.

We people in advertising and marketing should be good at this. Understanding customer insights and acting upon them is perhaps the greatest trick of our trade.

So I decided to give it a try with my neighbor, Mark—one of the millions I’d previously decided I simply couldn’t and wouldn’t ever relate to. But unlike the other “others” like him on Twitter and TV, I made an effort to listen to Mark without judging whether he was right or wrong. His perspective surprised me. I have to say the experience did a great job short-circuiting my whole stereotyping machine.

It reminded me that we face this challenge all the time in marketing. It’s our job to listen for insights and to strive to achieve true understanding—not just hear the things that support our preconceived notions.

Having been in this business for however many years, I think we people in marketing are more open to seeing other people’s perspectives than just about any other group. I really do. So perhaps it’s up to us to lead the way out there by showing the world how to be a little more understanding.

Just so you know, my sprinkler guy showed up late in the afternoon on November 9th. He blew air through my pipes so they won’t explode this winter. Maybe that’s our job, too, as marketers—to just show up. In doing so, we may just prevent the world from blowing a gasket.

Wishing you peace, love and unsterotyping this holiday season,
Conrad

I woke up in a panic a few Sundays ago. My daughter had a travel soccer game and we’d way overslept. The maps app said it would take 50 minutes but we only had 45.

I reassured myself that those estimates only applied to little old ladies and snow plows. If I was driving, it would only take me 40—maybe less if my wife didn’t get mad at me for speeding.

So, I bum-rushed my 12 year-old daughter and sleepy wife out the door, completely focused on obeying the voice of my map app and getting my daughter to her soccer game on time. I did a fast-and-furious reverse down the driveway and whipped onto the street. In a minute, I was on Main Street and before the app could say “interstate” I was pulling onto the 287 and into the fast lane.

60, 70, and then 80 mph. Things were looking good. No cops. No traffic studies.

We pulled up to the edge of the field with minutes to spare. I felt like a definitive dad-hero. I sat back as all the stress rushed over and out of me. Life was good. My daughter opened the door to jump out…and shrieked.

She had forgotten her cleats.

In our rush to make it to the game on time, we had forgotten the most important thing: a basic equipment check. It would have taken a minute. Instead we flew out of the house without a second to spare.

When we’re in a rush, we often forget the basics…like the creative brief.

It’s ironic to me that confirming, at the very least, these essentials of a brief—key message, objective and support points—is often deemed a waste of time under a tight deadline.

The truth is, taking the time to lay down the purpose and important points of a project at the onset can speed the work immeasurably, and help you avoid misdirection that makes you miss your deadline.

On your next hot, or not so hot, project, don’t be afraid to be the bad guy or gal—the momentary momentum killer—who asks:

1. What are we trying to do here?
2. Whom are we talking to?
3. What do we want them to do?
4. And what is our simple, single-minded key message?

Write the answers down and remind your team of them often—it will surely save you in the long run.

As for my daughter, she ended up borrowing a mom’s sneakers, so everything worked out okay in the end.

Need a driver for your upcoming ad, website refresh or inbound program? I’m here to help. Just email.

Why I killed backpocket copywriter.
Back when I became backpocket copywriter 15 years ago, it seemed like a natural fit for my clients’ needs. I was doing a lot more 1-off projects. Things were much more wham-bam thank you, adman. Clients appreciated my creativity and quickness. The name, backpocket copywriter fit this arrangement nicely.

Alas, my business has changed.
Quick, one-and-done projects for a long list of companies and categories was a carryover from my agency days. I’ve found that what companies and clients need today isn’t “backpocket” in any way.

What the world needs now.
I find that what clients really need is continuity and accessibility. And that’s what I try to provide. I believe it’s a huge benefit to companies to work with a copywriter who knows their brand, their category and their overall marketing plan. But that’s more of a frontpocket role, than a backpocket one. You see the confusion? When I started asking colleagues and clients about it, I learned that was only the beginning of the mixed messaging.

It’s time to deal with the disconnect.
Talking to people, I found that for many, “backpocket” means “special occasion.” For others, “in a pinch.” And for some, “backburner.” (Gasp) None of these interpretations is an accurate—or desireable—fit. So I had to ask myself, “If backpocket copywriter isn’t reflecting who I am, what I do or what I want to be—why am I using it?”

I’m taking my cue from all that is true.
I think the best brands out there tap into attributes that are authentic and true—or at the very least not disconnected and confusing. So goodbye backpocket, it’s time to start being myself.

No more pocket metaphors.
Say hello to conradwinter.com. And remember, if your brand needs help finding its true expression in writing, I’m here to help.

So you’re 5 miles into the backcountry mountain biking when you blow your rear tire. Once you get to work patching it, you realize your patch kit hasn’t seen the light of day since before your 6-year-old was born and the glue is dryer than trail dust. This would never have happened before you became a parent. But rather than lament in the hot sun, you get to work packing your tire with dried grass. Then once you’ve got it good and firm, you ride on at a lumpy gait, relieved that you’re no longer cougar bait .

