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How can you test if your ad or website or email is really good?
By turning it into a sketch.
If it’s still fascinating even when it’s just a bare bones drawing or the few main lines on your home page - THEN, you know it’s good.
I’ve recently been re-reading an old favorite of mine , The Advertising Concept Book: Think Now, Design Later. This book showcases fifty years’ worth of the greatest ad campaigns - by showing only the rough, hand drawn sketch versions of the ad.
Why?
Because it’s easier to explain what makes the great ad so great if you aren’t distracted by the fancy or sleek design, or the pretty sounding copy.
Or as the author Pete Barry puts it, “Concept over execution, substance over style.”
This is what I try to do when I’m creating any piece of copy. First, I flesh out the concept, the big idea that will animate the entire piece. Only once that is solidified do I write it out fully.
It's why I start my most complex projects by scribbling ideas in an old fashioned notebook - not even the distraction of a computer screen. Stark pen and paper, with only the idea itself on full display.
What’s the core concept animating YOUR brand?
In future emails, I’ll help you figure out how to nail this down.