Copywriting Tutorial: 5 Key Concepts for Beginners

Learn the key concepts involved in professional copywriting with Erica Igue

What would you do if you were invited to a brainstorming session? Or asked to create a brief? Or even commissioned to carry out a PR stunt? Creating text for advertising involves much more than writing or having ideas: you also need to understand the jargon and concepts used in this peculiar universe.

In this tutorial, creative director and copywriter, Erica Igue (@kikaigue) teaches you the 5 key concepts used in the world of copywriting.

Don’t miss it:

1. Brainstorming
A brainstorming session is literally a ‘storm of ideas’. In copywriting, this means a meeting in which creatives swap ideas, discuss concepts and define the way a project’s going to go.

It’s an interesting, exhausting, nerve-wracking and at times hilarious moment.

Anything goes in a brainstorm and no idea should be discarded. Like any creative process, it requires references and a range of ideas and it’s loved/hated equally by copywriters and publicists.

2. Brief
The Brief is a document that contains all the ideas and references required to carry a project out. In advertising, this document contains the initial information and concepts that will be followed to create a campaign.

A well-designed brief makes the difference, because it includes information like the target audience, the objective, the budget, the deadline, the language, the formats that will be used and anything else essential to develop the project according to plan.

3. PR Stunt
A PR Stunt is an advertising ploy to make your idea go viral, whether that’s through an article on social media, a catchy title or interesting content. It must be related to an issue, trend or debate with enough potential to attract media attention and capture large numbers of people. It’s about having an idea that everyone will talk about.

Dove Real Beauty Sketches (2013) is a great example, as this campaign presented female beauty from an innovative, and very emotional perspective. It didn’t just capture the attention of thousands of people, it also provoked major media debate about self-esteem and beauty standards.

4. Budget
This is the campaign budget, or the amount of money available for the project. It’s what defines what you can create, where it will be broadcast and the formats you can use. In a nutshell: it’s the financial power behind the project.

5. Job
Job is simply a short way of referring to the project or campaign. Copywriters and publicists everywhere often say “I’m busy on a job,” “A job came up” or “We’ve just finished a job” to refer to a specific project or campaign.

Like this tutorial? Learn how to turn your ideas into words and create attention-grabbing text in a range of formats in Erica Igue’s online course: Copywriting: Principles of Writing for Advertising.

English version by @studiogaunt

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