Boy did this year ever fly past! We hope you’ve stayed productive and healthy. 
 
In what’s become a big tradition here at Copel Communications, we’d like to offer you our annual wrap-up of creative skill-building articles for the entire year. If you missed any of these, here’s your chance to catch up; if you already enjoyed any of these, here’s an opportunity to re-hone your skills. 
 
Enjoy! 

• Altered reality and the seven-page PDF. How can you draw a line from Gutenberg to post-Covid creative direction? Better yet, how can you create more impactful deliverables? Get set to get liberated, with this fun, inspiring read. 

 

• How to create social ads that sell. You may be surprised to learn how the exact opposite of a social ad can, well, help you create better social ads. Get a nice creative workout with this quick read! 

 

• How much input do you need for that creative assignment? This useful article arms you with two important pieces of information: 1) Exactly how much input you should get from your client for that next creative assignment, and 2) How to get that exact amount! Learn from our experience! 

 

• What the heck is a “responsive” website? If you know all the answers and design-impacting subtleties already, then you can skip this one. But we’ll bet you don’t. Grab some useful info ASAP!

 

• How to write killer catalog copy. Okay, quick question: “Catalogs???” No, we’re not smoking anything funny. This is actually an article that you can use, a lot, right now. It also takes a fun little tour through advertising history. Enjoy! 

 

• Old and new tech for capturing creative inspiration. We’ve weighed in before on awesome low-tech ways to help you capture ideas; building on that, we add lots more here, and even some very high-tech tricks. If you’re in the idea biz, you need to read this one. 

 

• How to save money on corporate video voiceovers. This one isn’t just about saving money; it’s also about getting the best possible performances, on a budget. Read this one before you submit your next script to a voice artist! 

 

• How to write marketing emails that sell. Are you aware of the “three-legged stool” of direct response? Do you know how to tweak copy for similar-yet-different campaigns? Lessons from the trenches, all here! 

 

• When should you break the rules of composition? From TV spots to social ads, there are a lot of rules about composing for content within the bounds of a rectangle. What are they? Better yet, when can you—and should you—creatively break them? 

 

• Ghost writing needn’t be spooky. How do you find and hire a ghost writer? Or how do you do it yourself? We’ve condensed decades of experience on this topic into one quick, fun read, which we’d timed for Halloween, given the “ghostly” subject matter. 

 

• Creativity-enhancers we’re thankful for. Our annual Thanksgiving roundup of things that make creative work just a little easier, and for that, we’re thankful. You’ll be, too, when you read this post. 

 
Have a creative topic you’d like us to weigh in on next year? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

​How to find and hire a ghost writer—or do it yourself
 
Halloween it still over a week away, but since it’s October, what better time to address the topic of ghost writing? 
 
People always seem to be impressed when we tell them that we do a lot of ghost writing. Maybe there’s some connotation to the term, implying that it’s being done for, say, a celebrity or politician. That’s not the case, in our case. 
 
Still, we do tons of ghost writing. You could almost argue that, aside from blog articles like this one, it’s all we do. 
 
Put it this way: Whenever you write something that’s ostensibly written by someone else, you’re “ghosting.” 
 
But does that mean you’re putting your words into someone else’s mouth? 
 
Dispelling the myths
 
The answer to the above question is: “You’d better not be!” The whole idea of ghost writing is to help your “author” express their ideas, only better/faster/more efficiently than they could on their own. Every word should read as if it were written by them. This, incidentally, is why we tag ourselves as a “secret weapon” on our website. By reading this article, you know what we do. But most of the readers of the material we create don’t even know that we exist. And that’s the way it should be. 
 
Another myth about ghost writing is that it’s glamorous. We’ll admit that it’s fun, and intellectually stimulating, but “remaining anonymous in the shadows” isn’t exactly a red-carpet activity. It’s a job to be done. And done right, it’s all about helping your “author” to shine. 
 
In our case, “shine” means “drive in more business.” This isn’t some touchy-feely branding exercise. This is about helping time-constrained business leaders to get their thought-leading ideas, views, and sales pitches out to their intended audiences, for maximum impact and ROI. 
 
So, in case you hadn’t thought about it, our ghost writing encompasses virtually every kind of written communication medium. It could be a thought-leadership article. It could be a book. It could be a sales presentation or video script. It could be—and often is—an email, addressed to, perhaps a C-level prospect. 
 
Think about it: Do you honestly believe that our clients—these incredibly smart and busy people—want to spend the time organizing their arguments, let alone word-smithing the copy? They’ve got far bigger fish to fry. Hence the need for ghost writers. 
 
