Expert: Peter Gabany - 11/11/2004

Question
Hi Peter


I just turned 34 and I'm burned out at my present career. I want to try and enter the copywriting field at an ad agency. However, If I do this I have to return to college and finish my degree. Also, I don't have any experience in copywriting or advertising, and my grammar skills need work. Basically I'm starting from scratch. I understand how competitive this industry is and I'm willing to accept this challenge.

However, I don't want to waste my time and lots of money pursuing a career which I have absolutely no raw talent. Are there any tests or resources I can use to judge my ideas and copy strength for potential talent?  I don't want to enter this field unless I have raw, platinum talent and I would rather find this out before I go into debt with a college degree.


Thanks!


Answer
DAVID,

SORRY, BUT THERE IS NO TEST THAT I AM AWARE OF. If you wish to pursue this as a career path, and I would love to know why, then impecable english skills are only 5% of the requirement. 60% is creativity, 30% is understanding the business problem the advertising must solve and the balance being organization skills and speed.

We have a plethora of people that WANT to be copywriters and extremely few that can fit the mold and rarer still - superstars. I have searched of my 19 years in the business for writers and sadly can only report to have found 1. Only 1 writer in 19 years that I would class as superstar. I have a number of writers that we use for certain assignments but there is only the one - who by the way is in his 60s – that gets it.

I firmly believe that if you don't have Raw Talent for writing there is no need to go back to school to look for it. This sort of inspiration is not found in schools. The language skills might be but creativity?

If you wish to pursue this further my recommendation is to study some adverts. Look at their art direction and really consider the ads writing. Determine what the creative strategy of the ad is. What are they trying to say. Typically, good ads, will only try and communicate 1 point. Volvo-safety. BMW-German Engineering. Kraft-comfort food.

Now try and write it better than you see it. Mock it up and show people. Ask them which one they prefer. This will take several months and will take much skill. But it is possibly the test you need to see if you are up to the challenge.

Last thought. The advertising and marketing fields are very diverse in needs. There are account people, computer jockeys, researchers, coordinators, print production people, media planners and so much more. Many of them a LOT of fun and each position creative in its own right. Try this link and have a look at the diversity - you never know what you might find - <http://advertising.utexas.edu/world/>. Let me know how you make out.

Pete