122 brilliant copywriting
Do you ever get stuck? And if so how do you break out?
It involves a third party. Find someone unconnected with what you’re
having trouble with. Don’t explain the problem, but instead explain what
you’re trying to do, the message you’re trying to put across. You’ll usually
have to go back to square one to explain it, and in that conversation you’ll
come at it from a different angle.
How do you know when something is working?
You get to a point when it’s almost impossible to change something
because everything is important and everything matters. You go for a walk
around the metaphorical block, come back, look at it and think, ‘I can’t
really do any better than that’. In fact that probably means it’s overworked
already. As you said before we started, first drafts tend to have an
immediate energy that you’ve got to be careful not to lose.
As a creative director you’re involved with hiring and firing. Any
advice for a copywriter trying to break into or progress in advertising?
Your portfolio is your calling card, so you need to show a diversity of
voices and approaches. Start by approaching as many people as you can,
then narrow your mentors to just two or three people as soon as possible.
There are as many opinions as there are individuals and you risk being
paralysed by contradictory advice if you’re not careful. Also, work on your
technique because there’s only so far you can go on instinct. Being
grounded in the metre of what you’re trying to get across will help.
Copywriting is a craft skill that needs regular transfusions of originality
from the real world.
In a nutshell:
G Copywriting is the craft of placing ideas in the mind of the
audience.
G Voraciously read everything and anything to do with
creative advertising and commercial communications.
G The brand is the star, not you.
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G
If you’re stuck, explain what you’re trying to do to someone
unconnected to the project. That’ll force you to come at it
from a different angle.
G Get used to having your work mangled.
G Your favourite phrase probably has to go.
G Churchill said it all: begin strongly, have one theme, use
simple language, leave a picture in the listener’s mind, end
dramatically.
brilliant
questions and answers
Nick Asbury
‘Brilliant copywriting never feels overly written. It persuades you without
being obviously persuasive. That usually means telling people what you
want them to know in the simplest, most human way possible.’
To Manchester’s achingly hip Northern Quarter to meet Nick Asbury, a
marketing copywriter with a broad range of clients and a furious turnover
of jobs. He’s also the creator of some superb pieces of promotional material
including Pentone, a cool spoof of the Pantone chip idea using different
tones of voice instead of colours, and Corpoetics, a collection of ‘found’
poetry from the websites of well-known corporations. He’s written a book –
Alas! Smith and Milton – about the agency of the same name and runs
Asbury & Asbury, a creative partnership with his wife, designer Sue Asbury.
What a busy chap.
How do you describe what you do?
When you say ‘copywriter’ people assume you work in advertising, so I
usually say I’m a copywriter for design. A good 80 per cent of my work
comes from design companies and branding consultancies. So the designers
do the visual side of things and I do the verbal side of things. You could
call it branding with words rather than images.
How did you get started?
I did an English degree and finished that without a clue what to do.
L
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124 brilliant copywriting
Eventually I saw an ad in the Guardian for a graduate trainee copywriter at
a recruitment advertising agency, a very unglamorous corner of copywriting.
I got the job and spent six months writing recruitment ads. I remember
rushing out to buy the paper to see my work. I think my mum and dad
pretended to be more impressed than they were.
Did you learn anything really important doing those early ads?
I think doing recruitment ads is good training for copywriters. You have
a very tight brief – who, what, where and so on. So the first things I
learned were about structure and reducing things down to fit a quarter-
page space or whatever. It teaches you discipline and how to prioritise
messages.
It’s sometimes said copywriters are frustrated novelists. Sounds
familiar?
Not exactly. My main interest outside copywriting is poetry. I think
having interests beyond copywriting definitely gives you an extra set of
reference points. There are lots of parallels between copywriting and poetry,
not least because poetry is about using as few words as possible to say as
much as possible, exactly the same as copywriting. Plus, it’s a great source
of phrases to steal.
