There’s a rumor it’s easier to be a Copywriter than an
Art Director, Graphic Designer, Web Designer/Developer. Before you make a big mistake and switch
disciplines, the Copy Diva is here to tell you it ain’t so.
I ran into a friend in the Circus Web program recently. He was thinking of
switching to copywriting. We didn’t have
much time, but my reply was “It’s hard. Copywriting is hard.”
Several students in my class(es) made the switch – started
as ADs, GDs, WDs, then switched to Copy. Not one of them thinks Copy’s easier. Other students have mentioned they’re thinking of it. I’m all for it – for the right reasons.
Copywriters don’t moon over words all day. We’re the ones who go to the meetings, get
the input, have lunch with the client (those meetings), spend endless hours
listening to voice over after voice over after another boring voice, then try
to keep the client out of the production booth. In between, we get bugged to bug you about jobs trending late. Look over your shoulder, say the
way you stacked the headline doesn’t make sense, wish this was just a tiny
bit lower and wouldn’t a light screen of color behind all that reverse type
make it easier to read?
We do exciting things too.
Interview engineers and bus drivers, for instance.
All of that – so the AD GD WD can direct photographers, direct
directors, production, color. OK – you
have to know more software. We, however,
must be familiar w/ever-changing Google thoughts, SEO, SEM, Content Marketing, Content
Strategy, print writing, visual concepts AND television/video/radio/voice over writing/production.
We must write War and Peace in two pages. No typos. Nothing left out. Art Directors may have to know the rudiments
of how a product works, but knowing how it looks in/out of context is more
important. They play with type and space
– something most clients, AEs and such don’t mess with. Writers, are the product/client/AE detail
people. We fight to keep creative vision,
strategy in the face of too many “guest” editors and wannabes without buying
into their shtick.
Copywriters get to learn how the product’s made, what the legal fellas will/won’t allow. We're the ones who stay awake through testing and focus groups, hear stories about the company founder. Still, everyone’s a Copywriter – Mom always loved our spelling word stories, some clients married English teachers.
You try cramming all those features and
benefits into two paragraphs – or two lines – so they’re motivating, engaging,
interesting. On strategy. True to prospect. True to product. Memorable. True to concept/language of concept. You get
the whole screen/page. We get two
lines. Short ones.
I realize leafing
through stock photos and Director reels gets tedious. At least you’re looking at pictures. Copywriters struggle to find the perfect word, split semantic hairs,
rely on structure, syntax and Creative Strategy. We have to know what they all are, how to
push them. All within the context of
someone else’s layout. Someone else's product. And everyone’s thoughts how we should have said it.
When we think it’s perfect, better shave
off another twenty fifty three hundred words to comply with your
layout, leaving no product detail, style, concept or prospect motivation
behind.
While you’re moving logos and images around, we’re sifting
through research, piles of product data, prospect profiles. Then joy! Another meeting – no need for AD to attend, the writer is here! All those meetings, the client still
doesn’t want to pay for us to go on photo shoots.
Writing copy is harder
than you think – harder than most lifelong writers who try (journalists, PR folks,
wannabe novelists, poets) ever dream. You think talking to programmers and suppliers is hard? Try writing a thousand headlines on the same
subject, no two alike. Even if they mean the same darn thing. It’s nit-picky work and you must constantly reinvent yourself in
prospect speak.
Writing Copy is not easier than learning software that’s
constantly upgrading, knowing a bit of math, if you’re at the Creative Circus,
getting through Sylvia’s courses. I know
it seems like it – all we need to know is Microsoft® Word®, right? And where all those ®s ™s ©s go.*
Before you make the switch, think
about these:
Do you love to write? Better still, do you love to edit? Are you a Problem Solver by nature? Can your ego stand clients changing your copy because – well, for
reasons a professional copywriter would never imagine, let alone have? I once had to change a word because the
client had never “seen it in an ad before.” Another client, with two dueling consultants, would have to let the
other consultant change a word for every word first guy
killed. I’ve debated revisions with
twelve engineers at once, written copy-while-U-wait in meetings, gone
toe-to-toe with CEOs over articles
pronouns commas and Copy
Sins.
After you’ve spent a week concepting, a week writing, done eight edits, gotten internal approvals all the way up - can you let your stuff go to whomever wants to do
whatever because – heck! – writing copy’s so easy?
Knowing some of you will no doubt doubt, I gladly admit you
visual/codable types have more details to sign off on, vendors to deal with, program
updates to master. Enviable skills, but
there are project managers, art buyers, production types and others to
help. After the AD signs off on final
production details suppliers don’t tell you no, change this
visual because they’ve never seen it in an ad before. No, you get kudos for
creativity!
One more thing, Creative Circus students (and others) considering the
switch. You think Sylvia made you work
hard? Wait’ll you go over your work word for word with Doreen. (Sylvia
and I taught a class together once – a Teams class on Long
Copy. Maybe that’s the solution! Thinking of making the switch? Maybe Sylvia and I should design a class just
for you!)
If you really really want to be a copywriter, if, as some of my
ex-AD students tell me, you care more about the words than the graphics, don’t
be afraid, go for it. Here are a
few quick reasons to give it a shot:
More CDs and ECDs are CWs than ADs. Agencies look to CWs as the problem solvers, which can give us more influence. Clients can become very attached to their
writers, but their relationships with ADs are usually more distant, so they’re often not as proprietary about them. Everyone
says there’s a shortage of writers. (Not
true – there’s a shortage of great writers’ writers.) Google has made everyone aware of the value
of original, prospect-centered content. Now writers aren’t seen as dispensable/changeable on
e-projects.
The decision boils down to this: You like writing, but do you love
the edit? Making it better in fewer
words (sometimes 50%+ fewer words)? Putting up with an AD, GD, WD like you? Would
you like sitting in on all the meetings you miss as an AD? Spending enough
time in Client Ville so they not only like you, they respect you, trust you and
what you do?
As the line between
many AD/CWs blurs in this age of hacking your cell, sophisticated (and not so) apps, smart phones gps Facebook
tablets and who knows where else it’s going, one more
thought: being a successful hybrid CW/AD isn’t that easy, either. Small agencies and freelance clients may
appreciate the combo, big agencies don’t. Master of All is Master of None kind of thing.
The real question: What
do you want? Why? Copy isn’t easy. If it’s truly what you’re meant to do, it’s
not that hard, either.
*Here's where one of those (c)s go:
(c)2012, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative
