Copy writers listen to the needs of their clients and use their creativity to compose messages that will sell. They then work with production staff to shape those messages for particular media platforms. You can expect to write outdoor slogans, web page banner ads, radio and television commercials, print newspaper ads, and other types of promotions. You may also be a team member involved in developing an entire advertising campaign, where your key messages carry through all aspects of the campaign.

 

Over the past three decades, the public relations, advertising, and marketing disciplines have largely merged in the industry world and are now collectively known as strategic communication or integrated marketing communication (IMC). The central idea is that organizations are always communicating with a brand voice, saying something positive or negative about their brand through their public relations, advertising, product packaging, customer relations, and everything else they say and do. As an example, consider Walmart. Which type of brand voice do they use? Strategic communication takes a consumercentered approach to messaging.

 

Did you ever notice how Southwest Airlines or Subaru seem to be intensely focused on you as the consumer? The world’s top communication agencies earn considerable revenues by taking a highly integrated approach to promoting their clients. We discuss this concept further in the public relations and advertising chapters. As a writer in this setting, you are always telling your organization’s “brand story” across multiple platforms using a variety of methods.

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