Three weeks ago, I had a little too much time on my hand. So I decided to write mock Valentine’s Day copy for popular brands as a copywriting practice (and of course, to grab the attention of brands, audience, etc.)

I was happy with the copy; Priya (my designer) did an awesome job with the design; and the post performed decently with 200+ likes, 40+ comments, and a few reposts on LinkedIn.

…and on IG …and on X

I don’t do many mock copy, but the process itself is different, exciting, and something every writer should try, which is why I'm giving this breakdown of how I approached this entire situation.

I will keep this simple. We will talk only about two things:

1. Why 99% percent of mock copy on social media are stupid and how to do it right?

2. Breakdown of each copy I wrote

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Most writers think they are writing good copy but they aren’t. Rarely I find a mock copy which feels like the *real* one.

Answer this for me: what is a mock copy?

You are a writer. You can’t work with big or popular brands yet. But you want to check your work’s quality in an imaginary situation of ‘how would I write if this brand hires me?’ Or you just want to practice and build a portfolio …and so you write for them.

Correct?

In this entire process, writers tend to forget one crucial factor: understanding the brand’s side.

Lil on the tangent: Personally I am against writing mock copy to build a portfolio as a beginner. I am not telling it doesn’t help but it makes it difficult to get into clients’ shoes. Instead, I usually advice getting some real work done, even if it comes at a cost of working for free with someone you admire.

Anyway, back to understanding the brand’s side. What I have noticed is most writers present their side and totally forget the true definition of mock copy: writing as if the brand hired you.

You pick an idea. You think that’s cool. You think it can be said. You say it.

But what you fail to understand is every brand has a:

• tone

• style

• pattern(s)

• value system

• image to maintain

• purpose

For example:

I have seen writers mock write for Zomato. Everyone thinks Zomato writes witty copies with clever wordplay and they can do it too.

What they fail to see is Zomato writes witty copies with clever wordplay which is integrated with food in someway or the other.

Writers just write clever copy - but it doesn’t help with branding if food isn’t integrated. Eventually Zomato is a food delivery app, creating its content around food conversations.

Enough of rant and unsolicited gyan.
How to write a real mock copy?

Imagine *for real* that you are actually working with this brand. Ask yourself these questions:

1. If I had a brand manager, would he/she approve this?

2. If I keep the post anonymous and tell my friends it is from [brand name], would they believe it?

3. Would the brand’s PR be okay with this?

4. How would audience react (the brand’s audience, not yours!)?

5. What are the brand’s values? What do they stand for?

Hope this helps.

Coming to the core purpose of this issue, let me breakdown each mock copy I wrote and the thinking, techniques behind it.

1. Blinkit

Translates to: Not sure about her kisses, but we will ensure to deliver Hershey’s kisses

Honestly, I wanted to write a copy for Blinkit but not this one. I have used this cheesy kisses line in my teenage years and is still the first thought to write something witty for many professionals.

I wanted to do something different but we were working on 13th February and didn’t have any time to think something new.

Hence within the Hershey’s theme, I tried to make it more local by using Hindi.

For the wordplay, I was looking around the she/her pronouns. I googled and it turned we can use the pronouns she/her or her/she interchangeably. I was planning on using her/she and integrate it with Hersheys but everyone is familiar with she/her and the other one just sounds odd.

I dropped the her/she idea as it might not resonate and is a little difficult to read—and kept it basic with ‘her.’

2. Britannia

Little Hearts is nostalgic. I have a sweet tooth and this is my favourite childhood snack. The only other brand that gave a tough competition was Cadbury Bytes.

On an elemental level, I was looking for words you use with your partner, rhymes with little hearts, and matches the vibe of the snack. It didn’t take long before I picked sweetheart.

Then came the integration.

I wanted it to be a simple dialogue that portrays love. As far as I know, you can be the biggest foodie in the world and say “Joey doesn’t share food!!!” all the time, but you will always leave the last bite for one favourite person.

…and I wanted the copy to reflect food sharing in love—and hence: “Little Hearts, Sweetheart?”

