Copywriter, content director and magic-dust sprinkler Gemma Champ is the top journo who crossed over to the Dark Side with a seriously good career in copywriting and creative content directing. She’s even found time to ‘pivot’ into T-shirts. Adaptable much?
How did you get into this crazy game?
I took the scenic route. My older brother went into advertising, so I knew it couldn’t possibly be for me, and decided to be a journalist instead.
I got my first column at the Sunday Herald in Glasgow in 1999. Fifteen years later, after a wildly enjoyable career ranging from sub-editing at BBC Good Food to running a lingerie magazine (with a bunch of fashion weeks, celeb interviews, and 18-hour days in between), I was financially broken, exhausted and emotionally struggling.
I started speaking to recruitment agencies about copywriting, but back in 2014 I was told there was no demand for ‘long copy’ writers. (How things have changed!)
So when I was asked by MRM Meteorite to create a minizine for Homebase, I nearly bit their hands off. Turned out I loved it, I was good at it and I could envisage a whole new career that didn’t involve being yelled at, ghosted by editors or monstered on Twitter.
Do you find much similarity between journalism and copywriting?
Well, there’s the obvious one – you’ve got to be good with words – but funnily enough there are lots of similarities that people aren’t really aware of.
If you think of journalism as Spotlight-style reporting, then maybe not, but in magazine journalism – and especially as a sub-editor – the job is all about finding the perfect combination of words to sell a story, a product, an idea, an event, a book…
What people don’t realise (and I include many of the people working at magazines) is that lifestyle magazines are all about selling. They’re there to sell ads, but they’re also there to sell the products they contain, often fed to them by PRs.
Try coming up with compelling six-word captions for each of ‘the top 20 red lipsticks’ and tell me that’s not copywriting.
As a sub-editor, you’re writing coverlines, headlines and captions of just a couple of words that will make the reader buy the magazine, read the articles, and buy the products. And as an editor, you know just how to put it all together to make the reader feel as if you’re speaking directly with them.
A magazine is a brand, and each issue is like a campaign. You need an instinctive and unerring understanding of your reader (magazines use personas, just as planners do), an exceptional grasp of language and a full understanding of the product you’re writing about.
Get this right and you get a readership powerful enough to persuade advertisers to buy space in the magazine.
There’s definitely crossover, but I think the methods and goals are very different. How have you learned the art of copywriting?
The brutal way: after 20 years of writing, at first it felt almost like a personal insult that I was considered merely a ‘content writer’ rather than a copywriter. But working with some seriously amazing creative teams at Proximity London, I started to understand that what might make the difference for me was time.
On a magazine, you’re constantly against the clock, with an immovable print deadline. Writing a 500-word piece in an hour was not unusual. When I came to advertising I found the long lead times ludicrous, and the fact that a writer might take a week over three or four lines of copy seemed self-indulgent.
But when I allowed myself that time, and creative freedom, I found that the words, ideas and images would rotate and mingle in my head in different ways, almost like a Rubix cube, and eventually resolve themselves into an idea rather than just a line of copy.
I don’t think there’s one single ‘art’ of copywriting, because the job is now so varied, but I think every technique is improved by time to think.
You got made redundant. Welcome to the club. What was that like?
Wow, that was incredibly painful for me. I’d never been made redundant before (lucky me), and because I’d set up the content department from scratch and had it running really smoothly – won DMAs in it, brought in great people, drove revenue – I took it quite personally when they ditched me. Probably too personally.
I contested it, and it got a bit unpleasant, and left my confidence absolutely crushed, to be honest. Financially I could only last a couple of months, as the payout was only the statutory rate, and I’d never freelanced as a copywriter or content director before.
I thought: can I really justify a decent day rate? Should I just go back to journalism? But I had a really helpful coaching session at NABS, and then The Industry Club got me my first gig, at Jack Morton Worldwide, and honestly their reaction to my work was immense.
