Recently I helped write a video script and information memorandum (henceforth “brochure”) for potential investors as part of a craft beer crowdfund campaign. You can view it here.
It went well, especially considering the video was only promoted via a boosted Facebook post, not paid ads.
Still, my intro is awkward cos in the copywriting space, there’s a lot of macho energy and bragging about projects that went well.
I’m meant to be yelling: “How I Raised One Hundred And Forty-Five Thousand Dollars MORE Than My Client Dreamed Of — In LESS Than 30 Days! Only A Fool Would Ignore This!”
Y’know… taking 100% of the credit for a job that was actually a collaborative effort, ignoring the fact that the campaign had a minimum and maximum goal (so that I can instead frame it as a glorious, sweeping victory), and pretending imposter syndrome is something only other people have.
I’ve written stuff for stage productions but they had no dialogue; I’ve written a script for a launch but that was delivered by a voiceover artist… I had never written strictly for the camera, or for an amateur actor I wouldn’t personally be directing.
This was new territory.
So while I had fun, I also nearly crapped myself when it went live, and yes I absolutely read online comments to find out if it was too cheesy, or if people were actually going to pledge.
I mean, puns make me sick, and here I was perpetuating the problem.
Welp, it doesn’t matter if it was too cheesy… cos it worked. We had a goal of $350k and hit $520k. That is nothing to scoff at when it comes to campaigns on PledgeMe or any other crowdfunding website fer that matter.
So, I won’t take full credit, but I’ll throw you a couple of behind-the-scenes marketing mantras in case you want to apply them to your own copywriting.
Cheers! 🍺
ALWAYS START WITH A SALES ARGUMENT, NOT LOLS. EXCEPT, YOU CAN ALSO REHEARSE WITTY ONE-LINERS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE
I’ve seen the question around: “if I want to put humour into my marketing, should I do it in the editing stage or the writing stage, help help”.
Most advice says to do it later, after fleshing out the main points you need to get across.
I mostly agree.
If you are focusing on funny before you focus on purpose, you end up going nowhere and after laughing, your audience doesn’t take any action.
However, I’m a huge fan of letting your brain marinate on stuff you’ve thrown at it, and seeing if any neurons randomly join up to form a unique idea.
So this time, after the market research bit was ticked off, I started a creative brain dump of one-liners, puns, and physical comedy ideas. Most of them sucked which is kinda the point of a brain dump.
I parked that to one side and went for walks, cuddled a niece, returned an online purchase… no seriously if you can do some mundane stuff for a bit and separate yourself from the pressure to Quick! Get this done!... it will give the neurons a safe space away from terrorists like cortisone.
With the brain dump committed to my subconscious, I tackled the sales argument.
Basically: who do we want to influence, why should they want this thing and not some other thing, what do they need to believe in order to say sign me up.
This will seem fairly straightforward cos you’re not TRYING to inject any giggles or creativity yet, but some of the earlier brain dumps will seep through without much pushing.
That's cos the neurons have been gathering for blind dates, which is why you’ll suddenly have weird ah-has in the shower or out on a run slow walk. Some of them have buddied up and given birth to little baby ideas. Awww.
If you’re part of a team, I encourage this approach. (Not the blind date bit; the marinate bit).
The script I presented wasn’t head-to-toe full of laughs, maybe just an armful. Joe, the resident actor, added some great stuff. Which is perfect, cos he was the one who’d be saying it, and he founded the brewery, so is really the face of it. But having a script to bounce those laughs off helped make sure we honoured the structure that was going to be most persuasive.
So I guess the lesson is this: it doesn’t super matter which way around you tackle funny: do it before or after the sales argument but don’t TRY to do them both in one sitting.
YOUR PRODUCT/INDUSTRY IS AS INTERESTING AS YOU WANT IT TO BE
If I had a dollar for every time someone whined about this, I’d probably still blow it all on chocolate so never mind.
This is such a mindset thing. Think of seminar speakers.
They can speak on the same topics… motivation, goal setting, human behaviour… and one will have you going to sleep doodling pictures of very ugly dogs, while the other one has you scratching notes into the flesh of your arm cos wow what a statement, defo don’t want to forget that.
Same topic, different delivery.
Shut up with your weak excuses on why you’re being boring.
You don’t have to be funny (that's subjective, anyway) but you sure as heck don’t have to be all deadpan Mark Zuckerberg either. “Funny” is quite a high expectation. “Make them smile at least once” is a softer goal.
But then, how to stand out?
One of our battles was that many crowdfunding campaigns have some novelty around them, which is why people share them, and so many back them.
Take Ethique.
They make stuff like shampoo and hand lotion, but in a solid bar, like a bar of soap. It’s small, cos you add water at the time of use, and it’s packaged in a cardboard square. It’s a hit because it helps people lower their waste and decrease pollution. I can’t speak for the product, but even Britney Spears spread the word, so; a pretty public crowdfund. It caught people’s attention because the product itself was unusual.
But Three Sisters Brewery isn’t that novel, and there has been plenty of craft beer crowdfunds already. The beer was in a bottle, not a special biodegradable casing that you popped in your mouth and the beer dissolved. Yes, it has won awards, but it isn’t the only craft beer on the market, even if it’s less of a commodity than mass-produced beer. Most craft beers are a unique recipe, with an interesting ingredient like a local fruit or exotic combo… so the fact it’s “unique” is not unique!
