A Chocolate Bar for Dogs

“Calling all copywriters” was the link at the top of the list after a woman conducted a search on the Internet for career opportunities in copywriting. The woman clicked on the link and was taken to a website that was announcing a contest for emerging copywriters.

The contest provides an opportunity for the winning participants to work with a top-rated advertising company. The website includes an entry form and the woman decides to complete the application. She is asked to provide a resume, a writing portfolio, and to submit answers to a few questions.

When asked why she wants to participate in the contest, the woman writes “I have been copywriting for a few years and the contest would provide an excellent opportunity for me to test my skills as well as the chance to work with an advertising company.”

The woman is contacted for an initial phone screen. She is asked if she is still interested in participating in the contest. The woman replies “Yes” and answers a few questions. At the end of the call, the interviewer says, “I would like to have you speak with one of the people managing the contest. Would you be available for another phone call?”

The woman replies “Yes”. The interviewer pulls up the contest manager’s schedule and provides the woman a few dates and times. After listening to a few dates and times, the woman says, “I would be available next Monday at ten am.”

The following Monday, the woman calls into the conference bridge at ten o’clock and waits for the call to begin. A few minutes later, the contest manager joins the call and says, “Good morning. How are you?”

The woman answers, “I am well. I have been looking forward to this call.”

The contest manager laughs and says, “I hope you still feel that way after the call.” The contest manager continues, “Don’t mind me. We’ve been working through all the logistics related to the contest and we received more entries than we anticipated. It’s going to be a more challenging contest than we originally planned, but a great opportunity for the right participants.”

The contest manager continues, “I had a chance to review your resume and writing portfolio, and we would not have contacted you unless we felt you would make a good participant. Why are you interested in participating in the contest?”

The woman answers, “I learned about the contest after conducting a job search for copywriting opportunities. I clicked on the website and the contest would be a good opportunity to test my skills. It looks like that as part of the contest you have a chance to develop a marketing campaign. The winning participants have a chance to work with an advertising agency and that opportunity would provide valuable experience.”

The contest manager replies, “The contest is a great opportunity to help people develop their copywriting skills.”

The contest manager asks her a few more questions about her background and asks her to explain the strategy behind a few of the ads in her writing portfolio.

At the end of the call, the contest manager says, “I would like to arrange to have visit our office and meet a few more people. I will have my administrative assistant contact you about scheduling the interview.”

The woman receives an e-mail communication from the administrative assistant the following day with a few suggested dates. The woman responds with her availability and the interview is scheduled for the following Friday.

The woman arrives early for the day of interviews and waits in the lobby. A few minutes after 9 a.m., the administrative assistant opens the door and enters the lobby. She then says, “Are you Cheri?”

The woman answers, “Yes.”

The administrative assistant says, “It’s nice to meet you. I will take you to the interview room.”

Cheri follows the administrative assistant as they walk down the hallway. The administrative assistant stops at the elevator and presses the button with the “Up” arrow. Once the elevator arrives, they enter it, and the administrative assistant presses the button with the number “8”.

Once they reach the eighth floor, Cheri follows the administrative assistant to a conference room. There is a name card with her name and a booklet at one of the seats around the conference table. The administrative assistant says, “Please help yourself to some coffee or water. There is also some information about the contest you can read. The interview will begin shortly.”

Cheri picks up a bottle of water and sits down at the chair behind where her name card is located. She begins looking through the booklet with the contest information. A few minutes later, someone enters the room for her first of a series of interviews.

At the end of the day, she meets with the contest manager. The contest manager says, “How are you doing? I know it’s been a long day.”

Cheri says, “I’m fine. I’ve enjoyed meeting the people who are managing the contest and I’ve been learning more about what’s involved.”

The contest manager says, “The interview went well, but we are still in the process of interviewing other potential contestants. Someone will follow-up with you within the next week or two about whether or not you have been selected for the contest.”

A week later, Cheri opens her e-mail to find a message that says, “Congratulations! You have been selected for the Calling All Copywriters Contest.”

Cheri prepares for the copywriting contest by reviewing her notes from the materials she has gathered over the years. She is slightly nervous, but excited with anticipation as the interviews prepared her in terms of what to expect.

The contest will take place at a hotel. On the day of the contest, Cheri arrives early. She checks in and is asked to take a seat in a large ballroom. There is coffee and water available at one of the tables and she stops to make a cup of coffee before taking a seat. A little after nine am, someone from the contest enters the ballroom and asks all the contestants to enter another room.

There are a total of thirty contestants. They are taken into another ballroom. There is a stage located at the front of the room. The host of the contest stands behind a podium on the stage. Underneath the stage, there are three judges seated at a long rectangular table.

The host of the contest greets the participants by saying, “Welcome to the Calling All Copywriters Contest. We are very excited to have you here. We have a big day ahead of us. Please take a seat at one of the stations.”

