Hunt for the fun spot

So now that you have spotted the creative side of your soul it is but natural that you explore and exploit it for your own benefits. This article here is set to help you do just that.
A copywriter’s job-hunt guide:

1. Create your portfolio-this is a must and is the very first step for a copywriter who’s out to look for a job in an ad agency. A portfolio should have a mix of print ads, TVCs (television commercials) and radio spots (scripts or jingles). Work up at least 10 campaigns of different product categories. For example if you take beverages you may pick up Frooti, Pepsi or anything else and make print ad, TVC and radio script for it. Likewise for other products categories.

2. An important inclusion of a resume. You must clearly mention the languages you can write in- Hindi or English or both. This would mean that you have an excellent grip of the lingo in question.

3. Kindly update your resume- Add the names of all the professional courses, if related to advertising. Whether current or completed the name of the courses must be there.

4. Keep looking up vacancies on various sites exclusive to the ad world. They are the only ones that can help. “NO OTHER SITE” will be of any help. Check this out afaqs/jobswitch/vacancies. Post your resume here.

5. Get in touch with consultants who specialize in placing people in the agencies. One such placement firm is Executive Point (www.executivepoint.org) which is run by Chaitali and Ravi. They especially help freshers. Get yourself registered on this site. Also get in touch with them through call. They might call you and give you a copy test or if your portfolio is up-to-the-mark they might just place you somewhere.

6. Time to get in touch with your contacts in top agencies. These agencies usually hire people through recommendations (this is not “sifaarish’. Recommendation here means only forwarding of your CV to the HR department. Your contact can at least help your resume reach the right hands based on which you might be called for an interview.

7. Reach for the interview armed with your CV and portfolio (preferably both hard and soft. Different agencies prefer different things.) Some agencies might also ask you to appear for a copy test so you must be prepared for the same. A copy test is an on the spot ad generation exercise. You might have to do it right there or within a stipulated timeframe within which you must revert with the given assignment.

8. Make cold visits- Simply walk in the agencies and meet the Creative Directors or Chief Creative Officers there. Remember to carry your hard and or soft copy of your CV and portfolio.

9. Regularly read afaqs news to keep abreast of the happenings and also to know people in the industry. This would help you know people you can meet for an interview.

10. Subscribe to afaqs and get regular news updates on your mail. They also send job requirements through this news update.

11. Read Campaign India, Pitch, Brand Reporter etc. These are exclusive ad mags and will help you keep abreast with the happenings of the ad world.

12. Regularly visit these sites to know how ads are made world over- www.afaqs.com/ advertising/creative showcase adsoftheworld.com. This would help you in ideating and conceptualizing ads. Time to deepen those grey cells and substantiate your creative ideas.

Hope the ad world finds its next Piyush, Prasoon or David in you!

don't be blue!

so, what does your father deserve?

Copywriting— Have fun while you earn

Have you ever watched an ad and thought to your self that you could have written a better story?

Have you ever actually collected print ads or even given serious thoughts to them?

Have you ever heard a radio jingle and wished really badly that you’d have written it?

If you happened to nod your head in the affirmative to any of the above mentioned questions then welcome on board you have a copywriter lurking inside you somewhere!

Copywriting is one of the most interesting and challenging jobs for a creative mind.

The job entails writing ads for various media. That is, for an average copywriter. But, a great copywriter doesn’t just give words to an idea s/he conceptualizes the entire storyline and layout very much like a story teller painstakingly pointing out every detail of the layout for the print ads or story for the TVC.

One must be able to use correct words and place them beautifully in a meaningful and persuasive communication, because copywriting is selling through products or ideas through ads. So, one must be able to write in a manner that would actually get the Target Audience to spend its hard-earned money on the product/idea advertised for.

Ads are also written to achieve a certain purpose of dissuading a person from doing something. Most of the social ads come under this category whereby one exhorts the public to refrain from killing a tiger, chopping a tree or stopping female foeticide, to name a few.

To understand the job of copywriting one must have an idea of the two major types of advertising which are:

1. ATL- above the line advertising is writing for the traditional media viz. TV, radio and print. Internet is also leaping towards finding a place in this category with the world finding itself tangled in the net all the time.
2. BTL-below the line advertising includes writing ads for pamphlets, posters, brochures, hoardings and other such media.

One needs no formal qualification to be a copywriter but certain attributes are indeed necessary to be able to write meaningful and useful ads. Hence, the five main elements of a copywriter are:

a. Excellent command over a language and the ability to play around with the words to get the desired communication across to the TA.

b. Keen sense of observation-one must know the culture, language and the general way of life of the TA to be able to write something that appeals to them.

c. Loads of experience- not in the terms of age rather as a by-product of observation of one’s surrounding. One of the greatest copywriters of all time David Ogilvy was of the view that the best of ads come from one’s experiences in life.

d. Eccentricity- one would require to write all sorts of ads be it emotional or humorous ads and to do this one would need to shed one’s inhibitions. Therefore, a generous amount of eccentricity is indeed needed to excel in this field.

e. The only formal qualification needed, if any, to be a copywriter is graduation. So, if you can ideate an ad there’s nothing else that a firm would require of you.

None of the stalwarts of this field learnt their trade from a formal course and none of the present big guns of copywriting have done it either. People from fields as diverse as engineering to marketing have excelled in the field of copywriting merely because of their language skill, creativity and observation of their surroundings.

And in any case there’s hardly any formal course in copywriting for the simple reason that no course can make you creative. You of course can train yourself to enhance the creativity that lies within but to enhance something you need to first have it.

However, as part of the syllabus of various courses on mass communication a few lessons are also given on copywriting.

One course that is exclusively for the copywriters is the Crafting Creative Communication course offered by MICA. It’s a six month regular course. The fees is 2.5 lakh plus. Loans are available from various banks for this. www.mica.ac.in is the site to check out. One needs to apply online and appear for an aptitude test. They however, do no provide placements.

A copywriter can work in an ad agency, publishing houses or TV and radio channels or can also freelance.

Besides being creatively satisfying copywriting is also a very well paid job. Creative people are one of the highest paid peop0le in the ad world. The starting may not be as good financially but in the long run if you can establish yourself as an excellent copywriter then you can have it all- fame, success and money.

You may start as a trainee and follow the hierarchy thereafter.