Ever wonder what makes certain actors and actresses so much more compelling and realistic than their competition? Things like looks, charisma and good old fashioned talent are all important, but what truly sets a brilliant performance apart is a perceived authenticity.
Whether it’s Heath Ledger’s brain-scarring performance as the Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, or Daniel Day Lewis’ Oscar-winning portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, believability and integrity are the cornerstones of any truly compelling performance.
To achieve these authentic results, the best actors don’t simply turn to costume and makeup to undergo a quick transformation. Not even close. Actors like the ones mentioned above frequently engage in a practice known as method acting, in which they completely immerse themselves in their role to achieve maximum effect. This can range anywhere from only responding to your character’s name on set, all the way to living as your character until filming wraps up (we see you,Jim Carrey).
“What Does Any of This Have to do with Copywriting?”
Although there is a world of difference between acting and writing ads, we both share the same pain point: questions of authenticity in our work.
The same way an actor born and raised in Boston might have to pretend to be from the deep south, copywriters and content writers are frequently required to shift their creative identity to someone or something that is largely foreign to them. This is where the method approach comes in.
If you’re the type of person whose idea of a successful 3-day weekend is binging 12 consecutive hours of Netflix per day and only leaving the house once, what are you to do when you’re assigned a campaign for a line of Hockey practice aids?
Just because you aren’t even close to the target persona doesn’t mean that you can’t inhabit the same aesthetic space and reach into that world for insight. As a general rule of thumb, this means getting up from your desk and out of your comfort zone to immerse yourself in this unfamiliar world. The following are just a few examples of how you can practice method creative, relative to the Hockey example.
- Listen to Different Music: If you’re writing for people who love the Foo Fighters, you might be missing out on an insight if all you’re listening to are Madlib remixes. The music you pick might get you in a zone, but YOUR zone might not produce work that relates to the target. Immersing yourself in their likes, tastes and aesthetics can lead to a stronger connections and more precise creative breakthroughs.
- Do Some Light Travel: Get out of your office and go to where your target shops, see what they buy, and look at what’s been done before you. If the last time you stepped foot in a sporting goods store was when you went through that Ultimate Frisbee phase in college, there’s probably something you can gleam from spending time in that environment.
- Go Undercover: As big a challenge as social media can present to the modern creative, it’s an invaluable tool for finding and understanding your targets. Look at forums, comment threads and YouTube videos. Notice how your target audience speaks, what their pain points are, and the questions they seem to have most often. To really make sure you’ve gotten the right idea, consider joining a forum and entering a conversation. If you can interact with fans and customers, there’s a good chance you can write to them too. You don't have to go full Robert DeNiro and live out their lives, but taking part in even a little slice can make a huge difference in the integrity of your work.
- Create a Verbal Mood Board: Depending on the type of agency you work for, your job might not be quite like Mad Men where you have entire days to brainstorm and visualize. For an immersive exercise you can do right at your desk, block out all outside media and dive completely in to the world you’re trying to write about. Create a list of words, phrases and stray thoughts that you associate with the topic, adding images, songs and other phrases as you go along. Look at old ads, new ads, YouTube videos, anything and everything you can get your hands on that is a part of the world you are trying to inhabit.
In advertising, knowing your target is about 75% of the battle, but writing to your target represents a whole different challenge unto itself. Next time you have a client that’s completely foreign to you, make sure you find time to “study abroad” for at least a little while. This may seem difficult and time consuming but hey, spending 30 minutes on Pinterest sure beats locking yourself in your apartment for a month just to play the Joker!