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Sarah Hackett

Professor Rankey

AIS 3001

25 April 2016

Career Project

Advertising – Creative Copywriter

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Target Position Analysis

Job Description

Summary

Creative copywriters are responsible for the linguistic content of an advertisement. They must

be able to work across a wide range of media formats, composing slogans, catchphrases, and

scripts for products and services, and work closely with visual creatives that will develop the

visual aspects of the campaign alongside them. They must work closely with clients in analyzing

their needs and current market strategies.

Job Responsibilities

Creative copywriters must be prepared to work directly with both internal and external

customers. The creative development of an advertisement is only one part of their

responsibilities. They are responsible for research, client communications, presentations, and

other marketing responsibilities as well.

Interpreting and analyzing account briefs.

Researching clients, competitors, and target audiences for advertised products.

Designing and producing original, clear, credible, and creative messages, ideas, and scripts.

Preparing presentations to clients.

Working closely with visual team, clients, and other creatives to interpret and analyze

feedback. Update and adapt campaigns accordingly.

Monitoring campaign effectiveness.

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Prepare and present reports on campaign effectiveness.

Education / Required Credentials

There are multiple degrees that compliment a career in copywriting. While the foundation of

copywriting lies in the written word, understanding industry trends, technology, and product

development are essential to the success of a copywriter as well.

Degrees in multiple studies are acceptable.

Qualifications in marketing, communications, English, journalism, copywriting, public

relationships, or literacy/media studies are encouraged.

Working knowledge on industry trends and standards.

Experience

Experience in advertising is not always required when beginning a career. However, as

creativity is a core skill to advertising, a portfolio is encouraged in order to illustrate such skills

to potential employers. Portfolio work can be individual, however, experience through an

internship or work study program is highly encouraged.

Experience through internships and work studies are encouraged.

Profile and portfolio of works are encouraged.

Skills

The skills required to successfully gain employment as a creative copywriter are subjective in

many terms. Portfolios of advertising work can be helpful in allowing a potential employer to

grasp the breadth of your knowledge. Teamwork and customer service experience are

encouraged.

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Must be adaptable and comfortable working in a fast paced environment, meeting with

changing deadlines.

Developed communication skills, open communication with clients, creative managers, and

visual team.

Ability to work well within a team environment.

Administrative and organizational skills.

IT proficiency.

Attention to details and ability to edit and proofread.

Accuracy in information, grammar, and structure.

Creativity and the ability to produce innovative and original ideas.

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Target Position Analysis

Customer Service Considerations

Internal Customers

Visual Department – Creative copywriters must work closely with creatives in the visual

department to bring their ideas to life. While a creative copywriter is responsible for the

language and words, the visual department is responsible for developing captivating images

that work in tandem with the language to deliver the desired message.

Creative Directors – Creative directors are the head of the creative department. They

interpret the final needs of the client and work to bring the messages from each department

into a final product. Creative copywriters work closely with the creative director during

every step of an advertising campaign.

Account Managers – Account managers work directly with the clients. They are the liason

between the client and the agency, and they are responsible for making sure that the clients’

needs are met. Creative copywriters often work closely receiving feedback on an

advertisement from the client through the account manager.

Marketing / Research Department – Creative copywriters work closely with the marketing

department in order to analyze the needs of the client, product demand, and defining a target

audience. Marketing data can help shape the foundation of a campaign, and give invaluable

information about how to deliver a specific message in order to maximize its effectiveness.

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Accounting / Financial Departments – A creative copywriter must consider all aspects of an

advertising budget in order to meet the demands of the agency and the client. They must

carefully design all campaign aspects to remain within budget.

Media Department – The media department of an advertising agency is responsible for

selecting media venues, selecting times, and determining the best way to reach the target

audience of an advertisement.

Team Responsibilities – A creative copywriter works within a team of copywriters. While

the creative director ultimately makes all final decisions, the team must work together to

design and implement a campaign that will target the right audience, send the right message,

and effectively create desire for the clients’ products.

