Copywriting formula

The Great Courses is a company that sells series of college-level audio and video courses. Their target audience are high-school and college students who frequent Youtube. 

This is the formula used:

1) Vibrant color

The color orange takes most of the space in this ad. Orange is the official ‘call to action’ color. It is an aggressive color that stirs. The college-aged person in the ad is wearing a navy blue shirt. The color blue creates the sensation of trust and sincerity. Combine both of these colors and you have a great blend to sell your product.

2) Key words

Because the ad is small in size, the words chosen to promote it must be carefully selected. The Great Courses marketing team know that nothing reads better on an ad than the word free. They decided to use that magical word as well as learn because, after all, learning is what Great Courses is all about. 

3) Accessibility

The person in the ad is sitting calmly, listening to his Great Courses lecture. The picture depicts serenity yet focus with this straight-forward gaze. The shot is essentially conveying, “you don’t need a tv nor a laptop. You can listen or stream the lectures right from the comfort of your phone. Wherever you are”. Flexibility.

Now, let’s repeat this formula with a Spotify ad.

1) Color

In this ad, the main colors used are the from the vibrant tropical palette; lavender and pink flamingo. These colors are very popular amongst teens and college students; Spotify’s main consumers.

2) Free

The word free is used first to try out the service then a second time in their ‘call to action’ button.

By now, they assume that whoever has used Spotify with ads know how annoying those 30 seconds of advertisements are. So, what do they do?  They appeal to the consumer’s emotion: “Go Premium. Be happy”. In other words, “don’t worry about those pesky ads anymore, as a matter of fact, we’ll let you try it out for 30 days, free of charge”.

3) Enjoy

The person in the ad is assumed to be listening to music and dancing to it. Not a care in the world. This shot is a clear visual of how you also could be like the woman in the ad, taking delight in listening to music. No commercials to interrupt you.