Content is king. Good copywriting makes it sing.

Good writing—whether for marketing copy or content—can “distill the thought” about your company, product or service into a few golden words that can make your cash register ring. Ad legend James Jordan, Jr. wrote, “the heart and the power of advertising is … a few words so skillfully targeted, so clear in their positioning, so vivid in their articulation, and so memorable in their identification with a given brand … that they become people’s principal reason for buying the brand." The thing is, it's not just ads that need good copywriting. Blog posts, social media content, thought leadership articles, scripts and other content marketing pieces can all help to build your brand and sell your products or services more effectively when they're well-researched and written with style. You've got a great story to tell your customers. I can help you put it in writing. I'm David Branby. I'm based in Reno-Tahoe USA and I write for clients worldwide. Call or text (775) 846-5162 today.

“David is more than a good creative guy. He is a creative adult. He understands that the best creative ideas are not art for art’s sake, but art that is meant to solve a strategic marketing problem.”

—Bob Wolf, former Chairman & CEO of Chiat/Day | "Agency of the Decade," New York Times, Adweek & Advertising Age Magazines

Long-form content writing

How Tesla Disrupted Automotive & Kicked Strategic Marketing to the Curb

Copywriting for marketing

Exposures, Ltd. specializes in exhibit, trade show and convention photography. It is my privilege to write content for their web, print, email, trade show and sales marketing efforts.

CEO Chad Kaufman asked me to position PRC as a market leader in safe, sanitary and architecturally striking public restroom facilities nationwide—and have fun with it.

Anne Vernon, CEO of Veva Communications, asked me to write some snappy headlines and a tag line for Bank of Petaluma that would position it as the local bank for the rest of us.

Exposures, Ltd.'s images are used by exhibit designers and builders to showcase their incredible work when they pitch large corporations for future exhibit builds.

You can write snappy headlines and compelling copy for any brand in any category, if you put your mind to it. :-D

David Ogilvy said "you can't bore your customer into buying your product; you can only interest her in it." I make it a point to write humorous or slightly in-your-face headlines to achieve this effect. Written for Envision (Estipona Group) agency.

American athlete and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick is an icon, and I was proud to celebrate his early success with this Super Bowl ad, which ran in the San Francisco Chronicle.

It was a real pleasure to write the "America's Adventure Place" campaign for the Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority to change the narrative about Reno. Today, Reno is an emerging global technology hub with Tesla, Pansonic, Microsoft, Apple and others moving in. Written for Envision (Estipona Group) agency.

I wrote this airport security bin ad when I was considering graduate school. Grad enrollment went up, and it convinced me, too. I earned my master's in media innovation from The Reynolds School in the spring of 2021.

Early in my copywriting career I had the opportunity to work on our state's tourism campaign. Still takes my breath away.

The old adage, "it's not what you say, it's how you say it" applies to content and copywriting as well. I try to balance clever with compelling, because it's money wasted if a prospective customer doesn't read your content.

When I write content or copy, I try to put myself in the reader's shoes. I think we've all had that experience where we feel invisible to financial institutions, so I wanted to capture that feeling to showcase this bank.

Dinter Engineering was looking to position their firm as a trusted vendor for military contracts. Art director Joey Vestal refreshed the brand and did the amazing work on the dogtags.

I often try to create a little scandal in my work, because in most categories, the competition is afraid to break out of industry norms, paying a premium for content that nobody reads. In this campaign, the headline is provocative, but there is always a happy ending. Written for Envision (Estipona Group) agency.

Anthropologists say that we as humans are hard-wired to be on the lookout for danger. I turned that idea on its head to drive business for the uber-friendly and gifted dentist, Dr. Dan Mannikko.

One of my tricks as a copywriter is to take a well-known phrase and do something different with it.

Once upon a time, I came across a local pizza joint owned by a sort of brash couple from the east coast. Tacked to the wall was a vinyl banner that said, "We guarantee our food." The chef had trained with Lidia Bastianich. His darling wife, from Philly, had this intense attitude, so I set out to help them with a rebrand that captured that more positive energy.

Healthcare marketing is always a balancing act. Often, the client wants to show their doctors in white lab coats. My sense is, people assume hospitals have lots of great doctors. The challenge is, what else have you got to say about your business? Written for Envision (Estipona Group) agency.

Here, the concept was to create energy and excitement around a chamber orchestra and let the words of true fans drive the message. Notice Leonard Nimoy's quote—he was a great supporter of the Reno Chamber Orchestra. Written for Envision (Estipona Group) agency.

There's always a bias toward "the expert from out of town," especially when patients are faced with a potentially life-threatening illness. This campaign sought to flip that script—and it worked. Written for Envision (Estipona Group) agency.

This spec billboard touts the university's elevation to Carnegie® R1 (very high research), joining 130 elite research universities in the nation. Pictured is Kyra Stull, Ph.D., a top researcher.

Almost anyone can pull off one good headline. "Creative fluency" is the ability to do it again and again, and to make a campaign out of it that engages the reader and drives sales. Written for Envision (Estipona Group) agency.

The University of Nevada, Reno had students from 49 states—but none from Vermont. I had the opportunity to conceive and write a fun ad that ran in Vermont's largest newspaper. It got us students from Vermont—and got noticed by the Wall Street Journal.