External Customers

Client – A creative copywriter must work directly with the client in order to design an

advertisement that send the desired message. Many clients have an idea of what message

they wish to portray through their advertisements, but the copywriter must find a way to

deliver that message. They must interpret the clients’ desires and communicate those needs

within the advertisement.

Internal Advertising / Marketing – Many clients work for firms that already consist of an

internal research or marketing department. They may have information about their target

audience, and specific ideas about the best way to deliver the marketing message. Creative

copywriters must be willing to work with these external customers in an effort to merge their

own ideas into the final campaign message.

Cast Members – There are many ways to deliver an advertising message. Whether the

advertisement is for print, digital media, television, or radio, a creative copywriter will have

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direct contact with those cast to take part in the visual aspects of the campaign. Visual

creatives and copywriters must work in sync to ensure that cast members are delivering the

right message, whether through their image, their speech, or the tone of their voice.

Typical Issues Related to the Industry

Creative Intellectual Property and Originality – The advertising industry has an obligation to

avoid plagiarism, copyright and trademark infringement, and even the unintentional

reproduction of material. Innovative new ways of delivering advertising messages are

essential as technology and social media change the way our messages are delivered every

day. It is vital that advertising firms do thorough research to ensure that their ideas are not

reproductions of previously released messages, as well as striving to create innovative new

ways of delivering a message to their target audience.

Reputation – Advertisers are ranked among the highest in the category of poor perception

among the public. There is a stigma of dishonesty and manipulation that they carry as they

merge art and science to link emotions and feelings to the products and services that they

sell. Discovering ways to integrate ethical commitment to the consumer while still using

persuasive strategies to increase product sales is a constant struggle within the advertising

industry.

Message – It has already been established that the message delivered within an advertisement

is essential to the success of a campaign. A common obstacle in the advertising industry is

not only what an advertiser wishes to portray with their message, but also how the public will

perceive that message. A creative copywriter must constantly ask themselves how that

message will make people feel and react. Will the message as a whole offend anyone? Will

the advertisement encourage the behaviors and actions that are desired? Will it persuade the

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target audience to connect in a positive way to the company, the product, and the service?

Often, the message can cause reactions and feelings towards the company that were not

desired. How can a copywriter avoid sending the wrong message?

Follow-up – Within the advertising world, follow-up is an ongoing and continuous project.

Advertising campaigns must consistently adapt and grow to meet the changes in new

competition, new technology, and changes in the needs and wants of the target audience.

Established products may branch out, enveloping new targets whose advertising preferences

may differ from the current audience. Data and research from marketing professionals may

show that current strategies are not working, or a decline in sales may signal that the public is

not responding in a desired manner. Advertisers must be able to read and interpret these

signals and make adjustments to their campaign in order to keep up with the changing needs

and desires of the public.

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Target Position Analysis

Typical Projects

Typical Project Examples

Advertising Campaign – An advertising campaign is an advertisement or a series of linked

advertisements representing a product or service. The campaign is requested by a company,

the client, who may or may not have a series of ideas that fit within their marketing

campaign. An advertising copywriter is responsible for the linguistic components of the

advertisement.

Marketing Campaign – A marketing campaign encompasses more than just the

advertisement. Marketing campaigns are the full series of steps that present a product or

service to the public. This includes research, advertisements, promotions, pricing, demand

data, product placement, and distribution planning.

Point of Sale Promotions – POS promotions are often handled by the advertising agency.

These small, targeted advertisements are developed to draw attention to a product, usually in

its infant stage, and will often tie into a current advertising campaign. They may use familiar

characters, slogans, or brand identification in order to draw a shopper’s attention to its

placement within a store or online.

Slogan Campaign – A slogan campaign is often the first step in a product campaign. This is

the initial step in branding a product or service, and helps give the product an identity to

which the consumer can connect. Slogan campaigns are often shorter than advertising

campaigns. During this process, the copywriter becomes familiar with the product, and

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attempts to create a tagline or brand image that will help the product define itself within the

market.

