0:00 Pat

Hi, Pat the podcast editor here. What does it take to write a script that converts customers? Well, today, Dan and Lloyd discuss the importance of your scripts and how small choices can have a big impact.

0:12 Lloyd

You might say a word or phrase that turns off 2% of people, if you’re putting paid-spend behind that you’re going to exaggerate that result. So rather than like 20 people going, Oh no not for me, maybe 200,000 people get switched off, you get a much worse return on your investment.

0:34 Pat

We also explore some of the ways that Dan and Lloyd make sure their videos are relatable and hook in the right audiences.

0:40 Lloyd

We had a title come up after the hook title on screens saying creative marketing agency, the edgy one. So that’s if you’re in marketing, there’s the word marketing on the screen. If there’s any doubt then you’re going oh, this is a thing relevant to marketers? That’s me. Yeah. This is a video made for me that I should watch.

1:00 Pat

Right? Let’s get stuck in. This is episode 84 of the business anchors podcast.

1:17 Dan

Why are we talking about scriptwriting Lloyd? Surely we can just wing it when speaking on video like we used to?

1:22 Lloyd

Well, you could wing it if you want. But if you’re, if you’ve got specific goals you’re trying to achieve, then language and communication are important. It’s important to be specific with that language.

1:38 Dan

I remember when we started making videos, I don’t think we ever scripted anything, did we?

1:43 Lloyd

No, no we would kind of have bullet pilot points.

1:48 Dan

It just took ages and they weren’t that good. And then I think when we realised, we don’t mean scripting as in this isn’t completely scripted, we’re not reading off a bit of paper now.

2:02 Lloyd

No, we are not. Pause for Dan to laugh.

2:13 Dan

Explain what we mean by scripting Lloyd, why will anchors give a shit about this episode, basically, what value are we adding.

2:19 Lloyd

If you’re into creativity and scriptwriting and video, you’d be very interested but also more about communication and how in your marketing or in anything you do that you want to communicate to anyone in the world.

Especially with the sorts of stuff we do, so we create videos for online platforms, and social paid ad campaigns, if you’re creating a video, and you’re gonna post it organically on the internet somewhere, so say you’re gonna post a video to Instagram or reels.

Then you might say a word or phrase that turns off 2% of people as in like, you kind of show that you’re not an expert in this thing because you use the wrong terminology, you might use a certain word. If you post that organically 2 people might go I’m going to stop watching that.

If you’re putting paid-spend behind that to let more people see it, which you do in marketing, normally with anything, you’re going to exaggerate that result. So rather than like 20 people going, Oh, nope not for me. Maybe 200,000 People get switched off, you get a much worse return on your investment.

And it could be the same the other way, if you do something positive, those specific ways you communicate and that language you use those words, those phrases that laugh that relatability is going to exaggerate and have a huge effect.

4:00 Dan

We understand this. Because when we’re producing videos for clients, we have to make sure that what’s being said is the correct information like for your own company, you know, you may be listening and have your own company, so I know what I’m talking about.

But if you’re marketing and providing marketing service for some services for someone else, you need to make sure the wording is correct.

4:20 Lloyd

The specificity of language and communication is much more important than people think. And there are a couple of examples that I’ve read or listened to this week, and one is one from Spotify. So this isn’t a part of a video script or anything but this is the text that was on their platform.

And they changed free users to saying your subscription is currently free to your subscription is currently zero pounds, zero pence. And that change meant more people click the button underneath to sign up for a premium account, so like a change of a word, especially if you’re a big business or you’re planning to have, 100,000, millions of people look at things that might have got them another 200,000 users worldwide.

And there’s another example in Facebook, in the early years of Facebook when they were trying to increase their user base around the world. In the culture of Japan, it’s seen as rude to invite people to say you’re a Facebook user around the world. Normally, it’s like you sign up, invite your friends and invite them.

