With Love, Philly Wordsmith

This new campaign for Philadelphia has me thinking. What would Philadelphia look like as the writer of these notes? Philadelphia is writing promotional and witty letters to these groups of people (gays, historians, art lovers, suburbanites) that it's trying to attract.

What would this quintessential, inviting Philadelphia look like? First, the pen. It would be a quill. Obviously.

Some possibilities for Human Philadelphia:

1) A really, really gay Ben Franklin. He prefers "Benjamin."

2) An old woman from South Philadelphia.

3) A college hipster. Skinny jeans and bright Nike High Tops and all.

Now, you! Who would Human Philly be?

My New Fave Commercial

The new Orkin Commercial where a huge cockroach shows up at a woman's door is the most subtly funny commercial I've ever seen.

I don't know if this subtle humor is on purpose because lord knows commercial humor is almost never subtle. Even the shockingly effective caveman commercials are pretty in your face. There is a bit of subtle humor in there, but now every one gets it.

In my particular favorite, the giant roach shows up with a pizza and with perfect timing at the end, asks if he could 'place it on her table' even though she didn't order it. He has the most creepy voice possible AND he drives off in a straight-up creepy pedophile car.

Good work, whoever is responsible for this ad.

I Have Been a Naughty Blogger

So, as you can see, I have not posted anything in over a month.

(Gasps! Shocked Ohhs! "I am not mad, I'm just disappointed" head shakes.)

I know. I know. I have broken the cardinal rule of blogging. I've heard that you should post an entry to your blog from anywhere between 3 times a day to once a week. To you I say, what's that like to be so anal?

I am back, kids. The Philly Wordsmith is back. And she is rarin' to sink her teeth into some Addy topics. Maybe even some writing topics. Maybe some website topics. Communication? It could be anything. Literally anything. Maybe tomorrow I'll be a florist. Point is, watch out.

Seriously, though. Sorry. The long absence won't happen again. Dry your tears. I've been working hard and writing articles for AdNews. No excuses, I know. I heart you.

Pandora - Post No Bills

The following is a bit of a whine so skip it unless you want your IQ to drop a couple.

We all like money. I like it. You like it. Don't lie. So I know that the very awesome Pandora music player also likes it. But, dammit, stop interrupting my music with Smelly Dove Body Wash ads. I'm done with it.

I am so in love with you, Pandora, and now all these ads started getting between us. You play awesome music and then all the sudden I am being told to smell better (peachy or kiwi-ish, no less.)

I know, I know nothing good comes for free, but what about our love, Pandora? Our mutual love of beautiful music. You even introduce me to new and beautiful music! Who thought life could be so sweet. I was raised on Napster -- when it was FREE -- and then was made to feel like a criminal when record companies started suing middle-schoolers for having too much ripped Metallica.

Isn't it enough that you have a little ad on the side? It doesn't interrupt anything and I see it there. I'll click it if I'm interested.

When all is said and done, I will still listen to you, though. If you haven't checked it out, yet, here ya go: http://pandora.com. Believe me, it's worth it. It's like being a really lazy radio DJ.

Letters To A Young Copywriter

Dear Susie,

I was pleased to receive your letter. I can see why you might be attracted to Copywriting and I will share with you how and why I got into the business.

First, I am passionate about language. Second, it is fun to use big words that your "normal" friends don't know. Saying words like "vicissitude" sends your normie friends into a fury because they feel dumber than you. Copywriters, as a rule, are superior to those around them. Remember that.

If you are not incredibly good looking, give up your dream now. I mean, model good-looking.

We tend to be deeper than most. Start feeling your feelings if you haven't already.

Now about this business of breaking into Copywriting. How do you do it? You fight. You knock on doors. No, kick down doors. You call up strangers. Be everywhere. Have "Eye Of The Tiger" playing in your mind always.