Typical Project Details

Marketing research - demand, competition, target audience

Design the theme - media venue, budget, scripts, print, visuals, language, music, castings

Budgeting, schedules, times, visibility, targeting

This process never ends

Advertising Campaign – The advertising campaign can be as small as one advertisement, or a

series of interconnected advertisements that share a common theme. Some campaigns are

designed to last many years, while others may run for a series of months or perhaps even

days. The popularity of shorter campaigns has been prevalent as technological advances and

social media innovations have changed both the mediums through which successful

advertising is shared, and the amount of time that one can hold the public’s attention.

Research

Creation

Implementation

Follow-up

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The advertising campaign begins with the research step. Working closely with the research

and marketing departments, a copywriter must clearly define the target audience for the

product or service they are advertising. This process includes researching the demographics

of the target audience. Demographics such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, education,

and religious and social standards can help illustrate the best way to deliver the advertising

message to the consumers. Advertisers must also carefully investigate competitors, product

demand, and how a product will meet the specific needs and wants of the target audience in

order to effectively advertise in a flooded market.

The next step is the creation process. The most vital part of the process is developing an

advertisement that will stand out and connect the product to the target audience. How the

message that the advertisement is portraying is delivered is based on several creative process

steps that the copywriter works through with their own team, the visual department, the

creative directors, and the media department. First, a medium must be selected. Based on

data from research and marketing, budget requirements from the accounting and finance

departments and the client, and current opportunities, the type of advertisement will be

selected. If the campaign is to contain a series of advertisements, then the creative team will

begin working on a theme. This theme may correspond with a marketing campaign already

in existence through the client’s company. Themes will include slogans, taglines, colors,

music, and the overall feel of the advertisement.

For television advertisements, the creative team will build a storyboard, or a visual depiction

of the scenes in the script. The script will be developed, down to every detail. A venue will

be selected, a cast and director selected, and the product placement decided. A soundboard

will be planned out including voice clips, background music or sounds, and often a

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professional may be hired to incorporate a “jingle,” or a short song that delivers the message

and sticks in the consumers’ minds.

Radio advertisements are similar in nature, though the visual aspects are obsolete in this

medium.

Print ads are developed in a different way. During the creation of print ads, graphic

designers may work in tandem with the creative copywriters. The creative team may have a

very specific image that the visual team helps bring to life, or they may provide a slogan and

leave most of the visual aspects to the designers.

Digital campaigns may be a conglomeration of still images and motion ads. They may

include some or all components of both print and television.

After the design process is complete, the creatives will meet with the creative director. They

will analyze the components of the advertisement or advertisements, and how well the

message is delivered, as well as how efficiently the advertisement fits into the requirements

set forth by the client. Creatives may revisit the design process several times after meeting

with the creative director.

When the advertisement has been approved by the creative director, the creative team will

meet with the client for final approval. They will present the advertisement and walk through

the components of the campaign. After receiving feedback from the client, the creative team

may or may not have to revisit the design process again to make changes.

After a final composition has been developed and approved by all agents in the process, it is

moved forward to the media department where final decisions are made regarding the timing

and frequency of the medium chosen. For television and radio ads, what time of day, what

time of year, and how often the advertisement is played is a decision that is pertinent to the

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success of the ad. Target audiences are studied to determine which television shows, radio

times, and websites they are most likely to view or listen to, and advertisements are fit into

those schedules and traffic in order to deliver the right message to the right people at the right

times.

Common Tools / Applications

Pegasus – Pegasus is a secure server production, finance, and media management system

software that allows the agency to remain connected throughout its departments. Its network

saves time in administrative tasks, allows all department agents to monitor and communicate

throughout the client process, and generates invaluable reports that help highlight potential

problems before they arise. Many firms utilize Pegasus as their main platform for project

management and communications.

There are countless software platforms used for visual and storyboard creation. Different

creatives often use different components from a variety of platforms, depending on the

specifics of each campaign.

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Informational Interview

Summary

Introduction

“Jane” is a creative copywriter for “XYZ,” one of the top advertising firms in New York City.

