SF Design Week presentation by Gold Front's copywriters, Ray and Evan

2. We writers, the ones who work in marketing—making websites, TV spots, little videos, social media ads, drafting strategies.
Part of our purpose is to sell products. Yet deep down we also want to be Bukowski, or Toni Morrison or Aaron Sorkin. So,
we’re a little conflicted.
And I guess the way we feel is often we’re the ones saying to our clients, don’t do it just for the sales, do it because you
believe it and it’s good, and the sales will follow.

3. In other words: build your success on the truth. Build your success on your humanity.
Yes you, dear company, dear corporation, you have humanity.

4. We writers, at least those of us here at Gold Front, we're interested in your collective humanity.
When we speak from our soul and tell it like it is. When we say it the way we say it, not like anybody else. Sure, Nike is
hugely successful, and awesome.

5. But the world needs Asics. The world would suck without Asics, just doing their Asics thing.
And the thing that is so ironic about all of this soul-talk, is that it also happens to be a very, very good way for any company
to make a great deal of money.

6. Because people respond, universally, to the real thing.

7. So that’s what I have to say. I’d like to introduce Evan and Ray, who have crafted 7 principles for getting the best work
possible out of writers. Plus a lightning round of 47 little ideas.

8. Hi everyone. We’re writers at Gold Front. It’s funny to be talking here, tonight, about copywriting and advertising. I grew up
hating advertising.

9. To me, advertising was something kinda like this. Check out that family… a bunch of models did a photo shoot. I don’t
know. It just wasn’t working for me. What I wanted was something a little more real. To be treated like a person.
Somewhere along the way I realized that there was a great need here. Not just me, but everybody is hungry for, you know,
the truth, to be treated like a sentient human being, that sort of thing.
What if these big companies, and little ones, spoke to my humanity, my desire for no bullshit, maybe entertained me, or
made me laugh, cry, something…
Eventually I found my way to Gold Front and learned, hey, there are others just like me.

10. This talk is called the Care and Feeding of Writers. We’re going to bring our perspective, as copywriters, tonight. And we’re
going to give you 7 Principles that in our experience work well, for getting better work out of writers. We’ll also tell you what
to do if, for whatever reason, you want to brutally and violently kill good work.

11. As we were getting this presentation ready, I ran across this image. And I thought, Hey, that’s kind of what if feels like to be a
writer. The hurt foot is your vulnerability. Maybe you don’t always feel so powerful.

12. Our theory is, every single writer, in our teens or early twenties wants to be Charles Bukowski. Or Toni Morrison, or Aaron
Sorkin. And every time we sit down to write, we’re not them. It really sucks.
And now we’re writing your web copy. It can be a dark place to be.

13. But it gets better. The way we see it, if you’re good at what you do, as a writer, it’s because somewhere along the line you
stopped trying to be someone else, and dropped into, well, fuck it: This is me. You have something unique, and special, that
only you have. Your voice. It can be hard to dig into that, because it’s scary, or you’re ashamed. You’ll never be Bukowski.
But here’s the thing. Bukowski will never be you.

14. Because, he’s dead.
Yes, but it’s more than that. When you lean into the you-ness of your writing, other people will connect with it because they’ll
realize they’re not alone in the world. When you can be you, it’s like a switch is turned on. We don’t know why this works,
but once we writers find our own unique voice, it is suddenly way easier to write that web copy, or TV spot, or VR space
opera. It just works.

15. We want to share 7 Principles with you. These are the principles that we work by. They should give you a sense of where
we’re coming from. So you can work with us, and get the most out of us, no matter what project you’re working on.

16. Great communications, like great art, should change minds.
Brands face all kinds of problems. Maybe you’re not seen as the leader in your category. Maybe you want to be seen as
sexy, but you’re in the brand friendzone. Or maybe you just haven’t launched yet and people don’t know who you are.

17. Your are trying to change minds. We say minds, not behavior, because it’s really hard to do work that is good when you’re
thinking “How can I make people buy?” We want to think about, how can we inspire people, what is this product or service
good for, how can it fit into people’s lives in an awesome way? And if we can see that awesomeness, but our audience has
no idea, then we have a mind-changing problem on our hands.
When you come to us writers, be sure to talk about not just the behavior or effect you’re looking for, but also, how you want
to change the audience’s mind.

