The mission of Curated Creative is to highlight members of GeniusRocket’s Creative Community and bring them closer to you through their personal stories and explanations of creative methods. Today, we feature creative writer Gil Zeimer.

Gil Zeimer is a San Francisco Bay Area writer with an international presence. He has been a professional creative writer for more than 25 years, doing freelance projects for big-brand clients such as Intel, Blue Cross, Nestlé, and Wells Fargo. Specializing in personalized service, creative problem solving, and marketing consulting, Gil can help write across a wide range of media platforms such as radio, TV, and online channels.

Scuba Gil

What has intrigued you about GeniusRocket as a company?
I’ve been very impressed that you guys have blue chip clients who are willing to pay for top creative. GeniusRocket provides an opportunity to work with notable brands on a flexible schedule.

What do you think are the keys to brewing creativity?
My mission as a writer is to always put myself in the client’s or the customer’s shoes. I ask myself, “what would make the customer take the next step?” After I determine what their pain points are, I then brainstorm about how my communication can solve that problem with a creative twist that puts a smile on their face.

My philosophy has always been entertain them before you educate them. I learned this from a mentor of mine, Hal Riney, a famous San Francisco ad writer and member of the Advertising Hall of Fame. A large base of my writing has been humor. I can’t always use it in my work, but I do it whenever possible. My father has a great personality and a great sense of humor so I’m keeping his memory alive by using it in my work.

With so many writers out there, what do you do to create new ideas/distinguished work for your clients?
By thinking differently, approaching projects from different angles, and by learning from the people I work with, I’m able to produce distinguished work. One example of something unique that I’ve created was a direct mail project for a financial services company. I worked with a local agency to create a 3-dimensional direct mail piece to Human Resource employees, which included half of a two-part walkie-talkie set. I was approached to write the letter as well as a tagline to get their attention. I decided on the following copy: on the cover it said, “401K spoken here”, the hangtag on the walkie-talkie said, “Let’s open a line of communication” and the letter inside started off with, “Why are we sending you just one walkie-talkie of a matched set?”

This campaign was quite effective because the agency did a great job validating the existence of the target market of the mail campaign. It generated a 20% response rate and millions of dollars in 401K plans. This experience validated that there are really three components of great direct mail advertising: first, the list of targeted individuals, second, the creative execution and third, the offer.

What are the keys to creating an engaging storyline?
One way to do that is to start with an attention grabber – either a question or something to draw people in. In addition to grabbers, music really makes stories come to life. The combination of well-chosen music with a well-written script can increase engagement and recall.

What else do you like to do other than writing copy for clients?
One of the things I love to do is go scuba diving and write about it. I’ve been lucky enough to be published about 25 times in international scuba magazines. It is a completely different world under the water where all you hear is your own bubbles.

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