English Copywriter AKA Octopus

What does an English copywriter at an ad agency do anyway?

An English copywriter is an octopus.

There are always eight things on the go.

I break it down into the following:

1. Concepting – this is the stuff you are constantly switched on to do. To find the BIG IDEA, something you can hinge an entire campaign on. This is the most fun part of the job. It is also the most harrowing, as you can’t force an idea, you can only coax it out of its hole with promises of a better life and scraps of cheese and bread.

2. Headline writing – as an English copywriter you have to write copy for your ads, obviously, but as the English copywriter, you also need to help write copy other people’s ads as well. That’s a part of the job.

3. Body copy – there are always articles, press releases, brochures, direct mail pieces, websites, etc. All the below-the-line stuff. As an English copywriter, this is also a part of what I do.

4. Drawing – you need to be able to draw to get your ideas across. I’m not much of an illustrator, but I had to learn the basics to convey an idea.

5. Polishing – This is where you take something that is already written and smooth it out to sound a bit nicer. At Ogilvy the standard of English is very high, so it’s no problem.

6. Proofreading – this is going through every word with a fine-tooth comb to check everything from spelling, to commas, to kerning.

7. Transcreating – this is similar to polishing, but you need to add your own flair. Basically this is a back-translation from a pre-existing ad. Back-translations can sound a bit strange sometimes, so you need to inject the idioms and colloquial nature of English into the pre-existing idea.

8. Sales – advertising, bottom line, is about selling things. So you need strong salespeople all along the line. So when I come up with an idea, I need to sell it. First to the creative directors, then to the accounts and strategy folk, and then the client. If you can’t sell things in this game, you are in trouble.

That said, how do I like being an octopus writer? I like it. It suits me just fine.