Assimilation is everything
Improbable as it may sound, space gazing (as my brother-in-law
calls it) is an essential part of the copywriter’s day. Giving your-
self sufficient thinking time is an
important part of creating brilliant
copy. Ideally you should aim for a
1:1 ratio between intake (typically
reading, watching or listening) and
assimilation (typically thinking,
understanding and connecting),
although that’s often hard to achieve. I’ll talk about the process
of having ideas later in this book, but for now I’ll leave it by
saying that information itself is pretty useless, it’s understanding
– the gilded progeny of thinking and assimilation – that makes
knowledge useful. Scrimp on this and your chances of writing
brilliant copy are sorely reduced.
Getting the thinking right
The process of identifying, improving and capturing ideas is the
dynamic behind much copywriting, and it’s here that copy-
writers make can make a real contribution to the creative
process. The act of getting something down on paper or screen
forces the copywriter to explore the limits of the idea, to test its
integrity and to fix any problems encountered. I can’t overem-
phasise how important this idea of ‘getting the thinking right’
can be – if a piece of copy isn’t conceptually robust then its per-
suasive mission is unlikely to succeed. Get the foundations right
and whatever follows has at least a fighting chance of fulfilling
the brief.
First in, last out
Even the most brilliant copywriter won’t make much impact if
they’re only brought in at the last minute. Asking some poor
copy monkey to convert blocks of lorum ipsem embedded in
8 brilliant copywriting
giving yourself sufficient
thinking time is an
important part of
creating brilliant copy
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finished designs into real words isn’t helping anyone – the result
will inevitably be unsatisfying and superficial. No, in order to do
their job well a copywriter needs to get involved at the start of
the creative process and stay involved until the end.
Here’s how it works. A copywriting project typically begins with
one or more client meetings. If there’s even a hint of chemistry
between client and creative there’ll be plenty of ideas flying
about. At this early stage everything matters, even the most grue-
some clichés (of which there will be plenty), because the smallest
remark or aside may say something fundamental about how the
client views their product, their market, their customers, their
employees and themselves. Someone needs to pan for gold in
this stream of consciousness. Someone needs to spot the good
stuff, develop it and present it back to everyone involved for
further refinement. In short, someone needs to turn the ideas into
words, and naturally that someone is the copywriter. It makes
sense – words are quick, easy and cheap to work with, ideal for
what industrial designers and software engineers call rapid pro-
totyping. Only when everyone involved is vaguely happy with the
ideas being discussed is it appropriate to unleash other creative
personnel, typically designers or art directors.
Once that’s happened copywriters can provide a link between the
thinking and the doing phases of a project.Writing provides conti-
nuity and ensures coherence in the final execution. It helps matters
enormously if a project’s copywriter is the same person who con-
tributed at the thinking stage, not least because they’ll then be able
to sell the final idea to the client in a way that both assures and
excites. As I say, a copywriter should be first in and last out.
Making it through meetings
Finally, a tip to get you through your day (and indeed your career)
relatively unscathed – be yourself as much as possible. In particular
don’t worry about the impression you’re creating in meetings – the
The basics 9
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10 brilliant copywriting
chances are everyone else in the room will be worrying about
exactly the same thing. And while we’re on the subject of meetings,
I strongly advise you to speak up as a way of signalling that you’re
an active part of what’s going on. Don’t be the strange, silent
person with no apparent function – if a thought occurs to you and
it’s not wholly imbecilic or obscene, my advice is to blurt it out –
you’ll feel better and you might well be spot on. Get this right
enough of the time and you’ll become known as that helpful person
with lots of ideas. And as we’ll see later on, having a steady stream
of good ideas is a big part of what brilliant copywriting is all about.
In a nutshell:
G Copywriters turn ideas into words.
G Get the thinking right and then capture it in an effective
form of words.
G Information is useless; it’s understanding that makes
knowledge useful.
Dealing with dullness
This book is about the reality of copywriting, so it is my dis-
tressing duty to tell you that some of the writing you’ll be asked
to do – certainly in the early years of your career – will be down-
right dull. Even established copywriters do more bread and
butter work than they’d like. Luckily there are a couple of things
you can do to mitigate the corrosive effects of this situation.
First it’s usually possible to find an interesting angle in even the
blandest brief. The trick is to believe – really believe – that
there’s a cool solution just waiting to be found. Failing that,
perhaps you can use this job to try out a new research technique,
writing schedule or software package. Perhaps you can work in a
different way, in a different location, or with different people.
Perhaps it doesn’t need any copy. Perhaps it should be nothing
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but text. Perhaps the title is everything. Perhaps it doesn’t need
one.You get the idea. It’s up to you to find the seam of gold, no
matter how narrow, and mine it for all you’re worth.
Accept what you can’t change
That’s fine if the client is up for it, but what do you do when they
specifically ask for dull work? They won’t put it like that but their
intention will be clear. One supermarket I worked for rejected
some posters I’d done as ‘too good for us’, and no, they weren’t
being sarcastic. The answer is to acknowledge these limitations
as beyond your control and work
within them, doing the best job you
can by saying what’s good about the
product in the clearest, most honest,
most informative way possible. In
these situations it’s a question of doing the obvious thing extra-
ordinarily well. Do it cleanly, effectively and authentically and
your readers will buy your passion (if not your purple prose). In
short I’m preaching a kind of enlightened realism that acknowl-
edges not every job comes with a potential award attached.
Faced with a choice, do both
Finally, if something feels wrong with a job or brief then the
chances are it is. In this situation one option is to do your best
with the brief as it stands, and do whatever you think is right as
an alternative. Explain the situation to your boss and get him or
her on your side. Don’t phrase it along the lines of ‘I just didn’t
fancy doing it their way’; explain why the work you’re being
asked to do will be a less effective piece of communication that
your proposed solution.The client may reject your version out of
hand and go with the tedious nonsense they asked for, but your
self-respect will be intact and the idea you came up with might
live to fight another day (you do save all your rejected ideas for
recycling on future jobs, don’t you?).
The basics 11
do the obvious thing
extraordinarily well
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12 brilliant copywriting
In a nutshell:
G Find your own interest – make it work for you.
G In some situations all you can do is say what’s good about a
product in the clearest, most honest, most informative way
possible.
G Do the obvious thing extraordinarily well.
G Make your work as good as it can be while acknowledging
that not every job has an award attached.
G Try doing a more satisfying alternative for your own benefit.
G Keep all your rejected ideas.
Dealing with clients
If there are no bad jobs, there are – just occasionally – bad
clients. Well, not bad as such, more indecisive, timid, irrational
and unreliable. Few, if any, behave this way in a deliberate
attempt to ruin your day. They’ll almost certainly have reasons
for acting the way they do, reasons that are probably far beyond
their control. In other words they can’t help it. But we can help
them, and that’s what this section is about.
Use the brief to beat them off
Let’s say a client is rejecting idea after idea that you’ve lovingly
crafted and put before them. You listen to their comments, you
revise the work accordingly, but still they won’t say yes.
Meanwhile time is slipping away, budgets are disappearing and
tempers are fraying. Clearly you need to find out why they’re
unhappy with your work, and the way to do that is to use the brief.
Assuming you’ve read and interpreted it correctly, you can
request a meeting with the client to point out – with the greatest
respect – that what you’re doing is what we agreed. Be courteous
but firm and make sure you’ve plenty of facts to support your
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