Hidden camera
Armin Reins submitted ads to his advertising colleagues for revisions
Armin Reins submitted ads to fellow advertisers for improvementBy Andreas Panzeri The recipe is simple: CD Armin Reins collected ads and asked colleagues for suggestions for improvement. What they didn't know was that two other advertisers were working on the same job. "Mörderfackel" is the name of the book in which 30 copywriters present arguments on how to make better advertising.
Reins, a freelance CD and member of the board of Texterschmiede Hamburg, is fed up with mediocrity in advertising. The freelance CD asked 30 colleagues to turn a boring ad into a captivating one. The first task was to reconstruct the briefing for the ad and, based on this, to create new proposals. The result was 30 examples in which you learn step by step "how to get away from average solutions".
At the same time, a new teaching tool has been created for the Hamburg copywriting school founded in 1998. There, in 110 days, you learn from the best advertisers in the German agency scene how good advertising is made. Every year, around 2000 people apply for a place on the course. 30 of them are accepted. Of the 90 or so lecturers, 42 are ADC members.
In his book, Reins also asked consultants how to sell such creative advertising to clients. Mörderfackel" is therefore also a textbook for clients who have to approve and evaluate texts. In short: a book "for anyone who needs arguments as to why they should take the risk of achieving real success with something new, different, something that has never been done before," writes Reins.
Interviews with copywriters provide information on the "state of the art"
For example, Matthias Schmidt, CD Text at Scholz & Friends, Berlin, cleans up an ad for frozen chicken fillets from Iglo. Schmidt goes back to the basic idea and develops a main message from it: if frozen food is to be sold as a trendy lifestyle product for young singles, the ad must also be designed graphically differently from a cheap product advertisement for well-behaved mothers.
Marcel Loko from the Zum goldenen Hirschen agency argued in the same advertisement that the reader only gets three seconds for such a chicken ad. "Make something of it!", he said to himself and dispensed with all of the insert texts. He just wrote "This is how people eat today" and depicted a group of young people lying on a bed, probably feeling their hunger in the near future.
Erik Heitmann, Executive CD at DDB Berlin, ultimately only shows the Iglo fork, distorted with the blind symbol. The text for the "cooking blind" says: "There is help: 0800-IGLO".
In addition to their suggestions for improvement and the illustration of the newly designed ad, the copywriters' work is also supplemented with detailed interviews. Reins put the copywriters on the spot and wanted to know from them, among other things: "What advice would you give to a copywriter who wants to improve?" or "Do you have a technique for approaching a problem?"
The answers from the copywriters were correspondingly varied and often surprising, as they revealed a lot of personal information about themselves and their relationship to the profession during these interviews. Some of the featured copywriters also show and discuss their favorite ads or other works that have significantly influenced them in finding their style.
As editor, Reins himself gave extensive consideration to built-in read-away barriers, for example: How do you get the reader of an advertisement to read a text to the end? One insight: "If a copywriter doesn't enjoy writing for a product, no one will enjoy reading it later." Another rule in the book is: "Think about what others are doing in a certain category and do the exact opposite." On the "Be a killer torch" tip, Reins suggests, "Never write an ad that a competitor could make." For headlines, he looks for keywords that "automatically compel the reader to read". And the second-best headline should never be thrown away because it is still "good for copy". In general, the text professional advises that you should put a "So what?" after every headline. "Only really strong headlines stand up to this test. And: a headline that needs a subheadline still needs a little work."
Reins is convinced that 90 percent of all bad ads have one thing in common: They are written from the perspective of the manufacturer. That's why he calls for a change of perspective. The copywriting guru can come up with ideas along the lines of: "How do I describe a pan from the perspective of a fish stick?"
Here is a tip from Burkhart von Scheven, Managing Director of Jung von Matt on the Spree, on the most important role models for advertisers: "Mickey Mouse is just as good a school as Günter Grass," he says. Another important insight comes from Andreas Grabarz from Grabarz & Partner: "Wordplay cannot replace an idea." And another of the 30 copywriters says: "Once you've got your copy to the point where you're really happy, cut it by a third." Finally, the ultimate demand is that someone who writes about "letting your soul dangle" for the thousandth time in a travel brochure should no longer call themselves a copywriter in future. "Copywriting is a game. Like football. You learn it on the street," says Veronika Classen from D'Arcy in Hamburg in a longer text about the art of copywriting.