My final (and unoriginal - check out Writing Down The Bones) thought is this: when you get to second grade start telling people that's what you do. You write. You are a writer. Be a stubborn little bastard about it. That is what you do, that is your profession. They will doubt you, Susie. They will say, "Emily, stop robbing convenient stores..." Er, wait. They will say, "You're only 7 years old, you can't be a writer and here's why your short story sucks." Then you kick them in sweet spot and run. Run like lightning, grab your pen, and write like you got somethin' to prove.

I hope this helps, young one. Keep it real.

Yours In Pen,

Emily, the Philly Wordsmith

Letters To A Young Copywriter

In the true style of "Dear Abby," I bring you the following....

Dear Philly Wordsmith,

My name is Susie. I am 5 years old and I think I am your biggest fan. I also have blonde pig-tails. Aren't I adorable? Do you think wearing my hair in pig-tails will give me swine flu?

Anyhow, the reason I'm writing is because it is my dream to become a brilliant Web Copywriter like yourself. I also want to be as beautiful and talented on guitar as you are, but mostly a brilliant Copywriter. How do I do it?

With Cutie-Pieness,
Susie

Stay tuned for my response...

4 Points From "Breaking Boundaries"

Last night, I attended PRSSA's "Breaking Boundaries: The Revolution of Social Media." The event was a success. Thank you to panelists and moderator: @jerseycoach, @gloriabell, @blankbaby, @k8teshields, @podcaststeve, @conversationage, and @gloriabell. Here's what I learned.

1 - The principle of paying it forward. Thanks to Gloria and Moderator, Rick Alcantara, for bringing this up. The way to attract people in the virtual social world is the same as in the real world. Be kind, generous, and pass things along.

2 - Valeria Maltoni and Kate Shields brought up and emphasized the fact that people trust their peers more than they trust marketers. That fact probably explains why Social Networking sites are the most popular and visited sites. It also explains why a user-generated site like http://tripadvisor.com is visited more often than any other travel site.

3 - Panelist Steven Lubetkin reminded us that customers are actively looking for our product online. Social Networking makes it easy for marketers to tap into communities that already want our product.

4 - Right off the bat, Scott McNulty made the point that Social Media is two-way. Don't do just all listening or all talking. Do a bit of both.

How Facebook Has Made Me A Better Copywriter

When you write on your personal Facebook Wall it is like writing a personal headline for that day (or week, or minute.) Your friends seem to respond to some more than others. Ever notice that? So, I set out to see if there are some common themes in the Wall posts or "headlines" that get the most attention. Because if I can figure out which headlines cause people to take action by responding to my post, then that will help me figure out what headlines will cause customers to take action in general - which is the goal of copywriting.

Four common themes:

1 - Something sexy. Not too sexy because we don't want to get into T.M.I. territory here, but an interesting substory to my personal story is my romantic life.

2 - Things that make people jealous. I posted that I was going to the beach on a Monday and people really responded.

3 - Humorous things. This is probably #1. Any time I write something funny, I get sooo many responses. Either people saying a simple 'ha!' or people trying to be even funnier or add to the funny.

4 - Mention love for something others already know about. This includes bands, celebrities, coffee drinks, etc. If they also like that product (or if they hate it) they respond.

If you've noticed some common take action themes, please leave them as a comment. I'm sure there are many more!

Project H.O.M.E. Writing Group's First Meeting

Thanks to Richard, Julie, Shirley, Renee, and Troy for making our first meeting a great success.

We talked about what we wanted to do with the group. Then we did some writing exercises and shared our work. In the spirit of Joe Brainard, the first exercise was beginning each sentence with the phrase, "I remember." Then, for fun, we played with alliteration.

Unfortunately, due to the residents' schedule consistency will be a challenge, but I think we can meet it.

Anybody have any ideas for writing exercises we could use next time?

I think next week I'll post our writings and we will receive Julie's first submission for group feedback. So stay tuned!

Social Media Club Event in Philly: 3 Highlights

First of all, thanks @cecilyk and @gloriabell for putting on such a great event. Super informative and interactive and I love that it was an all-star babe panel. And check out a great recap of the event by @krisis at his website: Crushing Krisis.

Anywho, here's some stuff I learned.