I love a good work around. And I hate to sit around and wait. For anything.

And some things are simply too important to wait around for. Case studies are prime examples.

They occupy a critical spot in B2B sales funnels, and I believe it can really hurt you not to have them on hand.

But in the real world, sometimes you don’t have all the information you need to do a proper case study. I mean, it can be kind of hard to twist your client’s arm for a testimonial—and getting information from the people inside of your company can be just as difficult.

So if you want to to complete a case study in a timely manner and be able to publish it while it’s still relevant, you need workarounds that enable you to create an interesting and compelling story with incomplete information.

Here are a couple of common hang-ups and the workarounds I often use.

Problem: You don’t have express permission from your client to mention their name.

Solution: Refer to the client in generic terms. For example say, “an international soft drink manufacturer” rather than Coke. Instead of naming clients, refer to them in terms that could point to any number of clients, e.g., “a mid-sized software company in the Boston area” or “a 500-employee manufacturer in the automotive industry.” The important thing is to use terms readers will relate to; ones that will make them think, “Oh, yeah, that’s an organization I can relate to. I’m a lot like them.”

Problem: Your client has been slow to get back to you with a testimonial quote. Hey, it happens. This writing stuff ain’t easy. For whatever reason—compliance issues, lack of direction—they just don’t seem to be getting back to you. No worries. I have solutions for you.

Solutions: 1) Do without. Hey, they often sound kind of generic anyway. 2) Write one for your client AND give it to them to approve. Couch your request in a “Hey, I was hoping you could write a testimonial that’s something like this. Feel free to edit this one or disregard it altogether. Just trying to help—I know how much of a pain these things can be to write!” 3) Get a quote from someone in your own organization who performed a critical role in your company’s success.

Problem: No ROI yet or no hard and fast data to reference.

Solution: Highlight incomplete results. For example in the case of a recent website launch where you don’t have any real numbers yet, you could say, “3 weeks after the launch and we’re already noticing an increase in traffic.” Or you could reference general accomplishments that aren’t tied to ROI, like, “Now visitors are treated to a brighter, more streamlined appearance that requires less clicks to navigate to what they need.” Lastly, you could opt for soft results by finding a creative way of demonstrating that your client or your client’s clients could not be happier.

Problem: The project that is the subject of the case study isn’t completely finished yet.

Solution: Some projects are so big and last so long, that it could be over a year for you to publish a case study trumpeting your hard-fought achievement. This can be a common challenge if long, drawn-out projects are the nature of your business. No worries. Do a case study up to a particular milestone, or highlight a particular challenge within the overall project, and then show how you overcame it.

Problem: You have a great story for a case study, but it’s as old as faxes and as dated as VHS.

Solution: Focus on the evergreen messages like the extraordinary lengths your people went to in order to deliver, or the details of your customer’s situation that create drama, and give examples of your company’s insights, understanding and commitment. Portray the results in a relevant way that doesn’t tie them to the past. For example, cite the number of customers it led to or the amount of territory it opened up. And be sure and remove all the references to faxes and Netscape.

Problem: The story you want to feature has confidential stuff in there that you can’t mention.

Solution: Don’t—as in, don’t mention any of the off-limits information. But when it creates a gap in your story, call it out. For example, if a location is sensitive, refer to it as a “secret location.” Rather than ruining a story, it adds intrigue. It also shows that your clients trust you with trade secrets—and that demonstrates your importance to prospects.

It’s important to show your work. So don’t let little setbacks like these prevent you from telling your company’s story. Use these workarounds to complete your compelling case studies or create placeholders until you get the stats, quotes or approvals you need.

Hope these tips help you to keep case-studying, and if you run into a snag or run out of time, remember I’m here to help. Email me anytime.

2

In my recent post, “Non-binary copywriting: ready for the shift?” I asked readers to weigh in on their pronoun preference in business writing. It seems like people are ready for an gender neutral pronoun. Over half chose they—and there was even some interest in ze. Check out the results below.

I like “they” and I’m down with this whole non-binary thing. – 52.44%

Give me the certitude of “he or she” and let’s end all this talk of neutrality. – 28.05%

Keep your hands off my gender. God made his and her for a reason. – 14.63%

I’m kind of liking “ze.” It’s fresh, it’s easy on the ears and it has the instant cache of the letter “z.” – 3.66%

I’m in favor alternating strictly between the use of “he” and “she” and keeping an accurate tally of their usage just so we can keep things fair and square. Maybe we should petition Microsoft to make it an auto correct function and punish people with a low gender parity score by making them go to some sort of reconditioning boot camp or a really long webinar or something. – 1.22%

Give “she” a chance. – 0.00%

A recent article, Beyond ‘he’ and ‘she’: the rise of non-binary pronouns, on BBC.com, touched on a topic that’s been on my mind for years now: The use of feminine and masculine pronouns in business writing—you know: he, she, him and her.

I’m convinced we English-speakers need a  gender-neutral—or what some call a non-binary—pronoun of our own.

