I've Never Met a Poorly Paid Brilliant Copywriter
If you’re bursting with fresh ideas, you love playing with words and images, and you know how to think laterally, have you considered the lucrative world of advertising copywriting?
If you go down this path, and you're any good at what you do, your pay check will definitely bring a smile to your face.
Well long before digital became a popular word, I found a way to break into the mainstream advertising world. I enjoyed a happy and lucrative twelve year career as an advertising writer. I got to wear scruffy jeans and a t-shirt to work, to have front row seats at movie premieres, to meet famous actors and directors, and to savor the odd lunch at expensive restaurants without it costing a cent.
It’s a great business for young creative people. It’s vibrant, it’s fun, it’s challenging, and you will meet all kinds of interesting creative people in the course of your work. But don't be fooled, you will also work long hours and be dreaming up your next campaign, when you should be in the land of nod or while everybody else is enjoying some fun time.
But if you're anything like me, you could also be having fun AND dreaming up your next campaign. In fact my most creative and winning ideas were thought up while I was doing just that.
It’s not an easy business to break into, so allow me to tell you how I did this. Maybe if you have an interest in becoming a copywriter, you can do the same and enjoy one of the few writing jobs where a great salary is almost guaranteed – provided of course that you are good at what you do.
A Young People's Business
It’s true that advertising is a young person’s business.
But don’t be put off by this. I got my first trainee job as a copywriter when I was as ancient as 30! Within one year I had doubled my salary, and had a good 12 years of advertising life ahead of me. And there are some who go on to be Creative Directors and are still working in advertising, well into their fifties.
How a Swiss Cheese Plant Got Me in the Door
I was really a frustrated comedy sketch writer and I spent a great deal of my time venting my angst about my life through comedy. I never earned a cent doing this, and that caused me to vent even more.
One day I was watching TV and having yet another vent. Although this time it was because the television ads were so bad. I decided then and there that I would put pen to paper (yes this was even before computers, so now you have an idea of how ancient I am) and write my first television commercial.
I took a real client (a company that made horticultural products) and I wrote a funny 30 second commercial about a plant (Monstera Deliciosa, otherwise known as a Swiss Cheese Plant), that is not feeling well and who is sitting in the doctor’s waiting room along with normal people, much to their amusement, hoping to find out what is making him feel so unwell. Of course when he gets to see the doctor he is prescribed the horticultural product that I had chosen to advertise, and the plant goes home happy and confident that he will soon be his old self again.
We fade out and up to a later time when Monstera Deliciosa comes back to see the doctor, now so overly fit and healthy that he smashes through the door of the doctor’s surgery instead of bothering to open the door. I developed a funny line about the product being so effective it needs to be used sparingly.
I was proud of my first ad and I decided to write a whole campaign around the same product. There was a radio version using lots of funny sound effects, and a print ad with a picture of the plant working out in a gym with well-developed abs, etc.
I put all the ads into a folder and began ringing around the advertising agencies and asking for the Creative Director by name.
I discovered from a few early setbacks, that if you phoned up an advertising agency and asked to speak to the creative director, you might as well say to the receptionist, ‘I have never met this person, and they probably won’t want to hear from me, but I want to get a job in advertising.' Needless to say the receptionist’s response would be ‘I’m sorry they’re in a meeting.’
However… if you asked for the person by name adding ‘It’s your name,’ the assumption would be that the creative director must know you and hey presto, you’re put through immediately.
Even if the receptionist announced you first to the Creative Director, the person more often than not will wrongly assume that you must be someone they should know, and will take the call. Even if just to be reminded of who the hell you are.
I rang about 12 of the biggest advertising agencies using this technique, and asking if I could meet briefly with the creative director to show what I had written. I was pleasantly surprised at how many of them actually made time to meet with me. And how much they seemed to like my concept with the Swiss Cheese Plant. Some even commented that I would make a good copywriter, but that they didn’t have a position for me at the time. They all encouraged me to keep ringing around the agencies, which I did.
My Favorite Dish Was an Electric Light Bulb
One day I got a call back from a Creative Director I had seen earlier saying that a trainee position had become available for a copywriter at his firm. He wanted to know if I was prepared to start on a very low salary until I had proved myself.
He encouraged me by saying that my salary could grow very fast and possibly even double within a year if I was any good at the job.
He asked me if I would mind sitting for a little writing test that he gave to all the candidates.
I went to see him again and was given a sheet of paper with a series of essay questions. He asked me to answer my choice of any two of the questions that were on the sheet he gave me.
I remember being annoyed by the stupid questions: One of them was ‘Describe your favorite dish in 500 words or less.’
In fact I was so irritated by having to do this that I am afraid I began to vent again. I decided I didn’t want to work for a company that gave me such a ridiculous test, but I would send him something equally stupid and perhaps he would think again before expecting anyone to do such a silly task.
So I wrote an article about how I had discovered a liking for electric light bulbs after being locked in a department store’s bargain basement overnight. I described how the filament was the tastiest part of the light bulb, and lightly sautéed in butter was not only delicious, but a very effective way of flossing your teeth. I wouldn't recommend it by the way.
The article was mailed off and I was confident that would be the last I would ever hear from this man.
To my great surprise I received a letter from him in the mail. I will never forget it. It simply said ‘Dear Maggie, congratulations you’ve got the job. Call me. Richard’
To my amazement he told me that this was testing a person’s ability to use their imagination and to think laterally. They were deliberately bland for this reason.
I never looked back. After just one year of working as a junior copywriter in his agency, I got a job as a senior writer for a London advertising agency with nine of my own accounts and earning a small fortune.
So my advice to you if this is what you want to do, go for it. Don’t entertain any thoughts that this cannot happen to you. Develop a campaign of your own to prove that you know how to write an ad. Show how it can work across radio, TV and print. Maybe write a digital version too if you know how to write for the web, and then begin calling around the top 12 agencies where you would like to work.
I wish you all the best.
Good luck and get writing.
Maggie Lawrence - Maggie is an award winning copywriter, screenwriter and film maker. She has also written sitcoms and a children's book.
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