Tell me about your Corpoetics piece
I was going through a phase of reading lots of poetry and books about
poetry, and I came across a reference to found poetry. I thought, ‘that’s
interesting’, and somewhere in my brain something clicked and I realised I
could make found poetry out of corporate copy. So I quickly went to the
About Us section of McKinsey’s website – the most corporate thing I could
think of – and set myself the task of using only those words. Then I did it
again and again with other companies’ copy. I did it for pleasure but it
worked really well as a promotional piece, which I sort of suspected it
would all along.
And the Pentone thing was in a similar vein . . .
Yes. It’s not a case of thinking ‘I need to do a business mailer, how can
I be quirky?’ but rather I’m constantly surrounded by design paraphernalia
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and at some point the penny dropped. I realised I could change ‘Pantone’
to ‘Pentone’ and do something on tone of voice. I have to say that with
both Corpoetics and Pentone it really helps that my wife is a designer. In
fact, marrying a graphic designer is a great career move for any copywriter
– she does my website, mailers and so on . . .
My next question is about any tips you’ve got, and clearly the first is
‘marry a graphic designer’. Any others?
One of the best I’ve got isn’t so much a writing rule as a general
business rule, and that’s ‘pick your battles’. You’re always engaged in this
struggle between trying to do brilliant, creative work that can go in your
portfolio, and doing whatever will make the client happy so you can get
your invoice out. I remember being told early in my career that every job is
a potential award-winner and that you should fight for it with the client.
And I gradually came to realise that’s not good advice, because if you
really follow it then you’ll drive yourself mad. I freely admit that some jobs
are fundamentally dull and just need doing as well as possible and
showing the door.
Who’s influenced your thinking as a copywriter?
I came of age professionally at a time when wit was paramount, and
the book that captures that is A Smile in the Mind by Beryl McAlhone and
David Stuart. On the other hand I do think you can become too obsessed
with witty ideas. Sometimes the answer is just to do a well-crafted piece of
copy that conveys the right messages and embodies the right personality.
What’s the hardest part of a job?
Getting the first sentence or paragraph right. I might rewrite it 30
times. That’s why I use a computer so I can edit easily – if I worked with
paper I’d get through a small wood every day. Actually, I’m now going to
contradict myself, because the hardest part of being a copywriter is all the
stuff that goes around the writing. As well as being a copywriter, I’m
effectively the account manager, new business person, finance
department and so on. That’s what keeps me awake at night, not the
writing.
L
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126 brilliant copywriting
Every job starts with a brief of some sort. What separates the good
from the bad and the ugly?
I don’t mind too much whether the brief is narrow or wide open – what
matters is that it’s clear. It makes writing so much easier. With 70 per cent
of jobs you don’t get that, so the first stage of your job is to clarify the
brief. Most of the briefs you’ll receive over your career won’t be very good –
that doesn’t mean you should tear them up and walk away; instead you
need to develop a knack of seeing through the brief to what they really
want to say. My grandad used to tell me about his army training exercises,
where they’d be walking through fields looking out for snipers in the
undergrowth. His sergeant would tell him ‘Don’t look at the bushes, look
through the bushes.’ It’s the same principle.
How do you plan and prepare?
I record a lot of meetings and transcribe the important bits. I then
scribble down notes and draw circles around the best bits. So the argument
almost forms itself out of a cloud of chaos. The thing is, for some jobs I
almost feel I could write the piece after one phone call and that the extra
meetings are more for their sake to offer reassurance. That said, you have
to guard against complacency and formulas. You need to keep it fresh
somehow, as much for your own interest as anything else.
And on that subject, how do you break out if you’re stuck?
If I’m stuck it’s usually because I’m uninspired rather than unable to
crack a tricky creative problem. So I leave it and go for a walk and come
back to it when I’m feeling more upbeat. It’s the exact same job but
somehow it’s become more inspiring in the meantime. I do try to write
when I’m in a good mood; if I’m feeling turgid I’ll try to do invoicing or
something. Or I might break off to read a poem, or even write a poem, just
to engage the other side of my brain.
How do you know when something is really working?
It’s when you know what the next sentence is going to be before you
get there. About halfway through a good piece, I’ll also realise what the
last sentence is going to be, so it becomes a pincer movement. You just
need to fill in the rest then. That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of humdrum
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