Copywriting for radio

"Cold" - Carson Ambulatory Surgery Center Inc. :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Grocery" - Carson Ambulatory Surgery Center Inc. :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Party" - Carson Ambulatory Surgery Center Inc. :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Directions" - Hilltop Residential Storage Solutions :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Going, Going, Gone!" - Reno Aces Ballpark Parking :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Traffic" - Northern Inyo Hospital :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Get A Life" - Sierra Pacific Power Co. (NV Energy) :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Intimacy" - Reno Chamber Orchestra :30 Radio | Copywriting

"Ode to the Open Road" - Mountain Family RV :30 Radio | Copywriting

David Branby sits down with Edward Estipona, CEO of The Estipona Group, to celebrate 25 years in marketing

Confessions of a Copywriter

By David Branby

I am a copywriter; a wordsmith; a scribe. Working with words is how I survive. I craft, I sculpt, I make pictures with words (though I must admit, sometimes it’s just blurbs) with one goal in mind: To gently urge that reader of mine ...

... to take action (usually in the vicinity of a cash register); in short, to purchase, to procure, to buy my client’s wares or embrace their ideas, to know their stance or acknowledge their presence. I am a crafter of dreams and a deliverer of details. I am a copywriter. I turn words into gold.

I am neither a poet nor a prophet, and yet I deftly weave both into my potent potion so the prospect (in this case, you!) can savor the sizzle and salivate for the steak.

My purpose is simple, my task is complex: Distill my client’s 96 copy points (so painstakingly writ) into three or four paragraphs that’re sure to make a hit; and give them a headline that’s snappy and fun; and deliver a benefit to the reader (just one) in a way that’s sexy and creative and pops; so as he or she meanders through NEWSWEEK, she stops! And reads what I’ve written and writes down the name, and writes down the phone, fax, e-mail, and then ... she hops in her Audi, her Bimmer or Nio, heads for the mall and with nothing but brio, walks into the store and with hardly a thought, whips out her VISA just as she ought, and BUYS the one item I’ve told her about, just as the merchant says, “Wow! Now, we’re sold out!”

I am a copywriter. I turn words into gold.

Now, let me illustrate the power of words in my chosen profession, which is advertising. I’m going to write a part of a phrase and I want you to chime in—to yourself, or out loud (depending on who’s around)—if you know the rest of it. Let’s try a few:

Winston tastes good ... (like a cigarette should.)

You’re in good hands ... (with Allstate.)

M&M’s melt in your mouth ... (not in your hand.)

Nothing beats a great pair of ... (Legg’s.)

And one of my favorites, which I wrote for the Public Restroom Company: "Building Better Places To Go."

Now, some people may call these slogans, but in my line of work, they’re known as tag lines. And most companies should have a tag line, which is kind of like a mission statement for what a company does, and the way that they do it that makes them unique.

A powerful tag line melds all the marketing objectives into one cohesive thought, from positioning to brand image and personality. To put it more succinctly, in the words of advertising great Jim Jordan, “the heart and the power of advertising is ... a few words so skillfully targeted, so clear in their positioning, so vivid in their articulation, and so memorable in their identification with a given brand ... that they become people’s principal reason for buying the brand.”

In fact, we copywriters spend an inordinate amount of time trying to come up with the perfect tag line for a company—because once you find it, you can use it forever. To give you an example, the copywriter who came up with “Everything you always wanted in a beer. And less.” took a brand that nobody liked—Miller Lite—and sold $95 million worth a year to sports fans over the next decade and a half.

The point is, the tag line should always remind the consumer of the key benefit – what’s in it for them. For example, Silver Legacy Resort Casino originally used the tag line “Lucky For You” to market Sam Fairchild’s mythical silver mine in downtown Reno. When my former agency pitched that account, my team and I came up with the tag line, “Share the Wealth,” because frankly, I’d rather be rich than lucky any day. At the heart of it, though, is my steadfast belief that good copy always offers a promise or benefit to the consumer, and lucre out-lusters luck any day, in my book.

Another example of the copywriter’s art is the use of word play or puns to make a point. The best one I’ve ever seen was an ad for Oakley Sunglasses that showed a pair of the glasses with the headline “A Shade Under $35. The copy went on to explain that the glasses retailed for $34.95. I should note that puns have fallen out of fashion among copywriters, particularly for headlines, but you’ll still see them in use for tag lines. Sometimes, a great play on words can become the principal reason for buying the brand — and some become classics. Think "When it rains, it pours." (1914) for Morton’s salt and "A diamond is forever." (1947) for DeBeers, the diamond giant.

Now, as you may have noticed, I used a bit of rhyme in the beginning of my article, because people tend to remember rhymes, and in fact, great literary masterpieces (such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey) were passed down from generation to generation orally, and one of the reasons they survived was because they rhymed. And so it is with the great literary traditions of our time. Who can forget:

The best part of waking up is Folger’s in your cup?

Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking?

For all you do, this Bud’s for you?

And so, gentle reader, if you’ll permit me one last time, I will leave you with a rhyme:

If advertising’s my passion, then words are my mistress; and lest this malady cause you much distress, let me assure you as sure as I’m here, the words that I craft for your reading come dear; a hundred an hour give or take a few syllables, a bit more for those who insist on the parable that “nothing well is written once”; and so for those insufferable dunces I raise my take to one-fifty an hour, and write so slowly our relations soon sour; until, that is, they take pen in hand, and decide for themselves (and this, to a man) that writing’s for fools and nitwits and pros, and so their notebooks they quickly close, pick up the phone and ring me and plead, “How in the world do you ever write a lead?”

I am a copywriter. I turn words into gold.

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