5 Tips to Improve Your Copywriting Skills on Tongal

Copywriting is an extremely difficult craft to master as it requires razor sharp focus and a clear understanding of consumer psychology. In order to produce effective marketing material, it’s necessary to be able to distill ideas down to their bare bones, making them palatable to a wide audience. Likewise, using language to articulate visual ideas can be extremely tricky as it requires bridging the gap between words and images. Tongal holds several Ideation contests annually that involve contestants submitting copywriting ideas for advertising campaigns held by various companies. To help Tongal community members prepare for these competitions, I’ve outlined a few basic principles to keep in mind when drafting submissions and certain tactics you can employ in order to hone your skills in copywriting.

Perhaps the most important rule for effective copywriting is to know your audience. This statement not only pertains to the general attributes of your key demographic such as age and gender, but also qualitative aspects of this group such as their habits and tastes. A product or service is generally geared towards a target audience, and it is the job of the copywriter to mold the marketing material, so it adheres to the customers’ sensibilities. As populations age, their priorities and interests shift and consequently the advertisements that appeal to them similarly change. The copywriter must therefore ensure that a company’s messaging is in alignment with the tastes of their audience so that the viewer is able to see how the product or service relates to their lifestyle. Comedy can be a useful tactic when composing marketing material though its effectiveness will be determined based upon the nature of the product or service, the tone of the intended messaging, and the public image of the company. 

Because many of the Ideation contests held by Tongal pertain to media-based marketing campaigns (such as television advertisements, videos for social media and poster designs), it is important for copywriters to consider the visual nature of their submissions. Specifically, contestants should think about how well their ideas will translate into a finished product such as a photograph, a film or a computer-generated graphic. It is useful to include terms that efficiently communicate what your submission will look like upon completion (such as “live-action”/“animated”/“doc-style”/“montage”) in order to help contest organizers conceptualize your proposal and gain a greater understanding of its appearance.

Though this may seem like an obvious suggestion, it is vitally important to review the Project Brief carefully in order to gain a strong understanding of exactly what the contest organizers expect of the copywriter. There is a tremendous amount of information that is included in the Brief such as the intended audience and tone of the finished work as well as where the project will be published upon completion. The venue for the finished advertisement will often dictate certain aspects of the content such as duration, use of text and other attributes. By “reading between the lines”, the combination of all these details will give the contestant a holistic view of the key demographic and the organizer’s expectations. 

Since contestants are often only given 140-250 characters to express their ideas when submitting to Tongal’s Ideation contests, it is essential that users articulate their thoughts in a clear and concise fashion. In order to fit your proposal within these parameters, it is wise to write in point form and remove any unnecessary adjectives or the use of present perfect verb tenses that occupy space needlessly. You may also wish to have a friend review your writing prior to submitting it in order to ensure that it successfully encapsulates your thoughts. Ultimately, the act of summing up a fully developed idea in such a small amount of space can be extremely tricky, and it will take time to master this art by participating in as many Ideation contests as possible.

It is wise to offer a wide variety of ideas when submitting to Ideation contests held by Tongal as this will give the organizers a strong selection to choose from when picking projects to greenlight. It is not simply a matter of who has the most “professional” idea but instead who has the submission that best fulfills the criteria of the competition. Try to visualize what you would like the finished product for the contest to look like and what would convince YOU, as a consumer, to pursue the product or service being presented. Ultimately, it is important not to neglect your own enjoyment when participating in these contests and to be creative and have fun with your submissions.

Though it can be disappointing when your idea is not selected by contest organizers, this can be a valuable moment to evaluate whether you overlooked some aspect of the project and improve for the next competition. Ultimately, it is important not to feel discouraged and to keep in mind that Tongal is constantly launching new projects focused on the craft of copywriting. Through the process of participating in these contests, you will inevitably improve your writing skills and develop talents that can be applied in other areas of your professional life. Thanks for reading and good luck!