How I write ads for Portuguese High Speed Trains

I promised you’d hear from me soon.

And here I am.

This post is about Ad Copy Breakdowns.

Every week I challenge myself to create a fake ad for a brand in under 33 minutes.

And then, I break down how I did it. So you can maybe learn from me.

Today, I’m sharing how I wrote an ad for Portuguese trains.

The problem is simple:

• The government is investing A LOT of money into upgrading the high speed line from Lisbon to Porto.

• It’ll bring down the travel time from 3 hours to just 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Amazing work, right? But like many great products, they don’t get the best spotlight. Because right now the government only talks about:

• How expensive it is;

• How long it’ll take to build;

• And that it’s fast.

And as you should be aware by now - this is not how you talk about a product.

So I took on the challenge. Instead of talking about speed, I talked about outcomes.

For example:

• You won’t have time to take naps during the ride;

• You’ll have less time to study in the train;

• You’ll be able to go to the beach in Lisbon, while living in Porto.

• You won’t have to text your parents/partner/etc that the train is delayed.

And so on.

If you want to explore the breakdown in more detail, watch the video below:

And has for the end result:

Thank you for your attention. See you next week.