XYZ creatives are known for their intense commitment to the tiniest of details, their innovative

campaign ideas, and constantly developing “out of the box” ideas to deliver new messages in

new ways. I had the opportunity to speak with Jane after she was in contact with my father

regarding an NFL promotion for a client. I was required to sign a nondisclosure agreement

regarding our conversation, with the stipulation that the information I learned would be used

only for the purposes of this report. Jane studied media and communications at the University

of California, Berkeley. She knew from an early age that she wanted to work in business, but it

was not until after her first marketing course that her passion for advertising became clear.

Key Information

Jane and I spent over an hour on the phone. I was amazed by the amount of information she had

for me, prompted not by not only my own questions, but also by her clear passion for her work

and the advertising industry as a whole. I began by illustrating the core components of the class,

and what I hoped to achieve through the interview. She put me at ease with her demeanor, and

her expressions of genuine delight at the fact that I was pursuing a career in advertising.

I started the interview and before she had finished responding to the first question, the interview

had taken on a life of its own. Unexpectedly, the structured foundation I had hoped to lean upon

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was almost immediately cast aside, and a real-life conversation emerged in its place. While the

information I sought was readily available to me, it came in the form of a genuinely familiar

interaction between someone who had settled into a career, and someone who was striving to get

there. The awkwardness I had felt when dialing her telephone number subsided quickly, and

new questions that I had not considered prior to the interview were manifested from her own

answers.

“How did your education lead you into the advertising business?

Jane expressed that she had always wanted to go into business. She was independent and driven

to succeed, and from a young age had decided that upper management was where she would

make her mark in the business industry. At UC Berkeley, she would find herself at the top of her

class. During one of her final semesters, she took a marketing class that introduced the core

fundamentals of advertising within the marketing mix. “I was in love,” she confessed. “I built

my first portfolio from composites online before the end of that semester.” Jane went on to share

her strategy. “I wanted to work inside an agency. I knew there were internal advertising

departments with huge companies, and sometimes that is where the money is,” she explained.

“But I wanted to be involved in something bigger. I wanted the variety, and all I wanted to do

was work on campaigns.”

After graduation, Jane spent months building her portfolio. She would look for new products on

the market, watch what their advertising campaigns looked like, and critique them. “Sometimes,

I would go as far as starting an ad from scratch, and then I would cite the original ad, and send

the agency my version and the reasons for the changes,” she said. She chuckled, “that did not

always work out well for me. In the long run though, it was innovative and XYZ saw that. They

looked through my portfolio online and called me in for an interview.”

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“Tell me about a typical day at the office for you.”

Jane laughed. “Most of my days are spent going over client briefs. That’s basically a list of the

product specifications, research from marketing about how the product is used and who uses it.

There are stacks and stacks of paperwork. If we walk into a meeting with the directors and we

are unprepared, don’t plan on being a part of the campaign. For whatever that period of time

may be, plan on breathing and sleeping that product. We take it home, we use it, and we play

with it. For the beginning of any campaign, you are just becoming the target audience. We have

to understand why people would want it, and come up with ways to tell them that they need it.

Then we study the people. What else do they like? What do they want to feel? What is

important to them? People don’t always understand that the psychology of people is half our

job.”

Jane went on to explain that after the copywriting team has a good feel for the product, they meet

to brainstorm. This is the least structured part of a copywriter’s job. “There may be thirty

people scattered on the floor and couches. Sometimes we get lucky and generate a great idea in

an hour. Sometimes, I call and tell my husband not to expect me home for a couple days. It’s

not glamorous. There are showers and cots upstairs.” Jane continued, “Then we take an idea to

our director. On a good day, he tells us it needs work, and we go back to the drawing board. On

a bad day, well we scrap it and start fresh.” I asked Jane how frustrating it was to have worked

for days on an idea and have someone tell you it won’t work. “That happens all the time. I

guess it really bothered me at first, but you have to have tough skin in this industry. There will

never be a project that everyone loves. You are always going to disappoint someone.” I asked

her if that was the hardest part of her job. “Maybe it used to be. You get over that quickly,” she

said. “I think the hardest part is that I am a very organized person. I have a strong creative

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drive, but I am successful because of my left brain tendencies. The hardest part for me was

coming into this job thinking it was structured and keeping everything straight would be easy.

