Pop Art Blog

It's time for copywriters to evolve and embrace search engine optimization. And not just re-writing headlines, but owning the search-optimized content creation process from start to finish. The only reason writers and editors haven't been responsible for SEO in the past for interactive agencies is because SEO firms (and interactive firms) position it as some mystic science. "Meta keyword this" and "<h1> tags that." It's not mystic. SEO is simply another function... Read More...

Great book(s) review from the New Yorker about why consumers make stupid decisions . There’s a lot of “duh” statements in here — Consumers are effort-averse ? Really? — but stated in a researched, academic way. A few Halloweens ago, Ariely laid in a supply of Hershey’s Kisses and two kinds of Snickers—regular two-ounce bars and one-ounce miniatures. When the first children came to his door, he handed each of them three Kisses, then offered to make a deal. If they wanted to, the kids could trade one... Read More...

When I write, I use em dashes. A lot. At one point in my career, my creative director returned an article to me in which I'd used an em dash in EVERY SINGLE PARAGRAPH of a 700-word article. Clearly, I had a problem. Em dashes (or the long dash, like this: — ) are remarkable little devices that allow you to stop the flow of a sentence and redirect it elsewhere.They also can let you set off a thought in the middle of a sentence, not unlike how you'd use parentheses. Only, with an em dash, it's... Read More...

"Hey, we've got this comp due to the client in 30 minutes. Think you could knock out a headline for us?" (If you found this funny, you're a total ad nerd .) Read More...

Probably one of the best things clients get from typical brand pyramid exercises is the "who would your brand be?" But how do you use that information for copywriting? One of our interns this summer loved theater, and she simplified it well: Branding means writing in character. I love this copywriting short-hand because our culture's weird fascination with celebrity makes it easy for writers and clients to mimic a person in the culture, and to act out that personality when they're... Read More...

Search engine marketing and copywriting make uneasy allies. SEM means writing for a machine, for an equation, for a filter. Copywriting means expressing human desire, passion, creativity for people. Yet when you can combine the basics of search engine marketing with creative copywriting, your clients win. Big time. And I’ll address this at the end. But first, to illustrate this, I did a little experiment this last weekend with the beer making blog that’s updated by a few folks here at Pop Art. We... Read More...

Older. But funny. Via Geist Read More...

Pop Art has launched two sites that we’re really excited about, Visit Cascadia and Drive Cascadia to promote the launch of a groundbreaking new truck, the Freightliner Cascadia™. Visit Cascadia Visit Cascadia is a tourism site for a fictional town called Cascadia. Imagine the perfect trucktopia that inspired by the features and benefits of their official truck, the Freightliner Cascadia™. In Cascadia, you can drive on North America’s smoothest pavement, go swimming in the world’s largest cupholder... Read More...

I call Pay Per Click (PPC) writing “Haiku for Dollars.” Mostly becuase I think it’s funny, and people laugh so I assume they agree. But PPC isn’t much of a creative strain — unlike most creative endeavors in which a broad base of life experience helps you connect concepts in bizarre ways, PPC tends to be as surprising a corn-fed blonde making the finals of American Idol. Or so I thought. And then realized, as usual, I was right the first time. I’ll explain in a very long-winded fashion. So with PPC... Read More...

Here’s a checklist you may find useful when judging writing. It’s not really in any particular order, except maybe the first two or three items. And there’s probably a million exceptions to each of these, which I’m sure you’ll helpfully point out in the comments section.The real benefit of using this checklist: you’ll polish not just the words, but also “the big idea.” 1. Will the audience get it? Use words and phrases you’ve heard the customer say. Avoid, when possible, the industry jargon of the... Read More...