3. Durex

Pick 20 copywriters and ask their dream brands, I am sure Durex will be a common name in all the lists. That’s how good Durex’s copywriting is.

As someone who always admired Durex (for copy that is) I didn’t want to embarrass myself by writing something stupid.

I went on the website and browsed through their catalogue because I noticed a pattern in most of their posts—they always find a way to plug in a product.

Honestly my thoughts were scattered. I was looking for phrases, product, wordplay and wit at the same time. It got confusing so I put everything aside to focus on two things:

1. A phrase that defines couples

2. A product made for couples

It hit me ‘Made for each other’ is a popular phrase to define couples and condoms are of course made for sexual pleasure. Then I found mutual climax condoms which were heavily advertised after their launch.

Using the popularity of the product and the phrase, I figured Durex would love to promote the fact that their condoms are catered to the pleasure of both people involved in sex.

In other words, Durex is made of each other’s pleasure.

…and the design took care of the rest.

4. Flipkart

I wanted to write this copy for Blinkit first, especially when I didn’t want to go with Hershey’s.

But I had to change it when I checked if Blinkit delivers ties. Turns out they don’t. They have only one product when I searched for ‘Tie for men.’

(that’s what I meant when I said you have to look at the brand’s side)

Next I checked on Flipkart and they have enough ties to do a copy on a it.

I was searching on these platforms because the word ‘order’ and the wordplay around it was already on my mind. I wanted to write a copy by just rotating the words.

The word ‘order’ is partly inspired from how Zomato used the same word for ‘We don’t take orders anymore’ copy on 15th August 2022 campaign.

I asked myself the same thing again: How would I integrate what couples do with what Flipkart sells. As an answer, I integrated BDSM, a product available on the platform, and a differentiator (Day/Night) to write the copy you see.

5. Prime Video

I actively follow Prime’s Insta and always admired how they contextually use dialogues from the movies/shows on their platform.

I wanted to do no different. I was sure it has to be a dialogue.

I logged into prime and browsed all the movies to see if something hits my marketing brain.

Fifteen minutes later, “I am gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” made sense. I watched Godfather some time ago and loved it. I also know it’s one of the most popular dialogues out there.

But when I showed it to my designer, she asked “is this a dialogue? is it popular?”

I realized maybe not everyone knows about the film and the dialogue considering the film was released in 1972.

So I changed the Valentine’s integration, ‘- every girl tonight’ to ‘- The Godfather every girl tonight’ to make it more obvious and clear.

6. Spotify

Spotify Wrapped has been a huge hit during the yearend in the last two years. I thought Spotify Wrapped for Valentine’s is something the brand would like to do considering the reach it gets based on how users share it on Twitter.

When I tried to picture how the brand would portray lovers listening to music, I thought of a girl wrapped in a guy’s arms, sitting by the window with a wired earphone plugged into their ears.

It felt perfect - so I made the entire copy around Spotify about a collection of your romantic listens for you to listen with your partner.

7. Tinder

I wanted to do something different with Tinder. While all brands are integrating their products/services with the Valentine’s theme, I wanted Tinder to go against the tide and say “we don’t want you to use us today.”

The idea was to promote the goodwill of “We want you to be with someone today and we don’t want you to stay on our app, searching for someone, which is why we don’t really mind if you don’t use our app today. Because we will be happy you are with someone special.”

It is an indirect way of saying the brand cares for you more than its traffic.

That’s all I have with this issue.

• Big shout to my designer, Priya who amplified the copies and gave her touch to make the copies look like they’ve been posted from the original brand’s account!

• I am gonna share a special email by this weekend, which will bring us closer and focuses on delivering more value.

One last thing:

It took me nearly four hours of focussed writing to bring this issue to you. If you like the content and find it helpful, please please please share it with more folks and ask them to subscribe. I need more readers to grow and continue providing value to you and if you can help me reach at least one more reader, it would mean the world to me.

I will see you soon!

Take care, stay safe, and write mock copy! (correctly :p)

Love and hugs,
Vikra