18. When you sit down with a writer to talk about a new project, do whatever you have to do to have an honest conversation.
Sounds simple, right? Well, sometimes it’s actually weirdly hard. People get into meetings, and they waste time. They mis-
spend our precious energy, by saying what they think they should be saying instead of saying what actually needs to be
said.

19. If you get into a kickoff meeting, and you are in a room with 8 people and everyone’s got their laptop open and there’s a
bunch of corporate speak going on—you should probably leave. Because nothing good is going to get done, and deep
down inside, nobody wants to work that way.

20. Now, that doesn’t mean writers work alone, in a vacuum. Quite the opposite. Whoever you are—designer, producer or CEO
—you should think about it as being on the same team as that writer, and you are fighting against the machine of
bureaucracy to talk honestly.
Don’t tell us your product is the best in the category when it’s not. It might be great at one thing and not so great at
everything else, and we need to know so we can zero in on the good stuff.

21. As writers, we move fluidly from drama to pure information. If it's a website, we owe our audience information. If it’s a TV
commercial, we owe them entertainment. We always try to understand this context to craft a message that’s appropriate to
the task at hand.
People will often ask us to write something but they leave out the specifics of context. What exactly does the media look
like, what is the audience doing in their day, have they chosen to come to you, for example, they are on your website, or are
you interrupting their day, like a commercial. Do you owe them a moment of delight…or information?

22. In our experience, there’s a limit to what testing your message can do for you, especially if it doesn’t begin with great ideas
in the first place.
Data is useful. The problem that we see so often is that people have their process backwards. We have had clients come
saying “We wrote some lines. And it’s not like they are amazing or anything, but we’ve got a ton of data on what worked
better and what didn’t work so well”. And our response is basically, “Yeah but these lines are bad.”

23. We’re not opposed to A/B testing. But the way we work is we will take the time to get like 15 great headlines that we LOVE,
for our client to start with, and testing is way, way more useful that way.
I could write any number of headlines that would get massive open and clickthrough rates that would be AWFUL for your
brand. So I took the time to compile some here:

25. This tested really well among recently single men, aged 22-35, that have ex-girlfriends who say weird things when they are
drunk.

26. You’d have to be a monster not to open that email.

27. This subject line had an 80% open rate among college educated women who are currently watching Law&Order SVU.
Did I mention we don’t hate data? Not even averse to it. I think writers sometimes, and we are guilty of this, bristle a little bit
because if you start with data, rather than trying to test good work, it can handcuff the creative, and make it feel processed
rather than organic or human. And that can be frustrating and even a little depressing for us.

28. Something we really like is when a client comes to us with problems, big problems that they are trying to solve. Things that
people hate about the space they are in, limitations of their product.
Our angle is to take these problems as a jumping off point, and offer up solutions in the form of tension. Tension is so
important, a we seek it out at every step. It could be cultural tension. It could be tension between two ideas. It could be
dramatic tension as story driver.
Without tension, you’re screwed.

29. No good headline exists without tension. This is a headline that we used for a product called Tact, which is an app that
deals that humanizes CRM for salespeople.
The tension here plays on the difference between humans as numbers in your phone, and humans as people.

30. This is a picture of Robert McKee, who wrote a book on the story form, specifically about screenwriting. We really love it. All
stories are made on conflict. And that conflict almost always involves a person who wants something, and something
stands in the way. If you’re going to tell a story about a product or brand, there needs to be some amount of story tension.
And the great thing is, your brand can be the hero that resolves the dramatic tension.

31. Plum Organics is a company whose mission is to feed the best food possible to the most important people in the world:
babies. So where’s the tension? Well, it’s hard to get kids to eat healthy. But they don’t have a choice because they’re
babies.

32. Hyatt Regency announced. We really like this line.
Many hotels out there will try to tell you, “Our hotel is just like being at home.” Yeah right. So what works about this line is
that it speaks the truth in a way that’s surprising. “It’s good not to be home.”

