Four characteristics of story-based copywriting that copywriting must know.

There has been a debate about advertising. The school of science headed by Hopkins and david ogilvy and the school of art headed by bernbach and george louis have been arguing for decades, but the views of the school of art and the school of science are surprisingly consistent, and they both emphasize telling a story in the copy.

I have talked about the magical function of story marketing in the last article, but more often, we should not only know why, but also know why. So in this article, I try to analyze the reasons why story-based copywriting works from my own point of view, and summarize their similarities and differences to facilitate our later writing.

One of the reasons why stories can fully arouse readers' emotions is that they have a strong sense of substitution. When reading novels and movies, we always inadvertently imagine ourselves as the protagonist of the story. Their actions will firmly affect the mood of readers, sometimes they are happy for them, and sometimes they cry for their misfortune.

When I was young, I was fascinated by Journey to the West. I dream of turning myself into the Monkey King, finding a smooth wooden stick to make a golden hoop, and imitating the Monkey King's movements. This strong sense of substitution didn't disappear until the teacher told us that the Monkey King was a fictional character after school, and I was sad for several days.

Nike and Adidas try their best to sign a group of NBA stars every year and offer them hundreds of millions of big contracts, but the returns are also obvious. Jordan and Kobe series basketball shoes quickly opened the international market for them and made the company earn a lot of money. Why are celebrity endorsements so popular? It is precisely because of the sense of substitution that fans wearing idol shoes will have a psychological hint: I can hit those lore balls like Jordan and Kobe, and lead the team to victory.

Well-known screenwriters and novelists know that the story of counterattack will always be favored by the public. As an audience, we are also very happy to see the drama of the hero's return. Moreover, this strategy has been constantly applied in the commercial society, and many brand stories and soft articles are shaping the plot of counter-attack, and they are always tried and tested. This is because after reading a story with such a plot, readers can't help substituting themselves into the characters and fighting back with the characters in the story, as if they have experienced it once, and they will have a certain pleasure in their hearts.

For example, the story of Jobs' return to Apple, which was talked about by the public. From 65438 to 0997, Apple's market value declined all the way, and Jobs, who had been squeezed out by the company he founded, ushered in a return. This time, he created a myth and created unprecedented brilliance. Apple's market value once surpassed ExxonMobil and became the world's largest company.

As mentioned above, the strategy of copywriting should be small enough, and the smaller the positioning, the more accurate it is.

Story-based copywriting usually describes someone's experience, no matter how big the subject matter is, it is reflected through personal stories, from small to big. For example, Xiaogang Feng's "Tangshan Earthquake" and "1942" all reflect a big background of the times through a little person, who is a microcosm of this era. For example, hacksaw Ridge, which scored high in Douban these days, also reflects the friendship of war, the trust between people and the great love between people through a military doctor, but this kind of "great love" just needs to be reflected by a small military doctor to arouse the emotions of the audience. If it is only a reasonable summary, I believe the audience will fall asleep.

Not only movies, but also literary works. For example, Mr. Lao She's Teahouse shows the rise and fall of the background of the whole era by describing the stories of several people in a tea house. In Fortress Besieged, Mr. Qian Zhongshu only created a square Hung-chien, which exposed readers to the atmosphere of the whole society at that time. Mr. Lu Xun told a story of Xianglinsao, which showed us the spiritual persecution suffered by the poor in the old society.

Then we can also see the big picture from the small in the process of writing a copy, and the audience is tired of the unattractive truth. It is easier to win the audience's favor by telling the story of an ordinary person in the copy and giving it emotion.

For example, this advertising copy of Baidu:

How to make professional words like search engines more acceptable to the general public? Let's tell the story of an ordinary person! Through the use of Baidu by two ordinary women in their lives, on the one hand, we can see their love for their children and their attitude towards life, on the other hand, they also skillfully promoted Baidu, which will not cause the audience's resentment.