But, I found out quickly that while there are very specific steps to each campaign, there are more

than likely going to be thirty campaigns going on at the same time. You may be on step three,

step six, step one, and step twelve all at the same time. It ever stops.”

“What skills do you think are the most important in your job?”

Jane was silent for a moment. “That’s a difficult question. In my team, there are all types of

people. Some are more creative than others. Some are easy to get along with, others are

complete introverts and barely say a word. But I guess our team was put together based on those

eclectic skills. I can’t really think of anyone that we could do without.” She was quiet for

another moment, as if she was trying to come up with the best answer. “I suppose the ability to

think of things from a new perspective is critical. We can’t just recycle old ideas, we have to

invent new ones,” she said. “There are people on my team that drive other people’s creativity.

Like ‘Joe’ may say something that seems very simple but it was something that everyone else

overlooked. And then ‘Kelly’ might take that idea and put a new twist on it that turns it into

something brand new. I think overall you have to be able to put yourself in the consumers’

shoes, whether or not the product is something you yourself would actually use. You have to be

able to be that person, and figure out what on an advertisement would make you want to buy it.

So creativity, empathy, and the ability to visualize individual components as a big picture…that

makes a good creative. But most importantly, you have to be able to take a message, something

as simple as ‘this product is what you want to buy’ and make it art with words. No one is going

to buy a product just because you said, ‘hey, I think this is the best product for you.’ So you

have to be able to tell them that without them realizing that you are telling them that.”

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What Surprised Me

The most surprising part of the informational interview for me was when Jane took a moment to

explain what she felt was something that was important for me to hear. Not only was her

warning taken to heart, but it was endearing that she chose to share this information.

“There are a lot of people, especially in the younger generations that have this problem

deciphering the reality of the working world from this image in their heads. Advertising, like

most other jobs, is not glamorous. I have watched so many graduates walk through the front

doors with this ‘Don Draper’ mentality. They think they are going to walk in and drink scotch

and take clients out to exotic locations. It’s not a party. The floors are crowded, everyone yells a

lot, and in reality, there are probably 100 ideas that will hit the trash can before one makes it to

your director. No one is going to tell you that your idea is genius and will change the world,

because very few people will ever know that it was your idea. You will never walk the red

carpet and have people screaming your name, going ‘Look! It’s the guy that came up with the

Charmin Bears!’ I don’t know where that comes from, because it’s nothing like that. Someone

said to me on my first day, “If you’re here for a party, you’re on the wrong floor. This is hard

work, and if you wake up on your desk in the same clothes you came to work in the day before,

then hopefully that means that you met your deadline.” I was always grateful for that guy,

because he set me up to succeed realistically.”

Customers

Jane ran through an extensive list of both internal and external customers that she and her team

deal with on a daily basis. While creative copywriters may play a small role in the big picture,

the interconnectivity of every department within the agency is critical to the success of a

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campaign. One advertisement has hundreds of working parts, and without efficient

communication between the departments, the final product will not be successful. The

intricacies of creating a successful ad are illustrated by the steps necessary to complete it. Jane

compared the internal customers within the agency to the moving parts of an industrial machine.

“Every part has its own job, whether it’s creating a component of the final product or supporting

other parts in their composition. But in the end, if one part breaks down, the other parts can’t

create the product on their own.”

“We work with the visual team closely. Sometimes, we meet together, and sometimes we meet

after the fact, but it is our responsibility to portray the image we visualized to accompany our

words. Then they take it from there. If we don’t communicate effectively with visual creatives,

then our end product may not fit. We also have to remain under budget [finance and

accounting], maintain the authenticity of the product and the company selling it [research and

marketing], clearly understand what the client wants [account management], and understand who

we are selling to [research, marketing, and media management].

