A brief overview of the Client/Copywriter Project

Objective
To give students a greater understanding of the different levels of product marketing as experienced by the copywriter AND the client.

Description
This project will run throughout the semester. Each student shall be responsible for a randomly chosen product. Students will pair off in a “role playing” fashion with one being the client and the other, the copywriter. All students will have a chance to play both roles.
________________________________________

Research: The beginning phase for each team should be spent on research. The owners (clients) should be able to demonstrate that they KNOW every facet of their product – what are the selling points, who is the target audience, who or what is the competition. What are the strengths and weaknesses of their product? Likewise, the “hired” copywriter should independently develop product research. Students should be able to show what kinds of research they’ve done and what sources they utilized.

TIP: When putting together product campaigns, a huge amount of time and energy is devoted to research. The importance of research cannot be stressed enough. Not giving research its due is a sure sign that amateurs are at work.

The Headline: After many hours of research, drafting and creative juicing, the copywriter should be ready to present three options for the product’s headline and explain their ideas.

TIP: Last year, Kenn Compton suggested learning how to write haiku would be excellent training for creating headlines. The more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. Like headlines, haiku is written with clarity and without embellishment. Like a well-conceived headline, a good haiku has an emotional impact on the reader. Check out the link below for more information on what haiku is and how to write one.

http://shiki.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/~shiki/

Body Copy: After the headline, the copywriter will begin drafting the body copy.  If the main purpose of the headline is to hook the reader, then the body copy should reel them in.

TIP: The best copywriters understand the importance of clarity. Writing good body copy is not about being a clever wordsmith, it’s about being clear and concise.

Each of these stages will involve presentations, which should be conducted in a professional manner. We’ll work on that too. Finally, each student will have a chance to produce a brochure on their product and present it to the class.