1 - Thanks @BethHarte for this one: It's more than Return on Investment. It's sometimes immeasurable to see Returns on Engagement, Information, and Influence.

2 - Probably the #1 Reason why a client should invest in Social Media: Your competitors are already doing it or are about to. It's like back in the day when a client was perhaps weary of the new-fangled e-mail. 10 years ago, "Why do I need e-mail? Paper mail is just fine, thank you very much." Yikes.

3 - This comes from @oliviarabe: There's 3 things you should be doing when participating in a Social Media Network: Entertaining, Educating, and providing a Utility. It reminded me of the notion of "sharability" (not to be confused with Budweiser's "Drinkability.") I advise any company that is providing Social Content to ask themselves during the content creation process: "Would I want to share this with my friends?"

So, thanks Philly SMC for a great panel. Check out SMC's site here.

Four Insights From Philly Interactive Event

First of all, thanks Philadelphia Interactive Marketing Association (http://www.phillyinteractive.org/) for putting on such a fabulous and informative event called "Monetizing Video Online: Transforming Digital Pennies Into Dollars."

1. "Trust Your Agency." This pertinent quote and opinion was shared by two of the Panelists, Kevin McGurn from Hulu.com and Brendan Gallagher from Digitas Health. What they seemed to mean by this was that clients need to trust their advertising agencies to place ads and come up with a game plan to achieve the company's specific goals. The internet especially has a lot of under-researched possibilities and sometimes immeasurable ROIs. However, the medium has been around long enough that a good agency will know how to incorporate a New Media game plan as part of an over all campaign.

2. "Trained Viewer." This was an extremely interesting point made by all of the panelists. Regarding shows and movies, the consumer or viewer accepts and understands commercial interruptions. However, people are not willing to accept YouTube interruptions. Nor are they willing to accept having their internet content interrupted. The consumer gets "used to" or "trained" participating with content in a certain way particular to the medium. The trick is getting people to the point where they accept certain interruptive aspects of the internet and learning what their limits are.

3. "Capturing Lightning In A Bottle." This was the pet phrase for discussing utilizing YouTube to make clients money. I suppose agencies like to make promises that they can deliver. Obviously. But I refuse to believe monetizing YouTube is impossible and the charms are not as fleeting as every one seems to believe. Blendtec is the classic example. Susan Boyle is another. Let's get a true understanding of what makes a video truly viral or "sharable."

4. "Sharability." Not to be confused with Budweiser's "Drinkability." This is my new favorite word and will be applied to every thing I produce on the internet. The best quality of this word is that it focuses the content on the consumer. It forces the producer to ask herself, "if I am the viewer, will I share this with my friends or will I be bored out of my mind?" It forces creators to be a little more viewer-centric rather than company-centric.

Lessons From A Good Old-Fashioned Ad Man

As a relative newbie and fresh face in the Ad Universe, I felt I needed some guidance, strength and mentorship from a seasoned pro. For a while there I launched into New Media's Social Networks and how to communicate through those avenues. I was also reading a bunch of branding books and blogs and still do, but I needed to dip my toes into the classics.

My choice is none other than "Ogilvy On Advertising."

I've never read anything so beautiful and opinionated and brash and straight-forward. While there are so many striking lines and statements, my favorite has illuminated and verified my recent personal experience.

"If you will take my advice, don't get a job in advertising unless it interests you more than anything in the world."

Those words will rest in the bottom of my heart, Mr. Ogilvy.

Armed with pictures and littered with jokes, this classic will remain close to my pitter-patterin' heart. My eyes are bright and my tail bushy. I stand here on the cusp, Mr. Ogilvy, ready to make you proud. Now let's make some art that changes people.

Twitter University

Here's to those who made this @PhillyWordsmith what I am today.

Allow me to give a bit of background to my story. I was a bit of a late bloomer in my love for advertising and copywriting. I knew I wanted to be a writer with my English degree, but I wasn't sure how. I resigned myself to having to be broke ass. My last semester at college, on a whim and because it fit in my schedule, found me signing up for an Intro to Advertising course. I graduated and with English degree in hand and one Intro course under my belt, I actually feel further ahead than many of my peers who took four years to hone their craft.

