Bright Ideas # 90 - Copyrighting your work

This week, I'm going to answer an interesting question sent to me by one of my subscribers, mortgage broker Michael Brown. Here's what he wrote...

"Stacy, I enjoyed [your last] article very much. I too have become a connoisseur of marketing ideas.

My question is........

How can I protect my ads from being reused in the future?

I wrote a commercial that I believe to be very clever and I even used it myself in a 30 second television commercial, but I have no way of keeping the production manager from reissuing that idea to someone else and profiting from my slogan.

I often wondered if I should try to copy write [sp] it and sell it to a bigger Mortgage company. Your thoughts?"

First, before I answer this question, I want to state unequivocally that I'm not a lawyer. And I am absolutely not qualified to give legal advice or act as legal council.
That being said, here is what I do know about copyright law...

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Copyrighting Your Work
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According to the folks at www.copyrighting.gov, "Copyright protects "original works of authorship" that are fixed in a tangible form of expression".

Basically, copyrighting protects written words, music, plays, choreography, film etc., so long as there is some sort of physical copy of it somewhere.

This is different from a trademark, which protects words, names, symbols, colors or sounds associated with a product or company (IE the logo, tag line, business name, etc.) that differentiates it from others.

The best part is, you do not need to do anything to copyright your work--although you can register it if you want.

In fact, you don't even have to have a copyright mark (something like this: (c) 2006 John Doe) on most written work. Copyright protection is secured the minute the work is created.

However, putting a copyright mark on your work is generally recommended as an added deterrent to plagiarism. And because it makes it easier to prove ownership should you ever go to court.

The catch is that it is up to you to police your own copyrighted materials. In other words, anyone can steal your work. But copyrighting gives you the right to go after them and take them to court.

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So, to answer Mike's questions...
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First; yes, absolutely I would copyright the script with a copyright mark at the bottom. You can also put your copyright stamp on the video of the commercial as well.
Second, once you've done that you just have trust in the integrity of other people. If you are truly worried that the production manager might steal your commercial or slogan, find someone else to work with.

Finally, I would not recommend trying to sell your commercial to a bigger mortgage company for a few reasons...

1) Most larger companies are likely already working with an ad agency or professional copywriter to create all their advertising and marketing materials. And if those folks are any good, they are carefully creating each ad to build and reinforce a certain brand image.

So even if a company was willing to consider buying it, the chances of this ad fitting with their branding strategy are not high.

2) Since the goal of any advertising is to make you stand out from the competition, the fact that you have previously run the ad makes it much less valuable. Why would another company want to run the same ad you've been using?

3) Although the ad is clever, it has no measurable direct response mechanism (IE call to get this fr*ee report, or call and mention this discount code, etc.). So it's hard to tell how effective it is. It's going to be difficult to sell an ad that isn't proven to make money--especially one written by someone who has no track record as an advertising copywriting.

4) Unless you have insider contacts or a background in putting these kinds of deals together, you could easily end up doing an awful lot of work for little or no return.

So, if the ad generates a measurable response and a decent return on investment, your best bet is to keep using it yourself.

If you have no way to measure response, tweak it until you do. Then see if it is indeed worth using.

But keep in mind that any one ad all by itself is rarely enough to grow a business. You need a strategic plan, and a set of cohesive tactics that build upon each other, to differentiate you and keep you top of mind.

If you're struggling to do just that, grab a copy of my Marketing Mastery Platinum Package. In it you get a copy of my easy-to-use marketing plan e-workbook "Putting Your Business on the Road to Success" complete with bonus audios and a certificate for a F*ree marketing plan critique (worth $250). Plus you get audios and transcripts of both my "Turn Your Website into Your #1 Salesperson" and "How to Choose the Best Marketing Tactics for Your Business"
workshops.

And, if you order before midnight this Friday (that's tomorrow night) with SPECIAL DISCOUNT CODE 327120, you get 20% off any of my products as part of my subscriber-only new product launch promotion.

So you can get the entire Platinum Package for the cost of a nice dinner out with the family. And it comes with my 1 Year, No Questions Asked 110% Guarantee. You can't beat that with a stick.

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Do you have a marketing, advertising or writing question you’d like to have answered? Email me and you might see the answer in a future edition of Bright Ideas.

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