Regarding external customers, Jane illustrated how vital the creative’s role is in maintaining a

positive relationship with the client company. “Whether it is fair or not, and it often isn’t, how

the client feels about the creative team is going to affect their perception of the final

advertisement. If they do not like us, then they most likely will not like the message we are

trying to send,” she explained. “Often, we also may have to work with an outside marketing firm

that was employed by the company that hired us. Their methods and research may not always

mesh with what we believe, and that can cause problems as well.” Having a background in

communications was helpful to Jane in working with both internal and external customers. “One

of the biggest challenges we face as creatives is figuring out how to deliver messages in a way

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that allows the target audience to hear what we are saying. I may say ‘ABC’ but the client or the

target audience may hear ‘DEF,’ and that won’t work.”

Projects

I asked Jane what some typical projects in the advertising industry would include. “As I

mentioned before, I am usually working on multiple campaigns at the same time. I am

constantly multitasking. There are other types of projects that we do work on. There may be a

major marketing campaign that includes the launch of a new product. Sometimes, we will

develop POS advertisements for promotions, or a slogan campaign where we just help at the

inception of a new product. In the end though, all these projects are just small steps within

bigger steps. My main job is to deliver the message and make the product appealing to the target

consumer, no matter how I am hired to do that. Almost every project I just mentioned follows

the same steps as an advertising campaign. Research, brainstorm, create and develop, approval,

implementation, and follow-up.” Jane paused for a moment, and said “That’s really important

for you to remember. Follow-up never stops until the client terminates the contract. You may

have the best ad ever, and suddenly years later, the client says sales are down, and you’re back to

the drawing board. The industry is changing so fast that now that happens very quickly

sometimes,” she took a deep breath. “You may have a campaign that is your baby. You

developed it from the start, you breathed life into it, and it was so successful. Then suddenly,

months later, technology changes, people change…and it’s not relevant anymore. It becomes old

news so fast, and you’re starting from scratch.” I followed up by asking Jane if this was

discouraging to her when she began her career. “It was very discouraging, but as time goes on,

this gets easier. You just have to see it as a challenge. You have to encourage yourself to

innovate and adapt at the same pace as the industry.

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Reflection

I was grateful for the opportunity to speak with Jane. Her inside perspective on the career I have

chosen to pursue was invaluable. There were multiple subjects that were discussed throughout

the course of the interview that changed my perceptions of the role of a creative copywriter.

Having a real world perspective going into graduation will help prepare me for the realities of

stepping into a career in the advertising industry.

As a society, we spend more time than we realize viewing the end products of the advertising

world. Stepping into this role as an interviewer granted me a glimpse into the world behind

creating them. Rather than swaying my desire to step into the chaos behind the scenes, the

information I gathered encouraged my appeal. It was similar to appreciating a piece of art

tenfold after understanding what the artist went through to create it.

I found that the career project as a whole became more of a journey for me as the semester

unfolded. Hearing Jane project her belief of advertising having a core in both science and art led

me to reflect on the personality tests from earlier in the semester. I believe that the industry

became appealing to me because my own personality reflects both the structured and concrete

foundations of science, and the open, subjective cores of art and creativity. Those traits are

echoed in the processes of creative copywriting.

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Skills Analysis

Job Qualifications

I believe that my experience, while not directly in the advertising industry, has prepared me well

for a career as a creative copywriter. I have had the opportunity to gain experience in most

aspects of business since taking an office manager job for a rapidly growing family business. As

part of my responsibilities, I was required to market and advertise our services with no prior

experience in these areas, and work with many of the same external customers that Jane

mentioned during our interview. Having no official marketing department, it became necessary

for me to conduct my own research prior to advertising our services, and I successfully

performed these duties, learning as I progressed through the process.

I learned that many of the skills I possess as an office administrator fit well into the advertising

industry as well. I work under strict deadlines that may change quickly and without notice. I

work closely with clients and other contractors, and must communicate on a daily basis in order

to successfully execute all components of daily operations. I am organized, I excel at

administrative tasks, and I am responsible in my current career for sending out communications

that are written professionally. I have had to learn to work well with words in order to

effectively communicate with all different types of people. The personality tests revealed that I

am driven by creativity and the opportunity to express myself through innovative change. I work

well in fast paced environments where I am required to think and act quickly. I succeed in an

environment where I am encouraged to develop new solutions to new problems.