Finding the voice
 
Here’s a neat story. We have a client—let’s call her Sue (not her real name)—who, like most of our clients, is downright brilliant. She’s also shy and soft-spoken. Yet we needed to create a piece for her, in her voice, that would sell. There was a mismatch of tone. 
 
But after speaking with her at length, and asking her about a certain topic she’s passionate about, that passion started to come through. Indeed, when we probed about specifics, she got even more heated and enthusiastic. 
 
And we realized: That’s the voice we need. It’s “Sue, Pissed Off.” 
 
So, interviewing her, we got all the facts we needed for this piece. And that’s a job unto itself. It’s important to respect her time and let her go down any rabbit-holes she likes, so long as they’re at least tangentially relevant, and take great notes. 
 
It’s not her job, incidentally, to organize these thoughts, or think about the end product’s structure. She just needs to “spout.”
 
Our job—which isn’t easy—afterward is twofold: 
 
1) We need to organize all of those random thoughts, and find the thread which aligns them into the most compelling possible argument. 
 
2) We then need to make that argument in the “Sue, Pissed Off” voice. 
 
Is this “putting words into Sue’s mouth”? Hardly! 
 
Finding the fit
 
Now let’s turn the tables. Let’s say you need to hire a ghost writer for, say, that upcoming marketing outreach piece that will have your byline at the top of it, or your signature at the bottom of it. What do you do?
 
Well, you can find your list of candidates by whatever means you see fit, whether it’s a LinkedIn search, or through a site such as Upwork, or whatever. But this is not about just finding someone who can write well and will work within your budget. 
 
This is all about finding the proper fit. Can that person interview you well and tease out the information that’s needed for the piece and its tactical intent? Do you feel comfortable chatting—indeed, venting—to that person at length? 
 
And most importantly, can they empathize? Can they find, and “speak” in, the right voice that you want to project to the world, which will 1) best present your argument, while 2) ringing true as “you”? This is the crucial yet subtle compatibility factor that you really need to weigh, first and foremost, into your hiring decision. 
 
Staying on-message
 
Unfortunately, after the interview is over, your work—as the putative “author”—isn’t done. You’ll need to review the draft your ghost writer submits, and check it not only for accuracy but for tone. Does it ring true? Does it “sound” like you wrote it? If you don’t feel comfortable, you’ll need to kick it back. Lest we remind you: Your name, not the ghost writer’s, will be on this thing. It’s personal. This is “you,” to the world. You shouldn’t feel uncomfortable about the product. To the contrary: You should be delighted. When you get a great ghost-written piece, you should be downright elated. We have clients who share our pieces with family and friends, they’re so excited by how they’ve come out. So that’s the bar you want to reach. 
 
Have a project you need ghost written? We can help with that. Simply contact us for a no-obligation consultation today. 

Not sure about you, but 2018 positively flew past for us. In what has by now become an annual tradition, here’s our roundup of the year’s top best-practice blog posts for creatives, replete with links to each. 
 
Use this handy list as a refresher, or to simply check out any you may have missed. Enjoy! 

• The V-8 trick and other creative brainstorming techniques. Some really good tricks for squeezing more creative ideas out of you, than you’d thought you’d had in you. The “V-8” portion is way cool. 

 

• Screw ups, flubs, and outtakes. By all means, learn from our mistakes! To err is human, to profit from it, divine. Plus you’ll enjoy some good laughs, at our expense. 

 

• Help with creative assignments: New approaches to stale stock images. We love this post. It shows you how to get super creative with super un-creative input. And it helps you save money, too! 

 

• Jingles need to stage a comeback. In this article, we make a strong case for bringing back the motivational power of one of advertising’s most proven techniques. Plus it contains a dose of trivia: How many of the jingles that we mention, can you remember… and sing? 

 

• Good riddance to old tech. Some people get nostalgic about the pre-digital world. We don’t. Find out why—and find out which single tool from the old days still works as good as new. 

 

• Choose the middle name last. Here are some really important ways to keep that creative challenge of yours on track. The title of the blog comes from a real-world analogy. 

 

• How to build business by breaking the rules. It’s often said that rules are made to be broken, but if you don’t know the rule in the first place—or why it exists—you’ll simply fall flat by breaking it. This article will help you with everything from visual composition to copywriting. 

 

• Don’t be so literal! Know what “slide-show creative” is? Better yet, know how to avoid it? “Slide-show creative” is the antithesis of synergy; this article tells you how to avoid the former, and leverage the latter. 

 

• Tag your characters. Why is it not just desirable, but necessary, to draw your reader in? This article explains why storytelling is an essential tool for business-building. 

 

• Spooky creative. Know what “FUD” is? Know when it’s downright appropriate to make your audience uncomfortable? We timed the posting of this article to Halloween, per its title, but its lessons are applicable—and valuable—all year round. 

