Writing Persuasive Copy

1. MODULE VI
Writing Persuasive Copy

2. Creativity: The CAN Elements
Novelty
Appropriateness
Connectedness
The CAN Elements
of Creative Ads

3. Connectedness
• When you make sure your target market can identify themselves with
the ad.
• If you're targeting moms, then use a model who looks and talks like a
mom.
• The key here is to select a model that best represents the target
market of your brand.
• Most companies fail when they try to push superstars to endorse
products that you'll have a hard time imagining them using it.

4. Appropriateness
• An ad that is suitable for the message you want to convey. Also, the
message must be sensitive to any pressing issues.
• What I'm trying to say is that there will be times that people will
interpret your ad at a different way if its not properly positioned and
appropriately conveyed to the masses.

5. Novelty
• Novelty is where the fun part comes in. This is where the imagination
and weird concepts turned into something tangible and relatable.
• Some companies go for the comedic-type of ad to make it more
memorable.
• Some uses the straightforward Ads where they tell you immediately
what they want to tell you.
• Other's do the repetitive type of ads to ensure maximum retention of
the message.

6. Getting Messages to “Stick”
• PRINCIPLE 1: SIMPLICITY
• PRINCIPLE 2: UNEXPECTEDNESS
• PRINCIPLE 3: CONCRETENESS
• PRINCIPLE 4: CREDIBILITY
• PRINCIPLE 5: EMOTIONS
• PRINCIPLE 6: STORYTELLING

7. PRINCIPLE 1: SIMPLICITY
• Simplicity isn’t about dumbing down, it’s about prioritizing.
(Southwest will be THE low-fare airline.)
• What’s the core of your message? Can you communicate it with an
analogy or high-concept pitch? We must create ideas that are both
simple and profound.
• The Golden Rule is the ultimate model of simplicity: a one- sentence
statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime
learning to follow it.

8. PRINCIPLE 2: UNEXPECTEDNESS
• To get attention, violate a schema. To hold attention, use curiosity
gaps. (What are Saturn’s rings made of?) Before your message can
stick, your audience has to want it. We need to violate people's
expectations.
• For our idea to endure, we must generate interest and curiosity. How
do you keep students engaged during the forty-eighth history class of
the year?
• We can engage people's curiosity over a long period of time by
systematically "opening gaps" in their knowledge—and then filling
those gaps.

9. PRINCIPLE 3: CONCRETENESS
• Ideas can get credibility from outside (authorities or anti-authorities)
or from within, using human-scale statistics or vivid details.
• Let people “try before they buy.” (Where’s the Beef?) To be concrete,
use sensory language.
• Paint a mental picture. (“A man on the moon…”) Remember the
Velcro theory of memory—try to hook into multiple types of memory.
Speaking concretely is the only way to ensure that our idea will mean
the same thing to everyone in our audience.

10. PRINCIPLE 4: CREDIBILITY
• Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials. We need ways to
help people test our ideas for themselves. In the sole U.S. presidential
debate in 1980 between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, Reagan
could have cited innumerable statistics demonstrating the
sluggishness of the economy.
• Instead, he asked a simple question that allowed voters to test for
themselves: "Before you vote, ask yourself if you are better off today
than you were four years ago."

11. PRINCIPLE 5: EMOTIONS
• People care about people, not numbers. Don’t forget the WIIFY
(What’s In It For You). But identity appeals can often trump self-
interest.
• How do we get people to care about our ideas? We make them feel
something. In the case of movie popcorn.
• Research shows that people are more likely to make a charitable gift
to a single needy individual than to an entire impoverished region.
We are wired to feel things for people, not for abstractions.

12. PRINCIPLE 6: STORIES
• Stories drive action through simulation (what to do) and inspiration
(the motivation to do it). Springboard stories help people see how an
existing problem might change.
• Hearing stories acts as a kind of mental flight simulator, preparing us
to respond more quickly and effectively.
• "Those are the six principles of successful ideas. To summarize, here's
our checklist for creating a successful idea:
• A simple Unexpected Concrete Credentialed Emotional Story.