By the way: in southern Germany, a girl who turns men's heads by the dozen is called a murderer's torch. The killer torch knows from birth how to advertise properly: If you don't stand out, you'll be overlooked.
Armin Reins, Die Mörderfackel, Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz, ISBN 3-87439-607-X
Reins, a freelance CD and member of the board of Texterschmiede Hamburg, is fed up with mediocrity in advertising. The freelance CD asked 30 colleagues to turn a boring ad into a captivating one. The first task was to reconstruct the briefing for the ad and, based on this, to create new proposals. The result was 30 examples in which you learn step by step "how to get away from average solutions".
At the same time, a new teaching tool has been created for the Hamburg copywriting school founded in 1998. There, in 110 days, you learn from the best advertisers in the German agency scene how good advertising is made. Every year, around 2000 people apply for a place on the course. 30 of them are accepted. Of the 90 or so lecturers, 42 are ADC members.
In his book, Reins also asked consultants how to sell such creative advertising to clients. Mörderfackel" is therefore also a textbook for clients who have to approve and evaluate texts. In short: a book "for anyone who needs arguments as to why they should take the risk of achieving real success with something new, different, something that has never been done before," writes Reins.
Interviews with copywriters provide information on the "state of the art"
For example, Matthias Schmidt, CD Text at Scholz & Friends, Berlin, cleans up an ad for frozen chicken fillets from Iglo. Schmidt goes back to the basic idea and develops a main message from it: if frozen food is to be sold as a trendy lifestyle product for young singles, the ad must also be designed graphically differently from a cheap product advertisement for well-behaved mothers.
Marcel Loko from the Zum goldenen Hirschen agency argued in the same advertisement that the reader only gets three seconds for such a chicken ad. "Make something of it!", he said to himself and dispensed with all of the insert texts. He just wrote "This is how people eat today" and depicted a group of young people lying on a bed, probably feeling their hunger in the near future.
Erik Heitmann, Executive CD at DDB Berlin, ultimately only shows the Iglo fork, distorted with the blind symbol. The text for the "cooking blind" says: "There is help: 0800-IGLO".
In addition to their suggestions for improvement and the illustration of the newly designed ad, the copywriters' work is also supplemented with detailed interviews. Reins put the copywriters on the spot and wanted to know from them, among other things: "What advice would you give to a copywriter who wants to improve?" or "Do you have a technique for approaching a problem?"
The answers from the copywriters were correspondingly varied and often surprising, as they revealed a lot of personal information about themselves and their relationship to the profession during these interviews. Some of the featured copywriters also show and discuss their favorite ads or other works that have significantly influenced them in finding their style.
As editor, Reins himself gave extensive consideration to built-in read-away barriers, for example: How do you get the reader of an advertisement to read a text to the end? One insight: "If a copywriter doesn't enjoy writing for a product, no one will enjoy reading it later." Another rule in the book is: "Think about what others are doing in a certain category and do the exact opposite." On the "Be a killer torch" tip, Reins suggests, "Never write an ad that a competitor could make." For headlines, he looks for keywords that "automatically compel the reader to read". And the second-best headline should never be thrown away because it is still "good for copy". In general, the text professional advises that you should put a "So what?" after every headline. "Only really strong headlines stand up to this test. And: a headline that needs a subheadline still needs a little work."
Reins is convinced that 90 percent of all bad ads have one thing in common: They are written from the perspective of the manufacturer. That's why he calls for a change of perspective. The copywriting guru can come up with ideas along the lines of: "How do I describe a pan from the perspective of a fish stick?"
Here is a tip from Burkhart von Scheven, Managing Director of Jung von Matt on the Spree, on the most important role models for advertisers: "Mickey Mouse is just as good a school as Günter Grass," he says. Another important insight comes from Andreas Grabarz from Grabarz & Partner: "Wordplay cannot replace an idea." And another of the 30 copywriters says: "Once you've got your copy to the point where you're really happy, cut it by a third." Finally, the ultimate demand is that someone who writes about "letting your soul dangle" for the thousandth time in a travel brochure should no longer call themselves a copywriter in future. "Copywriting is a game. Like football. You learn it on the street," says Veronika Classen from D'Arcy in Hamburg in a longer text about the art of copywriting.
By the way: in southern Germany, a girl who turns men's heads by the dozen is called a murderer's torch. The killer torch knows from birth how to advertise properly: If you don't stand out, you'll be overlooked.
Armin Reins, Die Mörderfackel, Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz, ISBN 3-87439-607-X