 

• Creative turkeys. Yet another holiday-themed title with info you can use all year. This article points out common creative pitfalls that can impair your impact—and how to avoid them. Take advantage! 

 
Which of these articles was your favorite? Which ones might warrant a sequel? Let us know; we’d love your feedback. We’d also love to help you with that next creative challenge, taking advantage of all of these powerful lessons learned. Contact us today to get started. 

​Sometimes you’ve got to make the audience uneasy. Here’s how.
 
Halloween is the one time each year when it’s appropriate to give your audience a good, safe scare. Right? 
 
Wrong. You can do it all year!
 
Sure, it’s fun to get scared for fun at Halloween (and, as the old joke goes, to get scared for real a week later on Election Day), but there’s only so much business you can build around, well, a pumpkin. 
 
In this article, we’re going to explore numerous ways to generate unease in your audience, using multiple techniques in various media. But first, let’s explore the important premise, namely: Why on earth would you ever want to scare your audience?
 
Enter FUD
 
A better question, arguably, is: Why on earth would you not want to scare your audience? 
 
Look at it this way: If your prospects are content to the point of being smug, what do they lack? What do they need? Answer: Nothing. 
 
First off, that’s unrealistic. No one has 100 percent of their needs met, 100 percent of the time; just ask Maslow. So that’s an audience of zero. When you’re looking to sell your goods or services, you want to focus in on the ones who are, well, suffering. The people whose lives just can’t wait to be improved by what you’re proposing to offer them. 
 
We learned a great acronym while working on projects in aerospace and defense. If you haven’t learned it before, you should. It’s called FUD. It stands for Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. Let’s say you’re a well-entrenched incumbent with a fat defense contract that’s due for a re-compete. And now all these “young upstarts” are trying their best to unseat you. What’s your defense? Well, you can do worse than to employ FUD in your proposal. Something like: “Would you really feel secure with a company that lacks our proven expertise? Can you imagine the catastrophic consequences of failure? Do you think they’ll really come through for you when the mission, national security, and lives are on the line?” That’s FUD in a nutshell. 
 
FUD. It applies to everything from insurance (“Are you covered?”) to professional services (“Are you sure you’re getting the best settlement?”) to consumer packaged goods (“Do you want anything less for your children?”). You think those are only sold at Halloween? 
 
What is spooky?
 
This is one of those questions that’s easier to answer when posed in reverse. What’s the opposite of spooky? Peaceful. Tranquil. Serene. How do those sensations translate to creative media? Pretty obviously: Without our even telling you, we know you’re picturing bright light, pastel colors, and airy fonts. You’re hearing sweet music played on a harp, acoustic guitar, or piano, perhaps with an angelic choir behind it. You’re picturing people glowingly illuminated by high-key lighting, with everything clear and in focus. And the people are, of course, smiling. 
 
Now let’s “evil twin” all that; this should be fun. You’re picturing darkness. Things are obscure and blurry. The music is dissonant. The expressions are nervous and worried. It’s a world of unease. 
 
More to the point, you’re seeing heavier fonts. You’re hearing minor chord progressions and dissonant strings. You’re seeing broken rules of composition (see our entire article about breaking creative rules), with the “breathing room” choked off. 
 
That is all good. But it can be misleading. Never forget contrast and context. If you render something all black, it’s meaningless. You can’t have shadow without light; those minor chords don’t sound spooky unless they’ve transitioned from major ones. It’s a matter of balance. And finding and striking that balance may well be what we could call “the art of FUD.” 
 
And don’t forget the power of what you don’t reveal. Just as the scariest movies don’t show the monster (think of the first half of Jaws, or Val Lewton classics like Cat People or The Leopard Man), but rather leave its awful presence to your imagination, the mere suggestion of something lurking, something just out of sight or reach, can be truly unnerving. This can be accomplished in images, via video editing, and even in copy. If you’re using it to well-planned effect, the results can be memorable and powerful. 
 
We recently worked on a piece which used, very simply, images of busy, modern offices… all devoid of people. The images, which we sourced from stock libraries, weren’t hard to find. But taken together, one after another, one huge empty office with desks that appear to have been occupied just minutes ago, all totally empty, reinforced with copy about the prospect’s “missing workforce,” was wholly unnerving. It had a Twilight Zone-like quality to it. You see a busy modern office; you expect to see it teeming with people. You see it empty: it’s unsettling. The execution couldn’t have been simpler. The budget couldn’t have been lower. But the effect was priceless. 
 
Need help with that next creative challenge, whether it’s a spooky one or not? Contact us. We’d be delighted to scare up some good results for you.