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General Description

This is an ideal career for intuitive thinkers. The job of a copywriter is to create, develop, and produce advertising concepts and ideas and bring them to life through language, words and the creation of an emotive connection.

Career Advice - Copywriter Career

You will often work in a creative partnership with an art director to convey a message as effectively and persuasively as possible. You will write text for ads, headlines, strap lines, slogans, scripts, tag lines, jingles, web/digital content and even press releases. These ideas and materials form an advertising campaign that can be executed in press, radio, television, cinema, collateral, billboards, brochures, direct mail, flyers, point of sale, vehicle wraps, posters, ambient and web or digital advertising.

You will work closely with a creative director, clients, account service executives, production managers and designers to ensure the highest quality of work while maintaining true to the client brief, and intended message of the advertisement – the single-minded proposition.

What you do every day

A standard working day as a copywriter is ‘9-5’, Monday to Friday, although you may be expected to work overtime during busy periods and to meet tight deadlines. Even when not at their desk, or technically ‘working’, a good copywriter will always have part of their brain thinking about solutions to a brief, ideas and possibilities. As a result, it’s work that you take with you long after the office is closed.

You will research and refine information, develop an understanding of your client’s competition and their marketing material. You will research your target audience and keep up to date with popular culture, news, opinion, trends and the work being produced from competitor agencies. You’ll wade through incredibly technical information that could range from new government tax breaks - to how the gasses in a plasma television work, you will attend meetings and receive briefs, assist in cost estimates, accurately account for your time and job billings, pitch ideas and present creative work.  

Personality that best fit this career

Overall, copywriters must have a creative and intuitive mind and a gift for original thought and associated words. The best are also observant and inquisitive about people and possess an insight into human behaviour and what motivates them.

You must have an excellent grasp of the English language, and solid understanding of grammar, spelling and punctuation. Accompanying that knowledge, you will have the ability to write in varying styles and tones, mastering the language to effectively reach a target audience.

Copywriting requires originality, research skills, and an understanding of what approaches and techniques will persuade people to pay attention.

Communication skills are vital, for interacting with your colleagues and clients will produce the best material possible. On top of this, you will also need the ability to work independently, to a deadline, and under pressure.

Best thing about this career

The best aspect of being a copywriter is the freedom to be creative, expressive and imaginative. Ideas are limitless, and you can watch them take form as you develop your material. Despite the pressure of meeting a deadline, nothing beats the pride and satisfaction of seeing your work succeed. Your ideas and carefully constructed words can have a huge impact on people. Not to mention that you will never be at a loss for work – the advertising world never sleeps.

Worst thing about this career

Getting it started. The voluntary experience required to get a job in this field can feel a lot like wasting time, especially since there are no specific qualifications to bypass this working-for-no-money requirement. Once in the business, you may find the unexpected toll of creative thought and constant deadline performance can leave you drained and mentally exhausted, it is however something you experience less as your experience grows over time. The rush of advertising can be the thrill but also the downside.

A copywriter simply must be able to deliver on demand, time after time after time. This pressure can heighten stress levels and the huge economic reality of what an agency has riding on your work can cause both elation and sleepless nights. You will also need to be able to take constant criticism and feedback of your work and see it for what it is - an accepted and appropriate way of evolving and developing ideas and copy.