In Japan obviously, I don’t understand the Japanese culture well, but the guy that was in charge of this in Japan said, it’s seen as rude to kind of invite people to stuff like that. And they change the word invite to announce that you’re on Facebook.

And suddenly, it became one of the quickest growing countries for Facebook users where it was the slowest. So words, you have much more impact than you could ever imagine, especially if you’re scaling them in a marketing context.

6:11 Dan

On that note, I want us to try something completely different than we’ve never done in business anchors history, Lloyd. I want us to actually read through one of our most recent scripts for a Knowlton video, and then dissect it and talk about why we’ve done what we’ve done. And by the way, this is mainly you.

6:32 Lloyd

Do you know what, that makes perfect sense as to why you printed the script and go Yeah, for this episode? I did think it was weird.

6:39 Dan

But I think this would be a good way of a real-life example of a video that we’re producing today actually, we’re producing this video. And this is the script that you’ve developed based on ours.

6:50 Lloyd

Should we do what we do? At Knowlton? Yeah, you’re not usually involved in this process table. Both the production team and the creative team usually do a table read of a script when we have it.

As in, we read what the characters say, the bits in the script. Shall we do that for business anchors, give them an insight. And then afterwards, we’ll get into the detail.

7:09 Dan

Do you want to start by giving the context of what this video is?

7:14 Lloyd

Yeah. So at Knowlton, what we are trying to achieve, because we always tell you, this is important to understand that so, hopefully, you understand that we are trying to reach as many sorts of marketing manager level people in brands and businesses around the UK.

That’s our main thing. A secondary goal is to try and convince them we know what we’re doing. Well, Dan. Let’s go into every other marketing podcast. I do actually have four steps.

7:40 Dan

And convert them as clients.

7:41 Lloyd

Yeah, yeah. So this script is about a marketing meeting. Oh, relatable. So I’ll play the role of Edgy Sean.

Do you wanna play the role of Ben?

7:59 Dan

Yep. Then we’ve got boss Barbara as well.

8:04 Lloyd

Okay, shall I play boss Barbara? And you read the parts in between.

8:08 Dan

Okay, Yeah. So this is a creative marketing agency meeting. That we’re going through, shall we start? Are you ready? Okay.

So, hook section. Quick two to five seconds of Edgy Shawn enthusiastically shouting his edgy shit thoughts and ideas.

8:29 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: Fudge the client, fudge the boss. No one says another word until you’re over the drink-drive limit.

8:39 Dan

Does that say title creative marketing agency?

8:42 Lloyd

You can tell Dan isn’t usually part of our table read. So now title on screen, Creative Marketing Agency, The Edgy One.

8:49 Dan

We see a group of creative marketers around a table ready to start a meeting.

8:54 Lloyd

Boss Barbara: We’re here to discuss some creative ideas and concepts for some amazing brands. There’s a lot to do so let’s get straight into it. Ben?

9:02 Dan

Ben: First up we have Grenade, protein bars, energy drinks, performance nutrition. Shot of team member about to speak whip pan to edgy Sean sat back was on my chair in the corner drinking directly out of the coffee pot.

9:15 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: We change the pronunciation of Grenade to *Pooooowhhh*.

9:20 Dan

Ben: We can’t change the name of the brand Sean.

9:22 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: Can’t is just can with the T. Oh, next page of the script, right? Yes. Sounds are more recognisable than words. But bah bah, bah, I’m loving it.

9:38 Dan

Sean looks around the room encouraging others in the meeting to speak.

9:41 Lloyd

Boss Barbara: McDonald’s?

Edgy Sean: *Pooooowhhh*.

Boss Barbara: Grenade?

Edgy Sean: I don’t know the brand of that name. But if you mean *Pooooowhhh* you’d be right for once Barbara.

9:52 Dan

Ben: Sean, the clients not going to authorise that.

9:55 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: F the client.

9:57 Dan

Ben: We can’t though can we Sean, they pay us and doing that with a client was what got you your first written warning from the boss.

