Proper Advertising Strategy for Your Next Brand Campaign
Employing the Art of Fine Writing to Advertising Copywriting
Crafty Campaigns for Your Favourite Advertising Platforms
While the expense of hiring a global advertising agency feels out of your reach right now, at what stage will you feel ready to give your business the juice of a creative ad campaign?
If your digital, printing or video production spend is already climbing towards five-figures, consider fueling that vehicle with creative strategy, concocted in the lab especially for your brand’s viral spread.
Inspired by legends of advertising like David Ogilvy, Howie Cohen and Caroline Jones, in 2022 we launched our Advertising Copywriting Branch, offering (anything but) traditional creative strategy for your upcoming campaign
Ambient Ad - Iron Boy Wish
Make-A-Wish Australia asked for a script to shape their ‘Iron Boy’ Wish around predetermined partners and iconic Sydney locations. The challenge was to create a story framework successfully integrating scripted content – including two speeches by then NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione – with scenes that held space for improvisation by talent, volunteers and a live crowd.
Watch the action…
When You Need...
Outdoor Ad
Michael Jordan 1 : Isaac Newtown 0 - Billboard for Nike UK Ltd (1993) - Art Director Andy McKay - Copywriter Tim Riley
Good ideas have the power to surprise, make us laugh, sell the product and inspire change in the world. There is so much visual pollution out there, truly great work stands out. The wit and style of a creative billboard campaign can blast the vibe of your brand in a split second to a stream of traffic.
Newspaper & Magazine Ad
Music drives you - Print Ad for Oceano FM (2021) - Art Director Felipe Garat - Copywriter Rodrigo Gastan
Newspaper and magazine ads offer exposure to a target reading audience. Presenting a straight image with a bent headline, or a bent image with a straight headline, the juxtaposition grabs our attention within a crowded page.
TVC
You’re not you when you’re hungry – TVC for Snickers (2010) – Art Director Gianfranco Arena – Copywriter Peter Kain
The medium where we get to see and hear it happen gives us exponential possibilities to share our style and voice. Safe is boring. If you’re not scared or nervous your idea probably won’t end up being great.
Radio Ad
Good Different – Radio Ad for Aldi (2018) – Art Directors Jack Robertson, Jane Tjokrowidjaja – Copywriters Millicent Malcolm, Lisa Down, Emily Field, Rob Boddington
Effective radio ads are single-minded, aspiring to be both relevant and clever. Keep it simple and allow the theatre of the mind to take place. Which is a brilliant space to design within, as the budget is practically unlimited.
Ambient Ad
Grave of Thrones – Ambient Ad for Foxtel’s Game of Thrones (2019) – Senior Creatives Tim Woolford, Tommy Cehak – Designer Ramon Rodriguez
AKA Non-Traditional Ads, Ambient Ads appear beyond traditional advertising platforms, to weave a brand experience into the fabric of an everyday environment. It's like hijacking a common experience - like a walk through Centennial Park - and instead, offer something completely arresting that attempts to capture the imagination of the media.
Digital Ad
Swipe Night – Digital Campaign for Tinder (2021) – Senior Designer Marcus Yuen – Senior Copywriter Reilly Baker
As we spend our time on our mobile and tablet more than ever, here is where we push the boundaries of how that time is spent. Overlapping between our consumer behaviour, and our behaviour on the device, there's a space that can be subverted for an utterly unique use.
Direct Ad
Domino’s Wedding Registry – Direct Campaign for Domino’s (2017) – Art Director Mackenzie Gire – Copywriter Mariangela McMurray
Placing the focus on a consumer action, this technique will propose a known way of doing something, then twist the application into a fresh and inventive direction. It can drive consumption while using a splash of genius to increase brand awareness and allegiance through the duration of the campaign.
AWARD SCHOOL
10 WEEKS
10 Briefs
10 Brands
10 Ad Platforms
FLASHBACK: AWARD SCHOOL 2020
By Nicholas Ambrose
By 2019 I had grown the Real Estate Copywriting Branch into a healthy shape and I started thinking about advertising. The challenge of AWARD School excited me. It’s a merit-based application – I tend to make an impression – and I was willing to press pause on creative side-projects to dedicate six-months of my personal time to the course.
At an in-person info session, it was clear I was the oldest applicant in the hall of twenty and thirty-somethings. Which was fine by me. I had experience managing a team as a younger man, and being a team-player as a not-so-younger one.
At the end of 2019, the pleasure of being accepted was fastly and furiously followed by intrigue, when life on the planet took that now infamous plot-twist, and we learnt that the course would be run online. Which was unfortunate – no chance to mingle at lectures, and no chance to attend those legendary in-agency tutorials.
Well, we got through it as best we could, working our nine-to-fives during the day – fortunately, I kept employing myself during Sydney lockdown 1.0 – and cruising through the Monday lectures, Thursday tutorials, and nights of brainstorming in between.
When I logged into the portal to see the results, I had to look up my password – ‘onthewall’. My bad – I should have made it ‘topthree.’
The concept of me pressing pause on my business for an agency internship doesn’t fit with my life plan right now. When I meet my renegade Art Director, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, this wordsmith has honed his craft with some advertising briefs with global brands, and is ready to help shape yours.
“Nick! Two things on the wall! Amazing! So chuffed for you. That's fantastic!”
- Fee Millist, Creative Director Che Proximity, one of Nicholas' tutors during AWARD School 2020
Work from Award School
Advertising Copywriting Launching You in a New Space