The Age of Conversation

http://stores.lulu.com/ageofconversation
If ideas are the currency of our times then this is, undoubtedly, the Age of Conversation, for without the art of dialog, the cut and thrust of debate and discussion, then the economy of ideas would implode under its own heavy weight. Instead, the reverse is true. Far from seeing an implosion, we are living in a time of proliferation — ideas build upon ideas, discussion grows from seeds of thought and single headlines give rise to a thousand medusa-like simulations echoing words whispered somewhere on the other side of the planet. All this — in an instant. In what began as a half dare, the editors, Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan challenged bloggers around the world to contribute one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”. The resulting book, The Age of Conversation, brings together over 100 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators in a ground-breaking and unusual publication.

The Age of Conversation 2: Why Don't They Get It?
New 2nd edition:
This book is a daring challenge to the business community. Gone are the top-down, command and control messages that held sway through the 20th Century. In are a raft of new techniques that start with listening, responding and action that set the scene for a continuing and evolving dialog about brands, experience, business and community.

Brush up on the basics

Not sure if they used this when you were at school, but my mum and teachers used to bash us over the head with a book called the First Aid in English.
I thought I’d see if it’s still around and guess what ... it is!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-First-Aid-English/dp/0340882875

It’s a no nonsense, easy-to-use guide to grammar, punctuation and English Language basics. Even if you think you know everything, it’d probably do you no harm to have this handy and use it to keep bad habits in check.

Save the words!

Ben found this fab new site from Oxford Dictionaries.
An initiative to save the 1000s of words that are dropped from the dictionary each year.

I've adopted the word 'jungible' :-)

http://savethewords.org/

The art of oratory

If you missed it on Sunday night, I highly recommend you watch this fab programme on speeches and speech writing...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jt42v/Yes_We_Can!_The_Lost_Art_Of_Oratory

Some really good principles you can apply to copywriting, like considering the character of the person who's writing and finding key words/phrases that your audience responds to.

Article worth reading too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7981471.stm

This programme is being followed by a new series for young speech writers. Look out for it on BBC.

Compare the Meerkat

I LOVE the 'Compare the Meerkat' spoof ad. It's genius.

And while searching for it online, I spotted this meta description. "2nd one down obviously.)

The Johnson Columns

http://www.economist.com/research/johnson/ FROM 1992 until 1999 The Economist published a monthly column on the English language, under the by-line 'Johnson', as in Samuel Johnson, the famous man of letters and dictionary-maker. The columns, and a few later, longer articles, (listed below) were all written by Stephen Hugh-Jones.
“My aim was to entertain readers, not learnedly instruct them; quite shamelessly, I'm an enthusiast of language, not linguistics, a curio-collector, not a professor. We were once taken to task by an academic: why did we not cover language as seriously as other topics? I answered him that one can describe a car as riding smoothly, without dilating on the geometry of its hyperdihedral MacPherson struts. I suspect the real answer was simpler: we could have offered the coverage he wanted, but it for sure wouldn't have been me that wrote it. And, yes, to be wholly serious for once, that 'me' is indeed English, whether pedants like it or not.”

Do you twitter?

http://www.freelancecopywritersblog.com/do-copywriting-and-twitter-go-hand-in-hand/

Pedant's delight

http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/
Begun in the spirit of Lynne Trusses everywhere, fuming at the promiscuity of the apostrophe in public signs — and some of the places it turns up really are extraordinary, as in LADIE’S — the blog has now branched out into recording other areas of punctuational abuse, notably pointless quotation marks. Watch and “wonder”.

There's even a Facebook group.

Dave Trott's blog

Courtesey of The Times top blogs...
Dave Trott was not only a brilliant advertising copywriter, but a great team leader. He now shares his thoughts about how you do advertising and run departments. His ideas are equally applicable to writing a novel, making a film, launching a product, managing a football team, instituting life changes and any activity you can imagine. Genius.

http://cstadvertising.com/blog/

The King of Madison Avenue

http://www.amazon.co.uk/King-Madison-Avenue-Ogilvy-Advertising/dp/1403978956/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234196176&sr=1-1 just read about this book...
David Ogilvy, One of the Greatest Copywriters - His Story
The new book about David Ogilvy, The King of Madison Avenue is one of the best biographies I've ever read. It also tells about great copywriting and what sets it apart of most copywriting.While the author knew and had a deep respect for David Ogilvy, he provides us with what I believe to be a very honest biography of the man. You will meet the real David Ogilvy. You'll see all of his great strengths but you'll also see his weaknesses and his less than appealing side.Ogilvy learned much of his copywriting skills from his mentor and later brother-in-law, Rosser Reeves. He also took a good deal of value from the great Claude Hopkins. He was a listener. He asked everyone lots of questions.When he was writing copy for an ad or when he had a new account, he dug deeply and discovered just what really made that product different. Then he wrote some of the greatest sales copy ever written.For example, the people at Dove soap wanted to sell it on the basis that it was neutral --- neither acid nor alkaline. Ogilvy knew that wouldn't sell Dove. He was, after all, a salesman.So he probed. He found out how Dove was made. And, oh yes, it had cold cream in it. That was it! "DOVE IS ONE-QUARTER CLEANSING CREAM-IT CREAMS YOUR SKIN WHILE YOU WASH."That's what people pay a "great" copywriter for. That's why copywriters are not cheap and if they are cheap, they're not this good. Ogilvy found the one thing that would sell the product and it did sell. Dove sales, for example, took off.

30 Novels Worth Reading for the Cover Alone

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/books/Newsletters/30-best-covers.shtml?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=nl&cm_pla=cme-nwb&cm_ite=online

The best thing I've read all year

I know, it's only January. But I'm back from my hols and have just read this letter of complaint to Virgin's Richard Branson.
OK, so it's not copy as such. Or is it? Whoever wrote it must be a writer, surely? Or if not, they should be. Maybe they want a job?!
Whatever, it's genius.

http://www.popbitch.com/home/which-one-is-the-starter-which-one-is-the-desert/