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My current education, along with my continued education in the BTAS program has advanced

my knowledge of the industry as well. I believe that when my education is complete, I will be in

a position to enter the industry with the knowledge necessary to contribute effectively to a

creative team.

Transferable Skills and Experiences

I have found throughout the process of the informational interview that I do possess many of the

transferrable skills required to be successful in the advertising industry. Many of these skills

were directly related to my previous work experience. I have IT experience that will be

necessary to assist with research, development, and visual creation. I also learned through the

informational interview that there are many interactions with both internal and external

customers. I believe my customer service skills and previous experience in hospitality will be

useful in this aspect.

Missing Skills and Qualifications

Based on my own experience and results from the personality tests, I have determined that my

biggest challenge entering the advertising industry will be working in a team. I find it difficult as

an introvert to connect with new people, and as a creative copywriter, I will be required to work

as part of a team. I believe that my biggest challenge will be stepping out of my comfort zone

and developing a strategy for increasing my comfort levels in these types of situations.

My education has been a vital part of overcoming that fear. Working with other students,

professors, and in an array of study groups has encouraged me to become more sociable, and

fostered a comfort when I am required to join a team effort. I have encouraged myself to seek

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out the benefits of such interactions, and this has been a vital component in stepping out of my

comfort zone.

I also recognized that experience directly related to working within the advertising business is

going to be vital to my success. In line with this realization and my short term goals, I have

begun to take steps to pursue an internship with a local advertising agency. The opportunity to

work on a campaign and build my own portfolio will be crucial to my future success.

Preparations

I believe the most important aspect of my own preparations will be to recognize my own

obstacles and face them as I continue through the final stages of my education. Through the

course of this research, I have developed a good sense of what steps I need to take in order to

successfully break into an advertising career. While there are many educational opportunities

that will help foster my own growth, I believe that I also have an opportunity to grow personally

and work on developing the characteristics that will help me achieve my long term goals.

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Informational Interview Questions

Revised Informational Interview Questions

Tell me about your key responsibilities as a copywriter.

Tell me about a typical day at your job. Or – do you feel like every day plays out

differently?

Explain how the sequence of designing a campaign would play out.

What are some other typical projects that you work through on a regular basis?

What skills do you consider the most important in your career?

Were there skills that you developed after beginning your career?

Discuss the typical career path in the advertising industry.

What are the most valuable tools or applications that you utilize in your position?

What type of education did you pursue?

How did your education lead you into the advertising business?

What other departments or positions from within your business do you interact with

regularly?

What are some typical issues or conflicts that come up when dealing with others inside

of the business?

Discuss the interactions and relationships you have with external clients and customers.

What are some typical issues or conflicts that come up when dealing external clients?

What are some of the obstacles you face in your position?

What are some of the obstacles facing the industry?

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What is your favorite part of working in your position? Is there anything you would change

if you could?

Are there certain publications that you prefer to read to stay informed on the industry as a

whole?

Discuss the changes in the advertising industry – where do you see it going from here?

How have technology advances in the past decade changed the way you operate within your

business?

Top Priority Questions

Top priority questions are marked above in bold. During the course of the interview, I felt that

these questions prompted the most important responses in gaining information that would help

me grasp the foundation of the career. I also found that the questions I had prepared as top

priority questions tended to be the ones that led Jane and I into other subjects. Her answers to

these questions seemed to encourage her to speak openly about the opportunities and obstacles

that she faced in her own career.

Questions That Changed During the Interview

I found that many questions led naturally into other questions after Jane responded. There were

times during the interview that I would think of additional questions as she spoke, and quickly

wrote them down in my notes to be asked when she had finished speaking. She responded

openly and with enthusiasm to these questions. I found that she could tell I was listening when

my questions adapted to her own responses. This helped the interview progress in a very natural

way. I felt that this openness fostered more genuine answers.