bryce c writing

> After eight thousand or so radio and TVC scripts, I still see the same problems with tone and word count - many writers treat the 30 seconds as a goal (or 15, or 60, etc), and try to fill it up with as much as possible.

> Audiences have gotten really good at ignoring ads, and to cut through you need something visually and/or auditorily interesting. Any salesperson will tell you a conversation is the best way to land a customer, and I've been telling clients for years that conversational tone is king.

> Less is definitely more in advertising, and giving your voiceover space to breathe - literally - helps to create a more human-sounding tone. This is especially important with the proliferation of AI, as 'perfection' is getting perceived as 'generated'.

> Creating genuine, real content is vital for keeping your audience interested and engaged, and above all maintaining trust - in the same way that spelling or grammar mistakes can break trust, so can reliance on AI.

> So then, how do you avoid a script being too wordy or too rushed or too... inhuman? Picturing reading your script aloud to someone, or even doing exactly that, can get you thinking about how it'll sound to your listener. For more abstract concepts, give yourself plenty of space for sfx and breathing room; a 30s script with 17s of actual reading can create a much more measured, natural pacing during the recording session.

> Time is the most valueable commodity in advertising, whether it's the time spent doing the work, or the time allotted for the ad spot. You don't need a script to read like a sales pitch for it to be effective. Don't just lean on visuals; audio as a medium gives you a lot of freedom to be creative. Cull some words, add some atmosphere, and give your audience something they'll want to pay attention to.

> More on that later...

> Estimates suggest we may be seeing up to 10,000 ads a day, but as little as dozens may actually be registering... so how do you make sure you're part of that little club?

> No one can truly work advertising magic, but you can tick a few boxes and use creative fine touches to make sure your audience stays locked in. That means taking a little time to make sure what you're putting out into the world is worth absorbing, not just spamming A/B testing and hoping for the best.

> + See what your competitors are doing before you start.

> + Can you add humour to balance information?

> + How important is selling something vs being memorable?

> + If you came across your ad, would you pay attention?

> + Is your concept possible with the time and medium, or can you find a more efficient option?

> Over the years, I've worked with a huge number of advertising professionals, and there's no meticulous planning for psychological manipulation when creating a campaign. Front and centre to a good campaign is creativity, which is where you should start and finish.

> The specifics of distribution channels and reach stats are vital, but it's important to start with a creative idea and then cirle back at the end to make sure you actually followed through with it. I've seen many campaigns end up in a very dry and bland place after multiple rounds of revisions, only for a client to ask 'but why didn't it work then?'

> Audiences aren't silly, and they can see through what you're doing no matter how clever you are about it. The trick is to make it entertaining and/or useful for them, not just expect your ad to work simply because you 'did the right things'.

> The legendary David Ogilvy had many great quotes, so it's hard to narrow it down, but keep these in mind before you churn out new ideas;

> - 'Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.'

> - 'Write the way you talk. Naturally.'

> - 'Where people aren’t having any fun, they seldom produce good work.'