What can copywriters learn from one of the greatest bands of all time? Beyond creativity, The Beatles wrote a lot according to copywriting formulas and we will dive into their lyrics to find out how.
My passion for creative copywriting and my passion for the Beatles started almost at the same time, sometime pre-college. To me, they were a whole world full of music, with very different melodies from album to album and lyrics that told captivating stories.
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Luckily, creative copywriting became my profession and I still love The Beatles, but even if we put personal taste aside, I think we can all agree that they are the most commercially successful pop band ever. Whether it’s because of the melodies, the lyrics, the charisma, or even the hairstyles, their music connects with us in a unique way that continues to inspire artists from all over the world.
But what about creative copywriting? Can they also serve as inspiration?
Let’s start with storytelling. In “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” they tell a story that involves us right away:
Desmond has his barrow in the marketplace
Molly is the singer in a band
Desmond says to Molly: Girl, I like your face
And Molly says this as she takes him by the hand.
But what about Call-to-Actions?
We can find them for instance in the title “Let it be” and in the lyrics from “Lucy in the sky with Diamonds”: Picture yourself in a boat on a river …”
Another copywriting formula they often used was to speak directly to the audience, putting us right at the scene, and they do it in at least 39 in songs like “She loves you” and “All you need is love”.
If in copywriting we spend our day trying to make great headlines, in songwriting they created catchy titles like “Can’t buy me love” or “Help!”.
Last but not least, they mastered emotional triggers, using them to capture attention by talking about subjects that really matter to us like love, peace and freedom.
If it’s true that people shop for emotional rather than rational reasons, the Beatles are natural salespeople and tick all boxes for copywriting.
Therefore, I think we can learn from the way they write lyrics but also from their methods, and something the Beatles did often was feeding their creativity with other passions. That’s why, as a copywriter, I feel I can take the liberty to also continuing to be inspired by my passions, one of them being of course: The Beatles.
Jessica Santos
Creative Supervisor | Copywriter at 9
