I posted this on LinkedIn a while back, but I thought I’d post here too. Not because I couldn’t be bothered to write an original post [when have I ever done that?] but because I think it is actually valuable for anyone working in addend.
If you work in an ad agency – especially in the planning or strategy department – you’re going to have a time in the year, where you’re writing award submissions.
Effies.
Warc.
You name it, you’ll be writing it.
And while I often judge these awards, the purpose of this post is not so I have an easier time reading the countless submissions … it’s so you can see how to make your case more persuasive.
The basic rule is this.
When you’ve written your paper and think you’ve got it “just right” …
I want you to read this article and then start again.
Yes, it is a food review.
Yes, it’s from the Birmingham Mail newspaper.
And yes, it’s from someone who describes herself as ‘common as muck’.
But when you read it, you’ll learn what wonderful writing, proper insight, real appreciation of the role of creativity and actual honesty looks like.
It’s a magnificent article.
One filled with appreciation and wonder when it could so easily have been a judgemental hatchet job.
I was so taken by it, I even wrote to the journalist offering to pay for their meal … and I don’t even do that for my team.
[For the record, she replied and said she couldn’t accept it. So I asked for her charity of choice and made a donation under her name instead. It was this one if anyone else feels inclined]
So if a food review in the Birmingham Mail newspaper can do it, you can do it too.
I’ll be watching.
And judging.