DMA Copywriting census reveal - Manchester

15 July 2015, amaze one#dmawriting @DMA_UK

WiFi:

Mark RunacusPartner, Karmaramaand Chair of DMA Awards Committee@markrunacus

The state of British copywriting

Why I’m here

• DMA Awards 2012• Volume of entries• Quality of entries

My own point of view

• Democratisation of writing• Social media• Compliance• Procurement

The census

The census

• Who are writers?• What’s life like as a writer?• What you think about the

craft• What next?

A snapshot

• You love your job• You fear for the future• Clients!• New technology

Wordsmiths

The office

Happy with your work?

Fame or fortune?

Poor briefs

Where would clients cut?

You want to get an emotional response

Your heroes

Your future?

What next?

So, in your own words . . .

It beats working in a bank.Vanity.I found my way into this industry by accident.

But it’s the best type of accident.Because I can resist a pun.Because I didn’t have to wear a suit.Because I enjoy it.Because I love the power of words.I like to pretend I’m Don Draper, obviously.I can’t quite believe I’m ALLOWED to do it.Because I’m damn good at it!Because writing is my favourite thing.Fun and money.It chose me.I had a choice?

Copywriting is suffering from the ignorance and illiteracy of marketing people. Many of them can’t even write a sentence, spell simple words or compose a coherent email, yet they have the power of life or death over copy written by someone who knows how to write and think. It’s also suffering from the completely mistaken prejudice that people don’t read any more. Walk down the street and you’re likely to collide with someone so transfixed by reading a smartphone, they can’t even see you. Ride on public transport and most people are reading something.

The industry has abandoned copywriting. Global guidelines and labyrinthine approval processes mean that Lorem Ipsum is replaced with a selection of ‘marketing-speak’ buzzwords and brand-babble that make even less sense to the reader. There’s no attitude, no character, no shape and no message. It used to be said that advertising was only worth doing if you’re doing something worth advertising. The same’s true of writing copy; if you’ve got nothing interesting to say, shut the fuck up.

David Ogilvy said:

“If all else fails, I drink half a bottle of rum and play a Handel oratorio on the gramophone. This generally produces an uncontrollable gush of copy.

If the client changes the copy, I get angry - because I took a lot of trouble writing it, and what I wrote I wrote on purpose.”

The panelRichard Sharp, Owner, The Sharp Agency @SHARPideasDan Nixon, Head of Content, cube3 @wearecube3 @dnlxonSarah Hooper, Director, amaze one @AmazeOneNews @shooper1982

Regional copywriting clubs

DMA Awards 2015…

Jud

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En

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Dat

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Entries open: Now! Close of entries: 11 SeptemberJudging: 6 – 9 OctoberAwards night: 1 December