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1/ My favourite piece of writing advice |
2 minutes 54 seconds into the film "The French Dispatch" magazine editor, Arthur Howitzer Jr says to a staff writer: |
"Just try to make it sound like you wrote it that way on purpose." |
Most sentences are not written 'on purpose'. They happen. They are what one 'should' write — which is, of course, what one should never ever write. |
"We're excited to announce the future of photography" |
It sounds like writing, so let's rewrite it. |
"The industry formerly known as 'photography' has ceased to exist." |
If you ask Google how to write with purpose, you will be told platitudes like 'define your goal'. My advice is a little less comforting. |
Be provocative. |
I start by writing down what everyone in said industry is doing or saying. Then I ask what piece can I break so it doesn't sound like anything else. |
The result is lots of bad ideas. But I'd rather bad ideas than boring ones. You are looking for provocativeness that stems from the product. |
- 'Refresh your thirst' → 'Murder your thirst' (Liquid Death) |
- 'Buy this jacket' → 'Don't buy this jacket' (Patagonia) |
- 'Party game for friends' → '... horrible people' (Cards Against Humanity) |
Like Bernbach said "You are NOT right if you stand a man on his head JUST to get attention. You ARE right if you have him on his head to show how your product keeps things from falling out of his pockets." |
When he shrunk the Beetle to a thumbprint it's because he wanted you to 'think small'. When he wrote 'ugly is only skin-deep' it's because he wanted to talk about the air-cooled engine. When he showed you only ¼ of the Beetle it's because a ¼ of the money upfront is all you need. |
It 'sounds like he wrote it that way on purpose.' Because he did. |
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2/ A display ad that WORKS! |
I am browsing The Drum looking for newsletter inspiration. |
Three words appear. "Hey marketing people." You have my attention. "Branded pens don't taste this good". Now, I'm intrigued. Next comes action, "Customise a Tony's bar". |
I didn't know what custom chocolate was two minutes ago. Now I'm on Tony's site, ordering ten bars. |
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P.S. If anybody tells me that it's not the job of a display ad to 'get attention', I'm going to ask you when was the last time you clicked a display ad. |
3/ Why does this poster work? |
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One second slowed down is more interesting than two hours summed up. |
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1/ "Just add a zero to monthly pricing" |
Two weeks ago, Andrea Bosoni wrote something about pricing I was jealous of. Enjoy! |
"I go to the pricing page of a product I'm interested in. |
It's $19 per month. Seems fair. But then I notice the toggle is set to annual. |
I get why they are doing this. But I'm not ready to pay for an annual plan for a product I've never used before. |
So I switch to monthly and the price jumps to $29 per month. |
I still have $19 in mind so now even if it's cheap compared to other alternatives my mind perceives it as a bad deal. |
I see this almost every day. More founders need to understand how price anchoring works." |
I shared this with a group chat I'm in. Adriaan van Rossum replied with an implementation so simple I can't believe everyone's not doing it. |
"Default to monthly. Switch to annual? Just add a zero" |
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2/ How to grow a YouTube channel in 2025 |
1. Film one longform video |
2. To get a dozen clippable moments |
Clips attract new fans. Longform satisfies old fans. |
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P.S. Today's sponsor Veed makes it super easy to do this |
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Please do reply. I'm not a robot, I talk back. And it helps deliverability. If these emails aren't for you anymore you can unsubscribe here. |
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My train is coming. |
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Thanks to Tom for helping edit. |
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