10:04 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: Fudge the boss.

10:05 Dan

Whip pan to Boss. Boss looks horrified.

Ben: I’m not sure this is useful.

10:11 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: You’re making a bad call guys. In 2008 McDonald’s ignored my Mcfudger idea and they haven’t recovered since.

10:19 Dan

Ben: I think they’re doing all right, Sean.

10:20 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: Fudge Ronald (Quietly in the background was Barbara beginning to speak.)

10:25 Lloyd

Boss Barbara: Let’s move on, to the ecology project. They’re focused on climate solutions, carbon reduction, and tree planting to try and undo the damage we’re doing to the planet. Wholesome stuff. The video is a triangle. No one’s done it before.

10:38 Dan

Ben: But surely they haven’t done it because none of our screens are triangular. And what video?

10:44 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: The video is just constantly spinning.

10:47 Dan

Ben: Sean that isn’t a concept. That’s just a spinning triangle.

10:51 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: I drink sambuca through my eye and only take eyedrops through my mouth.

10:55 Dan

Ben: Sean now we’re just saying things to try and be edgy that have no link to this conversation.

11:01 Lloyd

These pages are very hard to turn, aren’t they?

Edgy Sean: Okay, fine. We got 100 of us in a room and we do a shot for every time there’s a tree planted. p>

11:08 Dan

It’s you boss Barbara. p>

11:13 Lloyd

Boss Barbara: Oh, they’ve planted over 30 million trees, Sean. Exactly. If anyone is used to social norms and business, as usual, you might want to step out, this is business as unusual.

11:28 Dan

Ben: Sean, we’re not going to get anywhere just shouting swear words. At Knowlton, we have processes and structures in place to maximise our creativity in ways that benefit our clients. Our concepts need strong hooks in the first three seconds otherwise, no one will watch.

We need to engage the target market in the next couple of seconds to ensure the concept is relatable, and viewers think this is for me.

11:51 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: Maybe it’s not for them.

11:53 Dan

Ben: That doesn’t make any sense, Sean.

11:55 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: Maybe that’s a good thing.

11:57 Dan

Ben: You’re saying anything to contradict the norm. But none of it makes any sense. We can’t entertain this anymore.

12:07 Lloyd

Edgy Sean: Maybe our ads shouldn’t be entertaining.

12:10 Dan

Ben: The entertainment in our ads is what allows us to engage the viewer for long enough to communicate what we need to about the brand we’re representing.

12:18 Lloyd

Nice, that’s kind of, where we’ve got to with that. There are a few lines that didn’t make the cut at the end. One of my favourites is the videos of the ice cream and you’re the cone. I’m the flake, I’m going to get inside the ice cream. Doesn’t make sense, that’s probably why It didn’t make the cut.

12:37 Dan

We’re also going to make a shortcut TikTok sketch video of you just saying edgy lines.

12:43 Lloyd

We need to push boundaries here? Mood boards put me in a bored mood. Let’s make notes on the wall. And yeah, so obviously, we’re pretty bad at that.

12:55 Dan

So what that was was it was playing out at a marketing meeting where there’s a guy who’s just trying to be edgy. Because you know, sometimes you get that in marketing people just trying to be weird, because it’s marketing like let’s do this.

13:17 Lloyd

Yeah, exactly. If you’re in a marketing department in a big business, or you’ve worked in agencies if you’ve been there several years, you’ve likely come across a character like Edgy Sean, someone that’s just coming up with different ideas, but only for the sake of it not to benefit anything.

Yeah, so that’s the whole idea. We spoke in the last episode about how it needs to be able to relate to your audience. And this is someone in our, the world of marketing, and the world of creative strategy and stuff. There’s all there’s always an Edgy Sean on who’s just trying to be different and weird.

13:57 Dan

So what I think is clever about this is that it hooks you in instantly like there’s this weird edgy character who’s dressed weird and saying relatable stuff. It hooks you in and grabs your attention and is relatable long enough for us to then actually communicate some sales messages, that are talking about why Knowlton are good.

