Splash Watercolour

If you are interested in getting a job as an advertising creative, either as a copywriter; an artist then you need to create Spec ads in your Portfolio or BOOK. Make your Portfolio something out of the ordinary. Once you join an agency you have to craft regular stuff (most of the time!) but this is your time to plug off the stoppers and go for it! Make your portfolio outstanding and out-of -the box with these easy tips. Mention SPEC on each ad. If you have the original ad you could put it along with your SPEC ads. Hopefully you have a wonderful collection of ads from the print media and taped commercials, radio spots, include those that you dislike. If you have collected ads and created a Chap book with interesting ads and uninteresting ones - good, bad and the ugly – then each ad should be in the charmed circle of your ad collection, separated with sections for each type of ads for easy reference. This will help you when you create your portfolio. Before you...

Creative Prompt Write: What if a Martian came up to you while you are having a picnic and says "take me home, i've lost my ho..me home.... Take off with this creative prompt and write a story, a poem, an ad anything you feel creatively inspiring.  Don't let other images come to your mind, create your own M artian and have a lot of fun.

What is a Chapbook:   The dictionary definition of a chapbook is “a small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts”.The name chapbook comes from many years ago when street vendors called "chapmen" (tradesman) sold inexpensive paperback booklets in the streets of villages, hamlets and towns.  Learn to create a chapbook and use it for your advertising collection Today a chapbook is used to define a book you store your cuttings of ads, articles, poems writing pieces for future reference and for inspiration . While doing creative advertising writing you should keep a journal and a chap book to collect your good, bad ads, great picture cuttings, and while it is filling up...  add - your headlines, creative ideas, prompts, your spec portfolio concepts... and collect famous taglines. Write them in a book or keep a folder of ads, headlines, taglines, direct mailers, brochures, even greetings you like. Cut out interesting visuals. In yo...

Creative Session: Take any vegetable; be it potato, tomato, brinjal(eggplant), ladies finger… and make it a brand and create a personality for it!  e.g. a potato is normally viewed as a fattening veggie when it is actually good for health with vitamins, minerals potassium and others - they're good -the fat comes when they are deep fried...and when you tend to overeat. For e.g.  What if you made it a model? Headline: The perfect model ( straight line headline ) Headline:  Potato with tears (visual) (Emotional headline)  And they called me Fat !  After working on the Potato try other veggies maybe bitter gourd, brinjal..well the vegetable kingdom awaits!

As you get going with your portfolio creation of SPEC ADS, spend some time thinking how you will present it. Hardbound, Digital and then the details you need to plan before you send your resume and wait for the interview call.  Find details from afaqs Freelance switch on how to write a resume through different media You could also check the do's and dont's of a resume from resume expert at monster.com

Get Your foot in the door into the advertising arena Remember concepts, headlines are magical and have no connection to a fixed, planned strategy. Let go and watch them appear while you’re watching cricket or a movie or a boring serial - in fact anywhere...you never know! So be ready and handy with writing materials or a mobile to jot ideas. Hopefully you have created headlines from all the categories mentioned by now. If not check them out. And I truly think you could write each ad with headlines from each type of headline. Make this a habit and you will find headlines slipping out when you least expect them. The trick is to select ads which you feel are not good or ads which you think can be made effective. If you have noted, the reasons why these ads do not fit the criteria of a good ad, then revise them after you have done all the assignments. First, ask yourself - does the ad have a good USP and clear - benefit of the benefit (which is simply what is the...

LAYOUTS for SPEC ADS It is not necessary to do the complete layout if you are not an artist – a scribble can be effective as you can check out in Hey, whipple squeeze this and other books on Copywriting. A designer need not write the copy but should be able to write the headline. But, today, even copywriters conceptualize with images. So learn a little image editing , if you can and try various layout scribbles and  from ads. Take help if needed and mention their names. Google search, Imagesbazaar , Shutterstock , Flickr (could help with free images) and other such websites help you choose the image you are looking for -  so you can create a complete ad with visuals. Do remember these images are not for public use. These are not free but you could put a scribble or cut out a picture to reflect what you want in the ad. Take permission before you use these images. Get started with creating your BOOK - your portfolio and then check the ‘how to write your resume’ ad...