Cheri takes a seat at one of the stations. There is a tablet located on the desk as well as a pad of paper and a few writing utensils.

After all the participants get situated, the host explains the rules of the contest. There will be three rounds. At the end of the third round, the top three scoring contestants will have a chance to work with an advertising agency.

The host reads the question for the first round that is displayed on a large screen at the front of the room, “A company is planning to introduce a new chocolate bar for dogs. What would you name it?”

The participants have 60 seconds to provide an answer. They are asked to enter their information on the tablet and hit the “Submit” button.

Cheri quickly thinks of a response and enters, “Chocolate Bars for Mutts and Pups”. Cheri makes it to the second round along with nine others. The host reads the question for the second round that is projected on screen to the ten participants, “If you were to create a subject heading for an e-mail communication announcing the new chocolate bar for dogs, what would you write and why?”

Cheri writes, “Introducing a New Chocolate Bar for Dogs” and provides a reason why. She submits her response on the tablet.

Each participant is asked to stand in front of the judges and explain what they wrote and why. When it is Cheri’s turn she says, “I wrote, ‘Introducing a New Chocolate Bar for Dogs’. I chose a newsworthy headline because the information that is being communicated is new, and I felt it would encourage someone to open the message.”

One of the judges challenges her by saying, “The headline is not very original.”

Cheri responds, “It’s not very original, but given the topic, I still think it would encourage someone to open the message to learn more because it’s a new offering. There aren’t chocolate bars for dogs so the information is new. The headline also does not mislead. Once you open the message, there would be information about the new product. I think there is a good chance people would read the message.”

After everyone has a chance to explain their headline to the judges, the judges leave the room for about thirty minutes. Once they return, they hand a piece of paper to the host. The host announces the five winners who have made it to the final round. Cheri is one of the five final contestants.

There is a thirty-minute break for lunch. After the lunch break, the participants once again take their place at their station and wait for the host to announce the activity for the final round.

For the final round, the host explains that they will be given one hour to develop a marketing campaign for the new chocolate bar for dogs. The marketing campaign should include information about the target audience, one ad execution, and how they would test it. Each participant is asked to prepare a small presentation on a laptop computer that they will present to the judges.

The participants can work on the presentation at their station or at one of the tables in the back of the room. Cheri decides to work at one of the tablet in the back of the room. She takes the tablet with her along with a pad of paper. She quickly begins developing the information on the pad of paper before entering it into the laptop computer.

At the end of the hour, the participants are asked to take their seat at their station. The host explains that they have each been assigned a number and the judges will randomly draw out a number from a glass bowl.

Cheri has been assigned the number “three” and her number is drawn after the first presentation. She sets up her laptop on a table that is placed in front of the judges. She waits for it to be projected on screen and then explains the information on each slide.

Cheri begins, “I named the product ‘Chocolate Bars for Mutts and Pups’ and the target audience is dog owners who want to provide healthy indulgent treats for their dogs. For the ad concept, the headline is ‘No More Excuses’. There are two side by side images. On the left-hand side, there would be a small boy holding a half-eaten candy bar. Underneath the image, there would be a caption that says, ‘My dog ate my chocolate bar.’ On the right-hand side, there would be an image of an adult that looks like they are praising a sitting dog as they provide the dog with the chocolate bar as a treat. The caption underneath the image says, ‘Now your dog can have a chocolate bar’.

Cheri continues, the ad explains that the chocolate bars are designed for dogs and include healthy ingredients. The chocolate bars are available in three varieties including chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, and dark chocolate.

To test the idea, Cheri recommends conducting a concept test with consumers. If it is rated favorably, she would recommend moving forward with developing the ad.

After all five participants present their presentation, the judges once again leave the room. After about thirty minutes, they return to the room and hand the host a piece of paper.

The host announces the three participants that have won the contest. Each one of them will have an opportunity to work with an advertising company and pitch their idea. Cheri is one of the three winning participants.

A few weeks later, Cheri receives a packet of information in the mail with details about the advertising company. On her first day, she spends most of the day in training sessions. At the end of the week, there is a meeting where she presents a revised presentation to explain the ad concept.

It takes a few weeks, but they eventually have an opportunity to present the ad concept to one of their clients in the pet division. The client agrees with the plan to test the concept.

The concept scores low on believability, and a review of the comments suggests that consumers are somewhat skeptical about feeding their dog chocolate.

A meeting with Research and Development at the client company confirms some of the information from the ad test. At the end of the results presentation, someone says, “We’ve tested a number of similar concepts and have received some of the same information in terms of feeding dogs chocolate.”

While Cheri is disappointed that they will not be able to move forward with developing the chocolate bar for dogs, she knows it is for the best. She continues to work with the advertising company for a number of years and develops a number of pet campaigns including an initiative to encourage pet adoption called “Adopt a pooch or two”, a new dog treat called “Dog treats with meats”, and a specially-formulated shampoo called “Fleeing fleas”.