They were incredibly generous with their praise (they’ve got an amazing agency culture), and I suddenly knew I could do this after all. I’ll always love that agency!
How have you found freelancing?
This time round, I love it. I’d freelanced as a journalist and it nearly sent me over the edge – terrible pay, work from 8am-12pm, pitching into the void… I had one or two great clients, but freelance budgets were down, and the work was unreliable.
But since freelancing as a copywriter and content director, I’ve had consistent work until the COVID-19 pandemic, and because the pay is better, it means I’ve been able to ride it out so far on savings.
My last contract ended just after lockdown began, and I haven’t done that much since then, but I think I’ve been pretty lucky so far as a freelancer. The difficult thing is pitching myself, because I do content strategy as well as copywriting, and this industry seems to have a deeply embedded suspicion of people who can do more than one thing!
What do you recommend? Freelancing or PAYE?
I like both, as long as the work is right. I’m single with no dependants apart from the cat, so I can afford to be more concerned with doing creative and interesting work than with the security of PAYE.
Ultimately, I like variety, so I’d happily do PAYE at an agency that gives me autonomy and a wide variety of clients. In the meantime, I love mixing it up as a freelancer!
What do you think the difference between copy and content is?
Oof, that’s a tough one. I think they merge into one another so often, but I would say the main difference is that content is less about showing or telling, and more about value exchange: you offer the customer something of value (be it entertainment, information, behind-the-scenes snippets, cultural moments or even competitions…) and in return you get their eyeballs for a bit longer.
Howard Gossage said it better (as ever): “Nobody reads ads. People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.” The ‘what interests them’ bit? That’s content.
Where do you see copywriting heading?
It’s honestly very difficult to predict. One client I worked with was using an AI subject-line generator for emails, and it was awful, but who knows how good it will be soon?
I don’t think it could ever replace the creative brilliance of some of the best copywriters, but I think clients will be tempted to use it for short-term cost savings.
The other side of it is that there’s so much more opportunity to be creative now, in so many different ways, from social to video to deep-dive reads.
How do you drum up work?
Apart from my very first freelance gig, at Jack Morton, which came through the fabulous Farzana at The Industry Club, I’ve been lucky enough to work through word of mouth.
Right now, though, like every other freelancer affected by lockdown, I’m spending enormous amounts of energy trying to be witty and relevant on LinkedIn, and pounding the job boards, in the hope that an opportunity turns up.
I’m also on YunoJuno, and obviously staying in touch with recruiters.
How have you kept busy during lockdown?
To be honest, I don’t remember how I ever fitted work in. I’ve done a bit of journalism, I’ve done some NHS Portraits for Heroes, I’ve launched a T-shirt company, I’ve been delivering free meals by bike to vulnerable people in Hackney (with Made In Hackney – please donate!), and I’m trying to develop a cycling website. To be honest, I could do with a holiday so I can do some reading and gardening!
Any tips for newbie freelancers?
Don’t undersell yourself. I’m not saying charge a fortune, but if you’re objectively good at your job, I really do believe in being reassuringly expensive (© Stella Artois).
If you’re freelancing in an office, be helpful, friendly, positive and resourceful – if you’re a pleasure to have around, they’re more likely to re-book you. And for gawd’s sake save up in the good times because, as I’m discovering right now, you’ll really appreciate it during a drought!
What was the last book you read?
The Neighbours by Nicola Gill – an incredibly talented copywriter I worked with at Prox, who is living the dream of most copywriters by getting published. It’s a lovely book about female friendship, and she has a very distinctive voice. Can’t wait for her next one.
And any tips for clients?
There is no copy so brilliant that it can’t be ruined by pernickety feedback. Grammar rules are fluid, so don’t obsess about things like sentences started with prepositions. They really don’t matter. What matters is that the reader understands and reacts to the copy.
And finally: be kind. We might seem like hard-nosed professionals, but most creatives are actually delicate flowers with rather fragile egos, and we produce better work when we’re motivated.