If you were listening to the final part of the video is like well at Knowlton we don’t just do that we do this and this rather than this just being a sales video, come work with us, at Knowlton, we can do creative stuff.

14:29 Lloyd

Exactly. That first point that we spoke about in the previous episode is about a thumb-stopping hook to a video and you might notice here it starts with five seconds of Edgy Sean enthusiastically shouting edgy shit thoughts and ideas. Fudge the client.

By the way, it’s it I said fudge instead of you know, I didn’t want to offend you guys. Fudge the client, fudge the boss. No one says another word until you’re over the drink-drive limit.

14:58 Dan

So ridiculous.

15:00 Lloyd

If we’re thinking about standard storytelling, that’s not the start of the story. That’s just some random funny lines he said. But because it’s an online ad, we need to hook people in with this kind of stuff to make sure we get their attention at the start. So that’s why it’s there.

If you were just telling this story, you would have just started with Barbara saying, we’re here to discuss some creative ideas and concepts for some amazing brands. But that’s not going to get the attention that shouting, fudge the client fudge is gonna get.

15:32 Dan

And I think this has also got the light bulb moments that we always speak about, when you see Edgy Sean, we should show what’s what you shouldn’t be doing in a marketing meeting to come up with creative ideas, it then gives us the ability to then position Knowlton, as this is how you should be doing it, rather than doing it like Edgy Sean with his spinning triangle.

15:53 Lloyd

yeah, it’s that lightbulb moment that we’ve spoken about in previous episodes, you need the viewers and the people you’re trying to convince to have that thing of saying, oh, that’s me, I need that.

Where we’re taking the Mickey in an exaggerated way out of a creative meeting where basically, you need to come up with some great ideas for your marketing projects. And it’s tough. And then we add a bit in with a relatable character kind of saying, oh, Knowlton, we do this. And it’s kind of like, supposed to be that thing of, ah, I need that so I stopped wasting time in these creative meetings. And we’re not coming up with good enough ideas.

16:29 Dan

So I guess to provide value to some of the listeners, you’re one of the people that write these kinds of scripts. What advice do you have? Or what approach do you take to write these scripts that could be useful to listeners? Are there any tips that you’ve got?

16:46 Lloyd

Well, there are lots of things that we’ve spoken about previously, I guess we’ve already spoken about the hook. That’s so key at the start, we need it to be relatable, just like we’re talking about in a lot of things relating to the previous episode. But you need it to be relatable to who you’re trying to get in front of.

For this obviously, it’s marketers. And that’s why it’s a marketing meeting setting, you need people to think this is for me. So even elements, like we had a title come up after the hook title on screens and creative marketing agency, the edgy one.

So that’s if you’re in marketing, there’s the word marketing on the screen. If there’s any doubt, then you’re going oh, this is a thing relevant to marketers? That’s me. Yeah. This is a video made for me that I should watch. So that’s important early on in the video.

17:35 Dan

Where do you just random questions, but you’re good at coming up with these characters? Where do you get inspiration for these characters from when you’re writing stuff? Like, um, for client campaigns? We’ve had a whole raft of interesting characters in client concepts. Where do you get inspiration from?

17:51 Lloyd

So a few places? One, we’ve mentioned this before, the to the anchors, not from ads. So basically, if you’re looking in your industry, or what’s the best marketing ad, you’re not going to find really good characters and entertaining. So from shows like the office that’s seen as one of the best comedies ever made and stuff for sitcoms, like, get your inspiration from, from characters on there.

Also like real life, like exaggerated versions of people you meet in real life.

18:27 Dan

We’ve done episodes before about networking, like one of our past services talking about that. And we’ve met some really interesting characters like the lady who tried to heal you with stones.

18:35 Lloyd

Exactly. And some characters are exaggerated versions of the guy that tried to tell me that cows would explode if we didn’t drink milk at networking events. By that guy. He’s a nice guy’s he’s funny, but obviously, an exaggerated version of him is a great character.