For example, Alipay's ten-year bill has a series of copywriting:

Does it feel full of human touch? This is a typical example of telling ordinary public stories. By showing the application of Alipay in life through vivid, interesting and different individuals, readers will immediately have an impulse of "I also want to check the bill". Imagine if this series of copywriting were changed to "Alipay can do anything", "Make your life more convenient" and "Pay and live smart", would it still have such an effect?

Copywriting should also learn from excellent films and literary works and tell more stories of ordinary people to arouse readers' resonance.

Where there are people, there are stories, and where there are people, there are emotions. Copywriting should have feelings, first of all, we must learn to tell stories. Emotions in stories are often expressed through concrete actions, which may be a kind of persistence, an unusual move or a trivial detail.

Hollywood screenwriters all admire the thinking of "saving cats". The so-called "saving the cat" scene refers to: in order to make the protagonist have the characteristics of attracting the audience, arrange some scenes to help others, even a small scene, such as saving a cat. Through this move, let the audience feel that the protagonist is flesh and blood, not a cold and lofty hero.

Similarly, an enterprise also needs stories to enrich its connotation and expand the influence of the people. To put it bluntly, talent is the constituent unit of this society, and it is difficult for people to form a memory of a cold company, and only its interesting and mysterious corporate story is circulated. Speaking of Alibaba, you may think of the story of Ma Yun and eighteen arhats starting their own businesses. What really touched you may be one of the little points. For example, Cai Chongxin gave up his annual salary of $700,000 and only got $500 a month to work with Ma Yun. Another example is Tsui Hark's Chinese Partner based on Yu's story. We will always remember their doubts and hesitation in the film, and we will clearly remember the scene when they rang the bell on Nasdaq. The popularity of movies has helped New Oriental establish a perfect positive image in people's minds. Stories can make a business to a great extent.

Foreign advertising copy is good at telling stories, such as the classic copy of China cheese:

It describes some trivial things in life, but after reading it bit by bit, we can find rich emotions and accumulated love for our father. When the emotions in your story enter the hearts of readers, it will be much easier for them to make a purchase decision.

In the previous article "Four Steps to Write Copywriting with * * *", it was mentioned that the production of * * * singing must be based on the same experience of the audience, thus producing the same emotion. This also explains why the same story has different comments from different people. Some people are indifferent to the same movie, and some people will cry; Some people read a sentence in the book at a glance, and some people will feel it deeply and refine it into a golden sentence. These are all different reactions due to different experiences.

Some time ago, Dānlín cheated and made headlines. In our opinion, this is a mistake made by a man who didn't control his lower body well, and it is only used as a talk after dinner. I have a friend who is pregnant. She is very angry about cheating on her wife during pregnancy and wants to kill it quickly. Because we have never been pregnant, we naturally don't feel this kind of anger.

A good story will always arouse a certain audience. When writing a copy, you should ponder the reader's previous experience, grasp the reader's emotions, and have a * * * with them. Let readers read your copy with a kind of "Oh, my God!" That's great ","How does he know that I think so ","He spoke my mind ".

For example, Adidas' large-scale advertising film "Impossible is Everything" shows that nothing is impossible through the stories of athletes from all walks of life who have experienced setbacks and hardships in their sports career and finally succeeded. After watching these advertisements, the audience will remember their previous setbacks and failures and be encouraged.

Adidas advertising is very good at producing * * * sounds with the audience and giving voice to users. The aforementioned "Unfortunately, this is me" series of advertisements also have the same effect.

Similarly, there are classic advertisements of Jumeiyou products:

I believe that the younger generation will have a feeling of speaking their minds after seeing this advertisement. The advertisement tells Chen Ou's own story, but the "questioning", "mocking" and "loneliness" mentioned in the copy are all experienced during our growth. Naturally, I can feel the same, and there is a * * * sound. The copy did not mention anything about the product, but it virtually narrowed the distance between the audience and the brand.