TCC Podcast #379: Brainstorming Better Ideas with Shlomo Genchin

Brainstorming and creativity are often forgotten in the world of online marketing. We often jump straight into what will convert at the expense of the creative tools used by copywriters working in Ad Agencies around the world. In the 379th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, Kira and Rob talk with freelance advertising copywriter Shlomo Genchin about his processes for coming up with creative concepts that attract attention and engage readers and passers-by. Shlomo shared some great tips for finding better, bigger ideas for the work we do. Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Full Transcript: Rob Marsh: Have you noticed that the work most copywriters do doesn't exactly fall under the description of creative? Yeah, we write about ideas, hopefully big ideas, but the work of most copywriters is pretty common. It's like all of the other copy in their industry. So here's a test, choose a niche, doesn't matter which one, go to Google, find 10 companies in that niche and open up their websites. Then read the headlines. You can actually do this for the niche that you work in. Every time I do this, I'm amazed that about eight out of the 10 make pretty much the same promise in their headlines.  Now, usually it's something like save time, save money. They word it a little bit differently, but it's basically the same. And then the other two headlines are usually so bland that they're not really making any promise at all. They might be trying to describe what they do, but usually that even falls flat. And it's not just websites. With a few exceptions, ads look and feel the same. Even most content blurs into a vast mass of content schlock.  Hi, I'm Rob Marsh, one of the founders of The Copywriter Club. And on today's episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, my co-founder Kira Hug and I interviewed creative copywriter Shlomo Genshin. Shlomo writes a lot about his creative process, how he comes up with ideas, and how to think more expansively when developing things like headlines, hooks, and more. It's really the answer to this everybody looks the same problem. It's something that copywriters and content writers around the world definitely need to be doing more of. So we think you're going to like this episode.  But first, this episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is brought to you by The Copywriter Underground. That's the membership for copywriters and content writers that includes not just training, literally more than a hundred hours of training on different topics, but actual feedback on your copy, as well as monthly coaching calls from mentors you can trust, where you can get the help that you need to grow your business. I'm not going to share all of the details here. You can find out more at thecopyrighterclub.com/tcu. That's TCU for The Copywriter Underground, where you can join and immediately expand your network of amazing copywriters who are all working to grow and build something bigger together this year. Okay, let's go to our interview with Shlomo. Shlomo Genchin: So I started just like a lot of people, I just started looking for ways to maybe to get rich online. You know, how to start a business, how to make money online. And I came across all those regular scammers that you would see. They would tell you, get rich in 10 days. And I bought one of those courses. And nothing came out of it, of course, because it was kind of scammy and not really possible to apply… to kind of implement all of that.  But one thing I learned there was copywriting. Like the magic of copywriting, you can basically persuade any person to buy anything. And it's so easy. You just need some words. And it's so simple. And I was like, that sounds interesting. I could sell anything in the world, do affiliate marketing, and whatnot. And then I just went to Google and looked up the best copywriting school in the world. And what came up was Miami Ad School in Berlin. So that's it.  And fast forward, I created a little portfolio, started working for some clients just to get some experience. And I got in. I flew to Berlin and I moved there and started studying copywriting. And then I saw that it was so different from what I've learned before, because it wasn't just about writing hooks, or catchy headlines, or anything like that. It was really about creating concepts, and ideas, and doing PR, and all the things that ad agencies today do. First of all, more interesting and second they're kind of different because they're not just about like persuading people making them buy things because you trick them into this or you were like so clever and all that. But because the work is actually interesting and entertaining and like that's kind of my approach to content and to all those things today as well. Rob Marsh: Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't attend a portfolio school or an ad school when I started out, but I remember when I started my career a long time ago, seeing the ads for Miami Ad School, also VCU, some of the others that are out there. It's like, should I go? What will this add to my career? Tell us just a little bit more about that experience of attending an ad school, the kinds of courses that you took, and also the others that are there. Because it's not just copywriters. There's designers. There's producers, videographers. And how you work together, in some ways, my understanding is it's almost like a student advertising agency. Shlomo Genchin: Yeah, absolutely. It's exactly that. And you even take real clients at some point, like once you like learn the basics, you actually start taking clients like starting from like the second or third semester, which was pretty awesome. And I feel like it's like that experience was amazing, first of all, because They kind of approach education very differently. I guess it wouldn't be possible with other professions. You can do it in med school. You can start practicing right away. But in that school, it's pretty simple. Right from the start, they gave us real briefs. And teachers there, they're all working in ad agencies, and they all created directories. So they could also let us work on some briefs that their clients gave them and introduced us to startups and to interesting companies that we could work on. So that was pretty amazing. And I think in general, it's a very intense experience. I lived with a few roommates back then. during those times and like they just say like they didn't see me for two years basically because I was I was like either like you know at school or in my room just brainstorming all the time like it was such an intense experience and and you know like the school manager he would always say that the goal is to prepare us for the real world. And then once we get to an agency, it would be actually easier for us. Because working at an agency is also kind of intense. But then ad school, I think, is way more. You work all the time. You think all the time. Plus, you're not as experienced yet. So things are taking you way longer. Yeah. So eventually, it made me much, much better, I think. Kira Hug: Can you share contextually when you were in school, ad school, just so I have a better idea of, what those years were? Shlomo Genchin: Sure. Absolutely. So that was 2018 to 2021. Kira Hug: Okay. So let's continue the story then. So you leave school and what happens next? What does that process look like? Shlomo Genchin: Even before I leave school—all the, all the fun stuff happened while I was in school. because first of all, I got into this, into this internship at Ogilvy Berlin. And that was one of the greatest springboards I've ever had because I think something that's very special about this agency, I must say, and there are a few agencies like that, is that they would actually give you real work. You wouldn't be the intern who would look for stock photos or do anything like that. They would actually give you the most interesting briefs and give you an equal opportunity to crack them. And during that time, like during those like three months, you know, Wielder Berlin, I've done some of my best work. Like it was incredible. I've got that. I've got one brief for a ketchup company from Austria. And we won D&AD with those ads. And then, I think, got shortlisted and won some other awards. Anyway, but then we also had a brief for Burger King. And we won a bunch of awards for this one too, print ads. It was about our experience, basically, of all the creatives that worked on that. of how during that time during lockdown we would just sit outside and we would go out to eat and we couldn't like you know it was lockdown in Berlin and we couldn't like sit there at the restaurant or anything like that so we would have to take the food out and just improvise tables at different like random places you know so we would go to like I don't know just sit on the staircase or or like it's yeah just in the park or whatever And then when the lockdown was about to end, then Burger King asked us to create something that would talk about that. And we created this campaign where we just took pictures of people actually doing that thing on the street and said, proper dining is back. You can go back and eat at the restaurants. And that got a lot of words, a lot of views. And that was a really good beginning to my creative career. Rob Marsh: That's amazing. I am really curious about your brainstorming process. So, you know, you mentioned you get handed a brief and then, of course, that's what the work starts. You know, for most listeners who listen to our show, they're freelancers. They're usually not in an agency, although there are a few. So I'm curious about that process because I want to hear or I want to compare your process of brainstorming, coming up with ideas, concepts. hooks, headlines,