But yeah, I think trying to create that relatable kind of exaggerated character in this kind of video is key.

One big tip as well. So, Dan, I don’t think you’re aware. But this was the first draft of the script. And it’s been improved since. And one of my biggest tips is if you’re writing a script, or even if it’s not a script like this, and you’re just writing notes for your first video, and you’re kind of just writing almost the story, because you haven’t done this before you’re writing bullet points, get someone else to read it and be critical with feedback.

Ellie, who’s a great part of our team, our production team. Now knows I won’t be offended if she just writes notes all over the scripts. This is bad. This should be cut. This could be funnier. That’s what she did for me. Yesterday when I did the second draft for this script. And it’s so helpful because there’s perfection is too much for any one person.

And obviously, with stuff like this is like you’re trying to get the closest you can to the perfection of how good this video can be, how relatable it could be, how entertaining it can be, how well you can persuade the viewers to do what you want them to do and take the action.

And it’s just too much for one person, if you get someone else’s eyes on it, that has the confidence to be critical. It’s very helpful.

Why are you smiling?

20:24 Dan

Just because you always get me to look at this kind of thing as well. And it’s always a good sign when I’m laughing to myself and reading it. And this was one of those were things like the spinning triangle video just really tickled me.

20:39 Lloyd

That’s another point I was gonna make. So I think we usually, with scripts like this is a working environment, we send it to each other for feedback and stuff. And you’re the first person I got to read this, Dan, and I deliberately watched your reaction while you were reading it.

Because it’s such a key, we always talk about triggering emotion. And that’s what helps in marketing, how you’re going to get people to take action and feel something. And with a lot of this, we’re trying to trigger like joy, and we’re trying to make people laugh and that kind of thing.

When Dan was reading this, there were a few bits where he laughed out loud while he was reading it. And then I said, Well, what, what are you laughing at there? Because it’s the first experience of okay, one person’s looking at the script. And these parts already make them laugh out loud and trigger emotion. So obviously, we need more bits like that we need more of that.

And any bits where he was just kind of silently reading, you probably think, okay, there’s probably a bit of a gap there where there’s not enough so losing that and getting someone’s reaction before it goes to the world.

21:49 Dan

This was one of the best bits that made me laugh as well. He says, I only drink sambuca through my eye and only take eyedrops through my mouth. How do you come up with this ridiculous shit?

21:58 Lloyd

What is the benefit of having very strange thoughts? It becomes useful when you’re trying to write a script that’s supposed to be funny.

22:10 Dan

I found that quite interesting. I hope that was interesting to the listeners. And this is a bit of a different style of a podcast episode. But we thought we’d give it a go. And hopefully, you found this useful.

22:22 Lloyd

This gives you a bit more of an insight into our business and the random things that we do that are such an important part of our world that might not be part of your world. Yeah, in the different business anchors, listeners, homes and workplaces. But if you want to hear any more like see or hear any more parts in detail about what we do let us know, because we’re just trying to do the best stuff for you really, whatever you’ll be interested in.

22:45 Dan

This video will be live when this podcast is out. So go to our LinkedIn or my LinkedIn.

22:52 Lloyd

It’ll be the one with millions of views. With viewers going ‘Oh my god, this deserves an Oscar’.

22:58 Dan

And if you have found this useful, and you think anyone else would be interested, please do tell them about the business anchors podcast so that we can spread the love and get more people in our little community of anchors.

23:08 Lloyd

And if you have any expertise in scriptwriting, please let me know I want to learn and improve and improve everything we’re doing. I’m open to your critical feedback.

23:18 Dan

See you next week in your ears.

23:20 Dan

See you in your ears.

Hopefully this has been useful and taught you a little more about how to format a script that can drive sales and leads. If you have any more questions or want to know how Knowlton can support you in scriptwriting or video production Start A Conversation.