How would we make it interesting and persuasive?
Should we go the polarizing angle? Find something about other craft beers to dis? Mmmmnope. Joe explained that those in the industry are BFFs and he didn’t want to make enemies of his friends. Truth is, you could say that about a number of industries… which is why businesses intentionally start a sword fight. Cos if you can create some drama, all eyes on you. The publicity is crazy. Even your haters are talking about you, and the net result is that people have to get off the fence and those who jump on your side become die-hard fans. *Clutches heart and makes list of competitors* But the founder has to have a personality that can cope with serious rivalry, whereas Joe is very amicable and chilled.
Trouble was, even looking beyond the industry, and to the solution we were actually selling… in the world of investment opportunities, there is nothing novel about putting your money into beer. It’s not a patented technology, or web3, or a medical breakthrough. Though I do know people who might argue with that last point 😏
But that right there was the answer!
We had to flip the fact that neither the product nor the industry was next-level “novel” on its head; turn it into a win.
Hence the dissing of buying stocks in Tesla, Bitcoin, NFTs. Flaunting the fact that we’re a better option for anyone even a little risk-averse. No, we didn’t have to say this with a straight face. In fact, I prefer the face Joe pulled as he tried to chew on a car:
What you’ve written off as ‘dull’ features could actually be ripe for reframing. Pull them out of the bin and make them the centrepiece.
DON’T BE THE BORING TWIN. PUT PERSONALITY ON YOUR FACTS.
When you want something to go at least a little viral (that is, for people to tell their friends or tag them in a post), you gotta give people stories to talk about. You don’t need to lie. Most stories are hiding in plain sight. Just listen for what people are already talking about.
In the case of Three Sisters Brewery, people couldn’t WAIT to point out the serendipity of how the initials of the venue matched the past. The building was originally the Taranaki Savings Bank.
It was a piece of trivia, but people wanted to be the one to tell you. If that is what people remembered and talked about, why not capitalise on it?
Surely I can flesh out the story. Find some more “proof” of this curious fate, to make people smile and tell more friends. I did some hunting.
Joe loves serendipity, so I was looking for things in common in their histories, like the irreverence to the way things are done, or the desire to be locally owned. Then I just had to dramatize the formal version and make a play on the words (“a man walks into a bar”). If you look at the highlights in the screenshots below, you’ll spot the things I pulled out and juiced up.
Here is a bit of what TSB bank said about themselves:
And here it is after a lick of paint:
Look, the only people who were going to see this were people considering investment and needing more info. It’s hidden down the page in a downloadable pdf.
BUT… that don’t mean it's a waste of time. Those “few” people are the ones giving us their money. Plus, those stories can be repurposed into social posts and other content.
Remember the “boring twin” lesson when creating your About Us page, social media profiles, etc. Find ways to inject your brand personality into your story. If your brand is irreverent, throw in a few irreverent words. If it’s glam, get a little haughty. The same story can be told a thousand ways, it doesn’t have to be listed like a series of dates.
Use your distinct brand voice, and entertain people with your history. You’re not lying if you flesh it out… often we’re discovering this stuff as we go. Like taking a DNA test to find out your ancestry.
HOW TO REACH A MILLION
I think we coulda got even more eyeballs on the video, and in turn, more people pledging… without spending more on boosting posts or ads. How?
I woulda had people preregister their interest before launching the campaign page, as Joe did… but then started priming them with emails, inspiring them to share and making them impatient.
Basically, turn email into an insider's club.
I’d have told stories and repurposed some of the brochure content. It doesn’t have to be flat out, just a gentle tease.
However, there was another segment that could have been used… his normal email list. It's more likely to be nationwide as it’s related to his online sales, but it’s also much warmer than a total stranger who bumped into an ad five minutes ago. So, while I wouldn’t have sent the crowdfund info just to people who’d registered, I’d have offered a link for them to opt-out of any crowdfund info. That way, they stay on the master list.
Here’s a fast example:
Subject: Tasteful update
Preview text: May contain mainstream beer
Guten Tag,
We interrupt your afternoon with an important announcement.
Joe made an awful mess of the brewery yesterday as part of his debut acting career.
We do not condone this behaviour and have forced him to Cinderella the place up in time for opening today.
If you’re going round to your mates instead of ours this weekend, better BYO as you can’t always trust their choices. Shop online here.
More important announcements to follow.
Cheers,
The team at Three Sisters Brewery
GIFs play inside of email, so are a great way to get more bang for your buck with video production, but you can also make social teaser posts.
By repurposing the video and brochure into more content, you’d convert people who brushed off the first ad for whatever reason, and see what resonates or gets shared more. Voila! Now you know which posts are the best to boost for even more exposure.
I’d have gone offline, too. I woulda turned his storefront into an ad. Sure… you could get a big fancy ad printed for the window… but the more you make it NOT look like an ad, and be a bit unexpected, the more people are going to stop, look, and show others. All for the cost of a marker from your local stationary warehouse.
I’d use every opportunity to get people talking. Have the bar staff mention it to patrons as they pay their bill. You just never know who’d like fries with that.
Mighta reached a million dollars.
But that’s just my opinion. I’m a gluten-free weirdo who doesn’t even drink beer, what do I know.
Where to buy it: if you’re in NZ, buy the beer here or visit Joe for a pint. If you’re in Taranaki, get Andrea to shoot your vids or if you’re elsewhere, you can still get his help with social media ads.