Christmas is around the corner and the New Year won’t be far behind – so let’s take a look at how the world of copywriting could change in 2014. Our four inventive predictions are:
Nibble-size copy. Vine’s six-second masterpieces and the unstoppable rise of Twitter have shown that super short content is still in demand. So why stop at bite-size? ‘Nibble-size’ could become the new way to be succinct and get to the heart of what consumers want. Essentially, most copywriting carries the same short, sharp message: ‘Buy this.’
Ambient ads in essay format. Going completely the other way, we might well see ads on public transport taking a much longer, more engaging narrative route. Long copy works well when your audience is stood in front of it for 10 minutes or more, so giving them something genuinely interesting to look at may pay off.
Real-time reactions. Let’s say you’re browsing on a website. Something’s caught your eye… but maybe later. Suddenly, there’s a message from the site in your inbox. ‘We saw you were looking at this …’ It knows! The ability to send tailored content to consumers in real time based on their purchase behaviour is a vital advantage. Making the conversation relevant and personal down to a one-to-one level inspires confidence and trust that a brand genuinely understands its audience.
Instant connections on a personal level. E-newsletters already come with your name on, and retail websites cheerily greet you when you’ve signed in. But what if the next site you visited said ‘Hi there, name!’ without prompting? The new generation of smartphones permanently logged in to social media can send data you choose to make public to these sites. Savvy marketers and copywriters could start to put content in place that talks to you as if it REALLY knows you.
Do you think we’re on to something – or are these ideas a little too far out for the next 12 months? Let us know what you think.
Our copywriting predictions for 2014
