Case Study: Ad Copy
Overview
The challenge was to tell a complicated story from a human perspective of how a highly complex engineering solution positively impacted an entire nation. The story needed to be as simple and concise as possible for an audience of C-suite professionals who might not have highly technical backgrounds.
| Request | Simplify and share a complicated success story |
| My Role | Writer |
| Timeline | 1 month |
| Results | Published in industry journals |
Process
- Take notes on an engineer’s 30-minute presentation to our company about this success
- Estimate final word count limit
- Write first draft
- Work with graphic designer to choose image
- Review first draft with team and receive feedback
- Revise draft based on feedback
- Request SME review
- Request final proofreading
My thinking behind the ad copy, broken down by section
Title copy
For resonance with the brand, I wanted to include at least one key word from our company’s mission statement: “Making electric power safer, more reliable, and more economical.” I emphasized the international nature of this success with the word “everywhere.”
First paragraph
The first paragraph needed to be as concise as possible while still telling a big story. I needed to emphasize that our products and solutions impacted an entire nation. I didn’t have real people to interview, so it was impossible to tell the story of an individual or family. Instead, I attempted to illustrate the human impact of this success by prompting the reader to imagine how inconvenient it was for Georgians to always wonder if their elevators would be working or if their food was properly refrigerated. I needed to mention that the solution wasn’t very expensive. And finally, I needed to briefly refer to the technical nature of the solution and the key benefit of providing system flexibility to power engineers.
Second paragraph
I mentioned “last summer” to emphasize how quickly our company was able to get the system up and running and to stop 20 years of rolling blackouts. I also wanted to emphasize how important reliable power is to everyone’s daily life.
Boilerplate
I changed the last line to include a link so we could track the ad’s effectiveness.
Joanna Hofer 