Impossible you say? Nothing is impossible when you're looking to work in Advertising.

Here's the deal. I owe a large part of my knowledge and already found success to Twitter University.

I had to catch up and I had to learn at break neck speed how to be a successful copywriter in Advertising. On top of that, with the economy being where it was and the trend in news reports was encouraging everyone to throw themselves in front of a bus because they would never find work again, I had my work cut out for me.

My good friend and One Fine Philly told me to get on this little thing called Twitter. Almost immediately, Twitter became my Marketing and Advertising crash course. It was like all these professors would throw out head lines and I got to pick what was pertinent for me that day and what wasn't. It was like being in a University filled with a bunch of professors cracked out on Red Bull.

I had fantastic accessibility to those Twitter professors across the country as well. I got to talk with and ask questions to award-winning, successful authors who I would have NEVER met outside of Twitter U.

I continue to learn and grow every single day and I get to pass on what my Twitter teachers have passed on to me. It's a beautiful thing. So thanks Twitter teachers. Especially: @ingridwiese, @steveisphilly, @robbralow, @writingprof, @newtbarrett, @themarketingguy, @sunswept, @armano, @pgillin, @thegrok, @copyblogger, @juntajoe, and @sethgoldstein. I am sure I have forgotten some because there have been so many!

Hamsters Driving Cars

The Kia Soul - A New Way To Roll. This is the new campaign for the very new and very hip Kia Soul. --Watch ad here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYOX5eYcViw

A couple of personal experiences have happened around this commercial that I'd like to share.

One, I am in my room doing important and smart things (finding the cure for the common cold or something) and my friend out in the living room calls me to come and look at a commercial. She says, "Look. Look. Aww." The cute, furry animals got her. That got me thinking. Why would they use little hamsters? I get the other ones are just running on their wheels and such, but there's other ways to get the same message across without hamsters. I wonder if the sole purpose of the hamsters is because they're cute and furry. It worked on my friend enough to where she wanted to pass it along to me.

Two, a bunch of us are hanging out with my friend in the hospital. Same hamster commercial comes on. One guy, the only guy in the room, says that it's a commercial for a Scion. (Uh-Oh!) I say, no it's Kia. He insists that it's Scion. Eventually I convince him that it's a Kia and he says, "Yeah, they had trouble ripping off stuff before. They got sued for using someone else's distinctive headlights shape." Careful, Kia!

So, two things learned. One little commercial. Moral of story one: cute, furry things sell. Moral of story two: if you're selling a cool-people car, make sure it's unique and original.

A Twitterer's Open Letter To The @Oprah

Dear Oprah,

Hi there. Thanks for coming. How's life?

Listen, I heard about your foray into Twitterville. It is an exciting place so warmest welcomes. But, Rah, (can I call you Rah?) there's some things you should know.

First and foremost your avatar: I am quite proud of you for including a cute furry baby animal in your picture. I have chosen this same tactic and I believe if I hadn't I would have 2 followers. People love them some baby cuteness.

An analogy: Twitter really is like a little town. A town that is a little cracked-out and loves to talk. As in small towns, it is mostly friendly, but there is the occasional grump or the town drunk, but overall people really want to help. Also, keep in mind that if you actually visited a small town and in this small town people could communicate telepathically, you would be mobbed.

And so my theory. I believe your joining Twitter is all a ploy to show CNN and Ashton Kutcher that you can hit 2 million followers without batting an eyelash. You don't have to tweet one GD thing and people will come running to follow you. So show them, Rah. Show them who's really the Twitter King. Within 24 hours you had something like 600,000 followers. Show them who's boss. Tell them you'll race them to 5 billion Twitter Followers. My bet's on you.

- PhillyWordsmith

P.S. Holla if you want to give me a car or some prize or something: @PhillyWordsmith

Social Media's Most Obvious Necessity

I've read a lot about Social Media. There are basic features mentioned in each and every article about SM's fundamentals: honest, short, informative, and fun.

