Rory Stobo writes:
Okay, cards on the table: Copy Cabana is my favourite industry gathering of the year. There’s this relentless focus on useful, relevant chat from some incredibly accomplished names in the business that keeps you hungry for the next presentation. Huge thanks and congratulations go to the inimitable Vikki Ross and the Andy Maslenfor pulling it all together.
What follows are my own personal highlights from the day’s proceedings, the talks from which I personally got the most knowledge, insight, or warm fuzzy feeling. This could easily become a dissertation on what each of the 13 speakers brought to the table, but I’d advise you to read around some other recap blogs like this and see for yourself what my fellow writers of copy took from the event.
Rise of the robots, by OgilvyOne
Glenn Sturgess and Peter Stephen, Head of Copy and Senior Copywriter respectively at OgilvyOne Business, gave a reassuring take on AI stealing copywriters’ jobs, which (I hate to break it to you) is absolutely going to happen. Probably within 10-15 years.
See, there are some areas where computers kick our human backsides. Critical analysis, impartiality, and tirelessness to name but a few. When it comes to creating and perfecting a formula for headlines which drive traffic, we’re going to find ourselves terminated before too long.
When you consider that 80p in your pound should be spent writing that headline, since 80% of people only read the headline of any given bit of copy, that’s a big potential saving when you get CopyBot 9000 to do it.
However, where humans still excel is in emotional, contextual creativity. We dream, machines do not. According to Glenn and Peter, copywriters of the future will be working in partnership with machines, not in competition. Our time will be freed up to spend 100% of that pound on compelling, useful body copy.
Alternatively, tomorrow’s copywriter could be more of a social anthropologist, a student of human nature, learning which algorithm best suits any given situation. Here, AI might as well stand for ‘augmented imagination.’ I’m okay with that. Besides, how crazy are we as a society when we’re actually worried about robots doing all the fiddly jobs?
The inside scoop on Ben & Jerry’s
Kerry Thorpe, Communications Lead at Ben & Jerry’s Europe, broke down how a brand’s personality can seep into everything they do. We’re not talking about tacky, fake corporate ‘storytelling’ either, anyone who’s been near a tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream will agree that these guys are doing it right.
They do it right because they’ve stuck to the mission statement laid out by their founders. Some brands struggle to imagine what image to project, B&J don’t have to, because their image is that of two real people, and they’re a couple of old hippies from Vermont.
The whole company is effectively split into three equal parts, and only one of them is concerned with counting the beans and keeping the lights on. Another focuses on positive social action, using their products to fight for amazing causes like equal marriage and environmental justice. The third, of course, focuses on making great ice cream, of which Kerry gave out two years’ supply, but unfortunately not to me.
Underpinning Kerry’s whole talk was the humility of this brand. It might amaze some marketing bigwigs to learn that coming across as authentic means actually being human. They embrace their failures, because sometimes a couple of old hippies might occasionally get things wrong. Who else would have an actual literal graveyard, headstones and all, for flavours which didn’t make the cut in the marketplace?
Interlude: Welcoming a new face
Roughly half way through the day, we were treated to a talk from Ben McKinney, who you might not have heard of yet, but hipsters that we are here at Sookio, we’re fans of him before he got big. Andy Maslen often comments that his window cleaner earns more than most copywriters, so picture his glee when Ben, a legit window cleaner, joined his copywriting course.
All the artsy-fartsy writers in the house were given a lesson in good business from Ben, as he talked us through his steps to transitioning into writing copy for a living, culminating in a huge ovation from the crowd as we welcomed our new brother into the fold. Without doubt, this was the feelgood moment of the event.
Read the rest of this post over on the Sookio blog.