33. This is a comedic piece we wrote and published on Medium.

39. We’re playing with the tension between how big companies try to come off to the public—in Lays’ case, sort of your potato-
based BFF—and how their executives really think and behave behind closed doors. How does that guy talk to google when
he thinks no one is looking?
As writers, behind the scenes we’re asking, where is the tension, so we can heighten and use it.

40. Imagine a table with 6 people around it. It’s a project kickoff, let’s say you’re working on a creative brief, and everyone is
very nice. But if you don’t say what you’re actually thinking, and people keep agreeing with each other, you’re not going to
have a high quality brief.

41. You are going to have this. It’s what happens when people say “Yes” too much.
We feel strongly that, as a brand, you cannot be all things to all people. You can’t even be two things to one person. The
products you offer may indeed be nuanced and have various features and benefits for various people. You may wish you
can do everything for everyone. But that is death to your brand.

42. A classic example: Volvo stands for Safety. It doesn’t stand for Safety, plus actually it’s really sexy and adventurous—and it’s
sporty. If Volve says they’re something they’re not, they will always lose, because their winning proposition is that they’re the
safest vehicle in the world.

43. The same thing is true for a website homepage. We operate under the rule that there should be one main idea. One story to
tell. Getting smaller, if you have feature panels, the unit of measurement for a feature is your product doing one thing. People
are scanning, not reading, so do them a favor and make it easy to digest.

44. For example, the one idea about the Apple Watch is that it’s Apple’s most personal device ever. They start with “You. At a
glance” and follow it through the whole webpage. It’s your notifications. Your biometrics. And with customization, it’s your
style, right on your wrist.

45. Last but not least, It’s so important that you be direct with your feedback. You don’t want to get into a dance with a writer’s
ego. Beating around the bush doesn’t just mean we don’t know where to go next. It’s also just feels bad.
What’s much better for us, is the truth. If a part is bad, just tell us. On that first round of work, maybe there are some lines
you truly hate. That’s OK. You should be telling us what’s wrong, what’s right and which direction you want to go.
We’ll go back to the blank page. Generate new ideas. Take the stuff we’ve got and improve it. We’ll make it better.

46. Those are our 7 Principles, for the care and feeding of writers. These are the 7 most important things you should be thinking
about, when trying to exploit your writers, and get the best work possible out of them.
This is how you build brands that are more human. It’s a way of working that’s more humane.

47. Now, we want to switch things up. Instead of talking about what you should be doing working with writers, we’re going to
give you our thoughts for if you ARE a writer. It’s gonna be a lightning round. It’s all about value— tips per minute. Let’s do it.

53. You’ll know what we mean when you need to go there.

54. This is a practice we developed in college, and has kind of evolved as we’ve become adults.

59. The reason being: if you tell people about your idea, you are spending spending psychological energy. Your brain counts it
as a win. But you have nothing to show for it.

60. Always ask yourself this question.

61. …Maybe to the shed.

63. This is very real, and a very hard won lesson.

66. You are setting yourself up for a bad time if you do.

80. Don’t get distracted.

82. Totally disagree with this one
Point is, take notes, transcribe them. Remember them.

84. Always.

85. Ray.

88. Does this one make sense? Writing…is not the same as drinking.

91. And my skin is beautiful!

92. Don’t use it. Just get it out and think about it.

93. But we know better than to try and flatter you guys.

94. Just feel it, you know? FEEL IT.

95. A thought to close with. Josh and Evan tried to make me take this out at the last minute, but I would be remiss if I didn’t
take this opportunity, speaking in front of you all, to tell you something really important. Sentences actually can end in
prepositions. They just can. To those of you who believe you can’t, my question is simple: “What are you talking about?”
This is a grammar rule for Latin, which is a dead language. But English is alive, and in English sometimes the natural flow of
a sentence ends with a preposition.
Conforming to made up rules that I cannot, and will not, put up with.
I’ve got a closing thought, too. If your writer isn’t doing the things we’ve been talking about, you should probably fire them.

96. In other news, we’re available. You can hire us. Or you can just get in touch and say hello if you’re a writer, or you’re just
interested in this kind of thing. We’re here. Please get in touch. It wouldn’t be weird. Unless you make it weird.

97. And, as we’ve written at our website…

98. And with that, thank you, sincerely, for your time.