Let me just start by stating the obvious: using “he” as the default in writing is sexist and wrong. I think most of us know that at this point. But what’s the alternative? Some out there have switched from “he” to “she”, but I don’t think that’s an improvement. It’s still gender-biased, exclusionary and often inaccurate.

He and she don’t work as default pronouns.
Here’s an example. Seth Godin used “she” exclusively in The Icarus Deception. (Great book by the way for anyone striving for a differentiated brand in today’s world.) I know why he did it, and I appreciate his decision, but it was cumbersome for me. It made me think too much and at times, unconsciously, it made me feel like he wasn’t speaking to me. (Now I know how women feel being bombarded with he-speak all the time.) Favoring “she” just came off as forced to me. It felt like a political statement, which is fine, but not when it detracts from the message. A fundamental rule of copywriting is if it detracts from the message, don’t do it.

What’s a girl or boy to do?
So what should Seth have done, and what should we be doing in our communications? Well, I think there has to be an alternative that doesn’t favor either gender. Seth could have inserted “he or she” or “him or her” instead. It would have satisfied the PC police out there, but clunky conventions like these are eyesores and speed bumps to readers. Seth could also have switched back and forth to give equal play to “he” and “she”, but that quickly gets confusing—to both the reader and the writer. No good answer there, I guess.

Pick your alternative to he-speak.
Many alternate pronoun structures have been proposed that skirt the gender issue altogether. Askanonbinary.org lists 55 pronoun sets you could substitute for he/him/his/himself and she/her/her/herself. None of them displays a speck of gender bias, but few seem to have any use outside of being a clever exercise. Of all the options, two seem to have the most potential: they/them/their/themself (if you’re willing to use plural pronouns when singular ones are grammatically correct) and ze/zir/zir/zerself (if you’re feeling kind of space age.)

Linguists and journalists favor “they.”
So what chance does a new, non-gender pronoun have of gaining popularity? Dennis Baron, a linguist at the University of Illinois and Sally McConnell-Ginet, a Cornell University linguistics professor think “they” as used in the pronoun set, they/them/their/themself, has a chance of success.1 

Journalists are recognizing the need for gender-neutral pronouns as well. Just this month, Washington Post copyeditor, Bill Walsh rubber-stamped the use of the “singular they.”2 

And just to show you how mainstream the singular use of “they” could become: Facebook lets you choose your pronoun. Yup, right in your account preferences you can instruct them to refer to you as either he/him, she/her or they/them.

“They” works for me.
It’s conversational to use the “they” pronoun set. If you listen to yourself speak, I think you’ll find you’re already using “they” as a singular pronoun much of the time. So the only thing left is for you to put it in writing! In my own writing, I alternate the use of “they” pronouns (i.e., they/them/their/themself) with specific nouns (e.g., the customer, the buyer, a machinist, a marketer, a shipper, the company, etc.) for variety. It works for me and most clients are onboard with it.

There are clients who accuse me of pronoun confusion.
The grammatical stretch of using “they” as a singular pronoun in place of “he” or “she” can be too much for some. To be frank, I still have my moments of second-guessing. The whole singular-plural issue can cause me to overthink things at times, because admittedly, it is not grammatically correct (yet). I get it. That’s why I don’t press it with clients. When I encounter resistance, I usually default to “he or she.”

Still have your doubts that “they” can replace “he” and “she”?
Stranger things have happened. Take “you” for example. According to the BBC.com article, before the 17th Century, “you” was the plural form of second person—in other words, it was used exclusively to refer to numbers of people. The singular form was thee and thou. So at some point back then, people decided that the plural worked well in singular cases, too—and no one has looked back since. Does that change the way thou feel about making “they” your gender-neutral pronoun of choice?

How to use they/them/their/themself as singular pronouns.
Nothing’s perfect, but “they” works—a lot better than “he” and “she”—or “ze” anyway. Curious what “they” looks like in action? Here are a few examples. (Results may vary, avoid any usage exhibiting signs of weirdness.)
• When we switch a shipping agent’s workstation to the A347, they notice immediate timesavings.
• What’s the most important skill for a new manager? Their decision-making ability.
• In the case of a first-time entrepreneur, we provide them with accountability and control.
• The smart copywriter will ask themself why the prospect cares.

What do readers think?
I asked my readers to weigh in on the following options. See what the survey said here.

1. I like “they” and I’m down with this whole non-binary thing.
2. Give me the certitude of “he or she” and let’s end all this talk of neutrality.
3. Keep your hands off my gender. God made his and her for a reason. –
4. I’m kind of liking “ze.” It’s fresh, it’s easy on the ears and it has the instant cache of the letter “z.”
5. I’m in favor alternating strictly between the use of “he” and “she” and keeping an accurate tally of their usage just so we can keep things fair and square. Maybe we should petition Microsoft to make it an auto correct function and punish people with a low gender parity score by making them go to some sort of reconditioning boot camp or a really long webinar or something.

Need sensational, gender-nuetral copywriting for your upcoming website, email series or ad campaign? Let’s talk.