What was the last film you really enjoyed and why was it so satisfying? You don’t need to know why it worked to enjoy it, but the reasons are likely to relate to plot, character, structure and most cryptic of all, the controlling idea, the movie’s basic premise.
The qualities that make a good movie are so well documented, one wonders why bad movies ever get made. And yet the majority fall down for various reasons. The trick seems to be to follow the time honoured conventions of screen writing while being highly creative in their interpretation.
So what has all this to do with marketing? If you apply the fundamentals techniques of screen writing to developing your marketing communications, you’re unlikely to go far wrong. The goals are fundamentally the same; to provide the audience with a satisfying and memorable experience. Small wonder so many successful screenwriters did time as advertising copywriters before branching out into movies. Spot the similarities:
- A good script has a strong premise
- A good script hooks its audience
- A good script has a basic premise, a controlling idea
- A good script is entertaining
- A good script ends with a satisfying resolution
Where appropriate, replace script with campaign, premise with consumer insight and resolution with call to action. Now you know why it makes sense to use a screenwriter for your marketing communications.
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