Often the copywriting insights that unlock a new strategy, angle, or approach to a communication piece come from offhand comments made during client conversations. This is one of the many reasons why it’s so important for clients to talk directly and regularly with their writers and strategists. Otherwise, precious kernels of insight can slip through the cracks. Much of our job as copywriters is to be on the lookout for these verbal treasures.
One such comment was made just the other day by one of our clients during a routine call. We’d been talking at length about an ESG initiative and really hammering away at the “problem” facing our audience. We’d explored the audience’s challenges until we reached the point where the whole issue sounded like this awful, terrible, horrible burden—at which point someone, exacerbated, piped up and said, “These are sustainability people. This is their passion.”
We called the meeting a wrap. But the comment had lodged itself somewhere in my brain.
Copywriter Neil French, writing in D&AD’s The Copy Book about his ad-making process, says the following:
“When I can only remember one thing about the brief, and just before I forget there was a brief in the first place, I write that one thing down and get the account people to write a strategy round it.”
This insight into French’s process has always stuck with me, not only because of his trademark humor, but because so often what we’re looking for in a business communication problem is single-minded clarity.
Sometimes it’s there already in the brief, but many times it remains buried or blunted in some way. That’s where the ongoing client-writer dialogue is so crucial. It’s our opportunity to interrogate the brief together—poke it, prod it, feel for its soft spots and see what it’s really made of. It’s during this process that the real truth of the matter is unearthed. Sometimes it arises in response to a writer’s questions, as we attempt to understand the nature of the subject. Or sometimes the client themselves can provide it in a burst of insight—and it’s up to the writer to notice it.
Which brings me back to the ESG situation. Later that evening, I was lying in bed thinking about the project. And the comment about our target audience’s passion kept ringing in my mind. Finally, it clicked. This problem wasn’t a problem at all. It was an opportunity.
It was a new chance for these people to do more of exactly what they’d signed up to do in the first place—and our job was to communicate that. Not, “Oh, no, look out, here comes the hassle,” but, “Hey… look what you get to do next!”
This unlocked an entire campaign idea—a bigger, bolder, and more hopeful call to action—and we were off to the races.
If you’re not having these kinds of fruitful conversations with your writing partner on the regular, let’s change that.