One, however, is so obvious we fail to mention it: consistency.

You could have the greatest, most honest, most funny posts, but if you only do them once a year you're virtually invisible. Now, do not sacrifice quality for quantity, but if you have one post on your blog then you are virtually invisible.

The other downfall of inconsistency is that you're unable to work out your SM muscle. Web 2.0 is an ever-evolving beast that takes quite a bit of effort, patience, and sharpness to keep up with. If you're not on top of your game, you simply won't be able to keep up with the pace. Many people don't know that MySpace is all but cooked for any one other than musicians. Anyone staying on top of trends knows this.

Think about it like this. In the real world, you wouldn't disappear for a week without telling any one. You wouldn't stop communicating with your friends and family. Hopefully anyway. You can't build worthwhile relationships without consistency both online and off.

A great example of consistency that I've seen is she-conomy.com. This writer posts often on her blog and Tweets about her great posts. They are fun, informative, and consistent. Keeps me coming back.

Erase Your Identities...

...to become one identity! I'm thinking of the future here people. Let's not compartmentalize. Integration is the key to success!

Think of it, one personality across all social frontiers: real life, blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, web page. Does this mean the end of a division between work and personal life?

I had the tendency to put connections into segments and not let them meet, mingle, or know each other. Why did I do this? Because I had sort of multiple identities. Like a chameleon. I do not recommend this. Gets confusing and it's hard to keep up. Of course, this requires being an upstanding citizen. Facebook revelations (to other friends and even employers) can ruin a reputation. FB really puts the "Deb" in Debauchery.

This all applies to brands and companies as well. Make sure you're behaving. Or we'll find out about it. Also, make sure your brand isn't a chameleon - audiences can't keep up and it will be exhausting for you.

An Entire Article About Being Nice

This has been my greatest secret weapon in business and it takes very little effort.

The amazing thing about being nice to people is that usually, no matter what, they feel like they have to be nice back. Or, at least cordial. What to do if it's not easy for you to be nice? Well, then fake it for crap's sake.

What happens when people enjoy being around you? They prefer to do business with you. I prefer doing business with people that are nice to me. I mean, that's just basic. Now, this is all not to say, hey, let's make everything free and easy baby. Ya know, eventually, momma's gotta get paid.

But it's way easier to give my money to a nice person than it is to give it to a d-bag.

Is TV and Print Really Only One-Way?

At the risk of sounding like a new media heretic, I have to refute the proposition that TV/Print is talking at the customer and that there is no interaction.

One of the bonuses, they say, of social media is the direct interaction and connection between consumers and businesses. This is true and innovations in this frontier are being created at a breakneck pace.

But wait a minute. In my experience, I absolutely interact with Print and TV advertisements. If done properly, every Print and TV ad is a story. Everyone has experience knowing what it's like to interact with a story.

I would have to argue that the connection between listener and teller of the story (even if teller is TV) is an intimate one. One where messages are sent and received. The message sent by the listener or reader is this: relating. Relating leads to action. If it's a fiction romantic piece maybe that action means crying. If it's a company's story I relate to then the action is buying.

Customers do have the power of response. When they see a TV Commercial, they either relate or they don't. If they do, they buy. If they don't, then the message goes unremembered and the two-way communication has failed.

The New Resume

In my new quest to become the best at everything and get jobs, I have had to take long hard looks at my resume. One thing I've discovered: it's gotta be online.

Recently, there was a book written by Dan Schawbel called "Me 2.0." I have recommended it to my former professors to pass along to students and even use themselves so they can stay abreast of the shifting sands. The days of hard copy resumes and portfolios is almost over.

Now, no one is recommending that you never leave the chair that sits at your desk, but it is becoming truer and truer that your online presence is just as important as your real world presence.

Right now, an online presence puts you ahead of the pack. In a few years, it will be expected. The bar will keep getting raised. It is up to you to keep up and have fun in the process.