1. Writing Persuasive Copy
2. Persuasive Copy, cont'd
3. Radio Ad Writing
4. Writing Visual Persuasion

Writing Persuasive Copy

Persuasive media writing is one of the most challenging forms of writing. The goal is to convince a target audience to do something. As we’ve discussed before, a target audience is a specified audience or demographic group for which media writers create a particular message; these are the people the writer or his/her client wants to persuade to do something. While all media writers are sensitive to targeting their messages, advertisers and marketing professionals have turned targeting and audience studies into an exalted art. Advertisers want a specific audience to buy a something, believe something, use a particular service, vote for a specific candidate, or behave in a certain way as a result of hearing or watching their message. 

We generally think of persuasive media writers as those involved in the fields of advertising and promotion. People involved in persuasive media writing might be employed by advertising agencies or by a firm that generates its own in-house advertising as part of a public relations department. A non-profit institution or foundation that has specific gorals for public education may also employ media writers to develop public service announcements and other persuasive messages. Television stations and cable systems that generate their own promotions or develop advertising for local clients also hire media writers in their creative services departments. Persuasive media writing not only comes in advertising and promotion, persuasive writing is the defining mode for editorials and public service. Any copy or script that wishes to change (or manage) public opinion and behavior is persuasive in nature. 

Because such a high percentage of persuasive writing comes in the form of promotion and advertising, I will be referring to the persuasive media writer as the copywriter and the scripts this person develops as copy. However, be aware that persuasive media might include talk shows, comedy routines, or even long form dramas if the primary intent of the script is to change or reinforce a certain audience behavior. As we have said earlier, it is often difficult to separate the intended functions of scripts, screenplays, and copy. News copy might seem persuasive without necessarily meaning to be. The same might be said of a Hollywood movie. However, in this unit, we will study advertising or promotional media and develop copy that has persuasion as a primary goal. We will be focused on spots that have the traditional lengths (generally 30 or 60 seconds). If you remember from unit two, one way to estimate the running time of your copy is to estimate by word count.  A ten second sport of a “dime” spot can hold between 20-25 words if the spot is “wall-to-wall” words. If you have moments of silence, music or sound effects in the spot, you must accommodate them with a smaller word count. (“Wall-to-wall” means there is a human voice speaking from the beginning to the end of the spot.) A thirty-second spot can hold between 70 to 80 words, “wall-to-wall.” A 60 second spot can accommodate between 135-145 words. There are other lengths for advertising, including a split 30, which is two fifteen second spots at the beginning and end of a commercial block. There are also blip-verts, very short one or two second spots, and infomercials, which can run for a half-hour and mimic a talk show devoted to a particular product. Persuasive spots include: commercial advertising, the public service announcement (PSA), a promo or promotional (promotions and movie trailers), and station ID (You are listening to W-U-A-G, one-oh-three-point-one, Greensboro).

The persuasive function of media writing very often relies heavily on the other two functions: informing and entertaining. In fact, one of the oldest and most widely used strategies of persuasion has as a fundamental assumption the idea that people must be informed in order to be persuaded. The Psychodynamic strategy --also called learn-feel-do strategy-- suggests that people must know something about a product or service in order to form an opinion about it, and they must form an opinion in order to act. For example, this theory suggests that a voter must first know something about a candidate and his or her platform and have formed an opinion about that before that voter will go to the polls and cast a ballot. Likewise, in order to buy a certain brand of toothpaste, a consumer might first want to know that it is effective in fighting tooth decay, whitens teeth, and is economical. According to the psychodynamic strategy, knowing this information about a product may determine whether or not a consumer will decide to buy that particular brand.

The socio-cultural strategy suggests that people may not need to go through the steps of learning and feeling in order to be persuaded toward a behavior. The socio-cultural strategy suggests that people will behave in a way that is determined by a culture or subculture. A person may even disagree or be negatively disposed toward a behavior, but if the culture endorses or values that behavior, then the individual will act according to that cultural path. For example, many women dislike high-heeled shoes and will complain that wearing high heels is uncomfortable. Yet, American culture suggests that this is the style of shoe a woman should wear when she “dresses up.” As one young woman suggested, “High heels hurt, but they make your legs look good and show that you understand fashion. I wouldn’t go to a wedding, a funeral, a fancy party, or an important business function without wearing high heels, even if they do kill my feet.” The same might be said of some men and neckties, though neckties won’t do damage to the neck in the same manner that high heels can damage feet. Still, a man might not enjoy wearing a necktie and have a negative attitude toward them but wear them anyway, if he believes an occasion culturally requires it. This strategy suggests that people will act in a way that is culturally expected. The socio-cultural strategy does not teach in order to create opinion, but suggests that the behavior a client wants is the behavior that is culturally approved.