Now that we know the types of headlines, let us learn to create - creative headlines with a random visual prompt 1. If you have been, doing your photography exercises you could choose one of those pictures.   Use the image as a visual and write a headline for it The product: A Sports Shoe 2.   Take the USP of the product and merge it with the image. Your theme and USP decide the headline. Write the headlines with this as your hook…or helper(the image) For example   if you have ‘window’ as your image for the– sports shoe (product) Think and jot down your ideas however wild they may seem, now! Leave it alone for a while; then, sort the ideas and choose one! For e.g.  Window - view, glass, close, open, shut, beyond, neighbors, wall, building, curtains come to mind. Try it; you might be surprised at the words that jump out of your out-of-the-box mind. After you choose an image and merge it with the USP go ahead and  create head...

Emotional Headlines This kind of headline speaks directly to the target audience, appealing to his emotions. Use a direct or an indirect approach. Quite like the News Headline, (which we have spoken about in an earlier creative session), the direct approach gives the clear benefit only this time it’s about touching the emotions. News headlines are more practical in approach. Direct Emotional Headline: A direct emotional appeal along with the benefit should be clear to the reader and should touch his feelings! This type of headline has a direct effect on making an impact; indirect is more of an attention grabber! A perfume that brings back the romance… Indirect Emotional headline has no direct benefit but attaches importance to the reader’s feelings or fear/worry. It should entice the reader to read the offer or the solution to the problem he/she feels. Indirect uses the emotional appeal that would grab the attention instantly but needs further explaining in ...

Testimonial Headlines: When users say positive things about a product then the ad becomes more believable. This is the Testimonial type of headline. You find very often celebrities are  used to do  testimonials but if you have:   A person who can say that he likes the product/service, and, who will testify to the reason why the product works for him/her!  Then go ahead , use them to get a   winning headline! The  Testimonial Headline  is a very popular type of headline and   very effective if it is believable and of course, nothing succeeds like word-of-mouth! Testimonial advertising is like: word-of-mouth publicity ! It includes every type of product/service. We will work on FMCG (fast moving consumer goods and 'White' goods 1.      FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) like tea, coffee, chocolate, consumer items of daily use, cosmetics, perfume, which are bought often like:Complan, Horlicks, Cadbury’s, Himala...

A   tagline   is one that is memorable, catchy and says in essence what your product/service or company is all about. To write your tagline: ·          Sum up in short the features that separate it from other products. ·          Make it catchy A tagline rarely changes and so it is very important to craft it carefully. Right now, have fun coming up with delightful taglines... Check the  famous ones :post a few of your own Just Do It (Nike - of course)  7 Up  ( broke the clutter with)   The Uncola Where is the beef?   Wendys - is one very famous tagline.  Avis Car rentals - We're #2, we try harder Intel Inside Plop, plop; fizz, fizz; oh, what a relief it is . -   Alka Seltzer( it can be as catchy as a rhyme) A Diamond is forever - De Beers Life's good - LG Yellow Pages: Let your fingers do the ...

A   tagline   is one that is memorable, catchy and says in essence what your product/service or company is all about. To write your tagline: ·          Sum up in short the features that separate it from other products. ·          Make it catchy A tagline rarely changes and so it is very important to craft it carefully. Right now, have fun coming up with delightful taglines... Check the  famous ones :post a few of your own Just Do It (Nike - of course)  7 Up  ( broke the clutter with)   The Uncola Where is the beef?   Wendys - is one very famous tagline.  Avis Car rentals - We're #2, we try harder Intel Inside Plop, plop; fizz, fizz; oh, what a relief it is . -   Alka Seltzer( it can be as catchy as a rhyme) A Diamond is forever - De Beers Life's good - LG Yellow Pages: Let your fingers do the ...

Free Writing FREE WRITING! One of the ways to get the thoughts flowing is FREE WRITING! Freewriting is where you start and write non-stop until you exhaust your ideas for the moment. But, to be really Free and let the thoughts spill and pour out you need a small stopper! Time yourself; put a stopwatch, alarm or whatever but if it is 5 minutes then stop writing as it rings - don’t even try to finish the word!• Open your notebook and just start writing whatever comes to your mind, however disconnected they are. Don’t think! Just write…Cool na! Start Writing • You could use a cue or prompt . The cue or prompt is to take any word that comes to you like 'bike', 'games', 'high' or any word you think of on the spot and start writing without pausing to think of grammar, spelling • Alternatively, open a page from the dictionary and close your eyes – point to a word. Open your eyes and use that word. Leave aside, what you have written, if you do not want to ...