How to ruin your new campaign without realising it

An error marketers sometimes make when
judging creative work.

The other day an agency asked me to do something odd.

They wanted me to rewrite the endline of a new campaign that was at concept stage.

It was strange because I reckoned the existing one was very good.

So did they.

Unfortunately their client didn’t.

He said he liked the campaign, but not its endline.

So he wanted new words to go on the end.

Now here’s the thing that non-creative people, like that client, need to understand about endlines:

The best ones are often the cornerstones of great campaigns.

The campaign ideas – the ads – are built on them.

Think of “Just do it”, “Australians wouldn’t give a XXXX for any other beer” or .“Peperami. It’s a bit of an animal.”

To replace those lines would be like replacing the foundations of a completely built house.

The campaigns would fall apart.

Along with other copywriters, I tried to rewrite the endline of the new campaign mentioned above.

But nothing we came up with worked with the campaign ideas as well as the line the client didn’t like – the line that gave birth to the campaign.

So, the lesson is, if you want to change an endline, watch out.

Because, chances are, you’ll need to create a new campaign as well.