A Few Tips on Writing a Television Ad

When I was in copywriting I was psyched the first chance I got to write a TV ad, until I realized I had no idea what I was doing. How do you format it? How do you cram a lot of information into just 30 seconds? And how do you make that mildly entertaining?
I found a few resources on writing television spots for you newbies. About Advertising has 10 Essentials to an Effective TV Commercial. From a school handout (really) a few suggestions on what messages to include in your spot–very basic, but then again it has a helpful rundown of approximately how many words are in 10, 20, 30, and 60-second spots. And finally, probably the most practically helpful, how to format the durn thing.

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion's Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook's Morin Oluwole, and bitly's Tim Devane. Register now.