Agencies Ask For More In Content Development

Let’s describe the Average Agency. A group of bright minds working in multiple industries, demanding all sorts of talent on tap, from organic/botanical design to urgent heavy metal inspirations, from insipid to inspired. Average agency works with a “stable” of writers and content development thinkers.

Notice the “work horse” mentality, the implication of drudgery. If you’re in the stable . . .

Content development as horse race?

I digress. The agency says they have a “stable” specializing in ad copy, web copy, annual reports—in other words, show horses, draft horses, horses that pace, trot and barrel race. (Yes, that’s you, content writers.) But agencies aren’t getting the same mileage from their development writers they used to.

Take Nona Carson, Vice President of Client Services at Cre8ive Partners, an agency working in the heartland of Huntsville, Alabama. She’s worked in creative services for almost 20 years, and when I asked this vivacious aristocrat of attention-getting services what it takes to win the horse race in 2010, she yielded up analogies short and sweet . . .

Words of wisdom for your content strategy

“Here’s the word for copy in 2010 . . . shrewd. Copywriters need to think like a fox and blend intelligence and craftiness with creativity and artfulness to create engaging content. Foxy copy is transparent. Tell the truth; keep it simple.

I’m a musician, so I’ll close with a music analogy. The notes (words) are the same. The instruments (channels) are changing. And your audience is not in the concert halls and venues they used to be in. They’re increasingly online—on facebook, twitter. Plus, they’re exposed to so much music (messages) every day that they’ve almost become desensitized to it. Sometimes all the notes run together and sound the same . . . a cacophony. The challenge is to make your music resonate.”

>>Next: The next decade of writing . . .

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