Tips for Writing Good Commercials

Commercials are short, they should be really easy to write, right? Wrong. They are short, that's the problem. You have to convey a lot of information into a very short period of time. You have to make people remember the product. You have to convince them that the product is better than other similar products on the market. You have a lot of work to do and only 30, or 15 seconds even to accomplish all of the above items. So, it's not as easy as it seems. Here are some tips for writing more efficient and effective commercials.

1. Mention the product name more than once.
You need to make sure your audience knows what the product is. Mention the name more than once, but make sure it's not obvious you're repeating it. Also, if the competitors have a similar name make sure the product name is clearly stated so there's no confusion.

2. Keep the language simple.
Keeping the language at a sixth grade level will ensure that the widest audience will be able to understand it. This may differ if you're advertising a product that is specifically for a high-profile career in which the professionals are highly-educated and will feel like they're being talked down to if you use elementary diction, but in general, keep it simple. Especially if the commercial is going to air in a very diverse area where the consumer base is varied and may not speak English very well.

3. Create a tagline or use the company's motto.
Tagline and jingles are easy to remember and they connect the product to the consumer's mind instantly. That's what you want. An instant connection. You want the product to be recognizable in every possible way, by sight and sound.

4. Use snappy words.
Words are like food. They have stimulants. They may entice you to taste, smell, feel. They have a creativity. You should use alliteration, rhymes and other tools to evoke that creativity. Make your words mean something.

5. Topics.
Make sure you pick a topic that will relate to your target audience. You can't have a music video commercial to sell Metamucil, it doesn't make sense. Also, if you're going to "steal" an idea from a film, television show or another commercial even, make sure it's a parody. Otherwise it will just look like a cheap knockoff and that's how the product will appear as well.

6. Lose the cheese factor.
We've all seen the cheesy commercials that you watch and wonder how someone could have possibly paid for such crap. It's the car ads with beautiful women in bikinis to promote a local dealership, or the silly insurance spots where someone wrecks and they horribly overact their worry about what they'll ever do now. It's just plain stupid. Don't even think about it.

7. Think long term.
Think of your single commercial as a possible campaign. Allow for the possibility of future commercials that will continue along the same lines; the same storyline, same overall theme, or same motto/tagline.