A third strategy for persuasive writing is called “meaning construction.” This may sound like the copywriter is teaching audiences about his or her client’s product or service by producing meaning, but this is not actually what is happening. This strategy is not to teach, but to place a product or service in a new context in order to foster a favorable impression of the product. For example, seeing a happy young man driving a new car across a picturesque landscape does not tell you if the car gets good gas mileage, is easy to maintain, performs well, is comfortable, safe, or has good engine stamina. Audiences watching this scene will not learn anything about the car and its performance but they may develop a positive feeling toward the car just by seeing a happy young man driving this car across a beautiful landscape. The copywriter hopes audiences will construct a meaning for the car that associates beauty and happiness with its particular brand or model. That new “meaning” will ultimately persuade the audience to buy.

Very often copywriters will involve two or more strategies in the development of advertising or promotion. It is common to see meaning construction paired with psychodynamic strategies in order to put a product in a desirable context as well as teach consumers something about it.

As with other forms of media writing, there are several criteria that determine how to evaluate persuasive copy:

• All words should be spelled and used correctly. 
• Punctuation guides talent (actors and announcers) in the performance of a spot and is very important. 
• Sentences should not be excessively long or complex.
• The overall thrust of a spot should be clear and understandable.
• The spot should accomplish its purpose.
• The spot must meet specified requirements for length. A 46-second spot cannot air in a thirty-second time slot.

Targeted Audience and Attitude

Professional copywriters usually target spots to a specific audience group. Audiences can be targeted by demographics or psychographics. Demographics include such things as age, gender, race, income, education, marital status, and religious affiliation. Demographic trends make market needs for a group easy to forecast. For example, the increase in the birth rate during the baby boom years created an increase in the demand for baby food and diapers during the late 1940s and 1950s just as baby boomers have caused a demand for insurance, weight-loss products, health-care services, and retirement centers in more recent years. Knowing what certain groups of people want according to their demographics is an important part of marketing and advertising.  Very few advertisers target broad, general audiences. 

Psychographics is a term that describes consumers or audience members based on their psychological characteristics. These can include things such as habits, hobbies, and attitudes. For example, two photographers may be demographically very different from one another but might share the tendency to be visually oriented. In some ways sharing this avocation of photography might make the two people more alike than being the same age or from the same racial group.

Psychographics for Beginners -Audience Attitudinal Sets

1. The Affirmative audience is the “you betcha” audience, eager and prepared. With an affirmative audience all the writer needs to do is energize and activate. This audience member already has the desired opinion toward the client and is ready to perform the desired behavior; he or she just needs a gentle shove, a reminder. For example, a man or woman in the market for a new car who already has a good opinion of Ford cars would be an affirmative audience member for a Ford advertisement. As you might imagine, the affirmative audience member is rare.  The affirmative audience is the very smallest sliver of the audience pie.
2. The Dissident audience ---On the opposite end of the attitudinal scale from the affirmative audience is the dissident audience. This group doesn't like the copywriter’s client category or the client in particular. The dissident audience member is not in the market for a new car, believes cars in general are bad for people and the environment, and may have a negative opinion about Ford cars in particular. A copywriter will have to find a way to get through a negative attitudinal roadblock in order to engage this type of audience. Imagine the challenge of trying to get a staunch Republican to vote for a member of the Democratic party or trying to get a hard core “right to life” advocate to listen openly to a pro-choice argument and you may have some idea of the challenge of dealing with a dissident audience member. 
3. Skeptical audience--- More common than the two categories above, the skeptical audience member has a few doubts about the client or the client category that need resolution. This is the audience member that might be convinced with a well-crafted advertisement or promotion. For example, this audience member doesn’t hate Ford or cars in general and may even be interested in buying a new car but will need some good reasons to buy the Ford Escort your client may be trying to sell.
4. Apathetic audience –This is the largest group of the total audience. The apathetic audience member doesn't care much about the client or the client category. This audience member can only be persuaded if the copywriter can break through the wall of disinterest to capture this audience member’s attention and create some curiosity. Extremely hard to do.
   
   The apathetic audience is the largest piece of the audience pie.

Persuasion and Creativity

Creative people will put together unlikely combinations to make a point or draw attention. This is particularly true of copywriters. For example, American Tourister combined their rugged luggage with an angry gorilla to prove that if their luggage can withstand the abuse the gorilla can give it, the luggage can surely hold up to a surly baggage handler.

The writers for Trigon Blue Cross designed this spot for television, but the spot found its way to the Internet, where it is passed around because it is so cute.  What a tribute to its creators, its adorable talent, and the unlikely combination of a little boy talking about a movie he saw and health care.