9 Lessons I Learned from Working in a Creative Agency
Posted by Matt | Filed under Copywriting
- Have faith in your coworkers, but don’t trust them. At a creative agency, you’re surrounded by talented people. Designers, writers, account executives, traffic coordinators and the rest. In a perfect world, everyone in your chain of command is smart, capable and insightful. But, as a writer, whenever I send corrections back to the designer it is my responsibility to make sure those corrections were made.
More importantly, I have to check that no additional mistakes (extra commas, spaces, etc) found their way in as a result of the changes. If it goes to the client with a mistake the designer made based on my corrections, it’s my fault. Not the designer’s. - Looking stupid is bad. Who knew? It seems like 2/3rds of a creative agency’s life is spent trying to not look dumb. This goes well beyond making sure the client doesn’t look dumb. A piece may go to press with zero mistakes, but if the client had to point out three paltry errors to get it there, it reflects poorly on you.Even asking for clarification on multiple occasions gives the impression that you don’t know what you’re doing. Ask too many questions about their preferred style, or whether something would violate brand guidelines, and the client starts to get DIY syndrome. You must know the brand guidelines well enough in advance that you don’t have to pepper the account executive with questions.After all, the client hired you so that they don’t have to worry about the details.In life, this comes down to respect. You should never be afraid to ask questions, especially if there is a risk that you’ll get it wrong. But there’s a thin line between appearing careful and appearing clueless. If you’re always asking your boss how to open your email attachments, he or she will have a hard time considering you for a promotion.
- Never get rejected twice. My agency’s principal told me this after I submitted ideas for a second go-round. The assignment was to deliver concepts for a rain forest-themed invitation, and the client rejected our entire first batch. My second batch wasn’t much better, which prompted the boss to call me in for a ‘talk.’If your first ideas get rejected, then your second ideas have to be spectacular. This is made all the more difficult because if you already sent ideas, your drop-deadline is probably fast approaching.
The moment the client dismisses your second batch is when it starts thinking, “what am I paying these guys for?” If that doesn’t prompt a round of DIY syndrome, it will at least make them consider another agency. - Puns and clichés are rarely clever. It breaks my heart, but it’s true. A pun or cliché haves to be stunningly brilliant to make a good ad. Otherwise, it seems quaint, easy, lazy, or worse — lame.Real cleverness comes from saying something new. Clichés are, by definition, not new
- Consistency is more important than style. Yes, style defines and differentiates the piece, but an inconsistent style is just a bad style.Know your rules for leading, kearning, hyphenation, oxford commas and branding in advance.
- Double spaces piss people off. Seriously. “Normal” (read: sane) people don’t notice them. But copywriters, editors, designers, writers and creative professionals will. Double spaces magically find their way into pieces in the same way that socks disappear from your laundry. It just happens. Pieces that have to go through a lot of revisions are especially at risk, as every time you remove a comma or insert a clause you have a chance of welcoming a wayward space.Like with typos, people notice. Also like with typos, they take particular glee from noticing.This includes spaces after a period. Most ad folks prefer one space to precede the following sentence. Saves room and whatnot. For ads, it’s safest to go with only one space following a period, that way you can “Find and Replace” for double spaces during a spellcheck.
- Bad ideas are part of the process. And how! Creative people churn out bad ideas like hamburger. The key is having a system in place that prevents the client from seeing them.The really scary thing is, you have to show other people your bad ideas. Not the really bad ones, of course, but the decent thoughts that left you saying “meh.” You never know when a creative director (or you) will take a bad idea and run it across the goal line.
- “I can do that,” says the client. Confession: as in any client-based industry, creative professionals complain about clients. “What do they think we are, a kinkos?” “More changes? It goes to print tomorrow!” And worst of all: “Uggh, the VP of Development wrote them herself.”The goal of good copywriting (and good design) is to make it look simple. As a result, it’s not uncommon for a client to develop DIY syndrome. “Hey, I could do that,” he says. Not a problem when you’ve been paid to design, say, a magazine that the client plans to produce in-house. Problems arise when egos, politics and genuine desire to help impair your ability to create great work.Don’t get me wrong. A client who provides great information, catchy concepts and pithy writing is a huge blessing. A client who understands design, marketing and/or ad writing is ideal. Unfortunately, we’ve all had to deal with the lead engineer who photoshopped the previous ad, or a testy VP of Sales who insists on violating brand.The temptation is to throw up your hands and let them. This is one area where a great account exec shines — they can defend your work, propose changes and put a collar on projects bucking with politics. These things happen, and the key is to take them in stride and still put out the best work you can.
The lesson learned: you can’t always control what other people are going to do, but you still have to respond with your best.
- My job is to make something take 5 seconds longer to hit the trashcan than before. Ah, the downright spiritual advice I got on my first day as a copywriter. Nobody wants to read my stuff. They get dozens of post cards a week. They see hundreds of paper ads, hundreds more for TV. Eventually, they will discard or forget almost all of it. As a copywriter, my writing doesn’t exist on paper or on a billboard. It just exists on the way to the trash.I’ve heard it expressed so many times how we are constantly under barrage from ads.As Rutherford D. Rogers said, “We are drowning in information and starving for knowledge.” Such cute statements are easy to hear, but difficult to internalize. Instead of scary goals like “do something that’s never been done before” or “generate excitement and mystery for the brand,” the best overarching goal of advertising is to get the reader to spend just a few seconds more than zero.Just a few. Then you’re in.
Tags: Agency Life, Copywriting, Writing
