Copywriter definition by an Advertising School in NYC. Agree/Disagree?

Would be nice if they could shoehorn a sentence about selling into that definition.

It's obvious they aren't thinking about direct response. We have the opposite prejudice around here, which is just as wrong headed.

Branding can strengthen direct response. To understand why, you need to know what branding actually is. Branding is NOT image. Branding takes place entirely in the mind of the customer. Your brand is how the customer feels about you.

The hottest brand on this forum is called Gary Halbert. Invoke that brand and watch the quoting and emoting begin.

That Brad Pitt ad for Gucci is an attempt at branding. Gucci is attempting to transfer the positive feelings people have about Pitt (his brand) to their label.

Most commercials people think of as branding efforts actually have a different goal. They are shooting for top of mind awareness (TOMA).

Cavemen and taking lizards in auto insurance commercials are all about TOMA. That company is trying to be the first name you think of when it's time to buy auto insurance.

A TOMA campaign can outperform direct response when the buying cycle for your category is externally long or unpredictable (plumbing, auto repair, insurance).

Direct response and TOMA both benefit for strong branding.

The definition you quoted has at least one inaccuracy:

"the Web has brought copywriting back from the dead"

Copywriting was alive and well before the web. Space ads and mail ads were generating billions of dollars in sales each year.

Alex

Back from the dead? Really?

I would be reluctant to take a course where they profess to be knowledgeable about the copywriting field, but don't realize the field never died and that copywriters are behind many of the written and/or spoken words coming out of many actors' mouths endorsing some product or service, and on much of the promotional correspondence ("junk mail") in their mailboxes, in white papers, on every advertisement affixed to buses and bus stops, on trains, on billboards, in radio scripts, some jingles (yes, copywriters!), taglines, retail signage/posters/POP, press releases and perhaps the vast majority of the printed marketing literature these folks lay their eyes on.

We used to do it on typewriters; now we use computers. We used write for ads that appeared in magazines; now these ads are on the magazines' websites. The discovery meetings were all done in person; now we video-conference, etc. When I think of copywriting and its components, I am reminded of its inevitable and "natural" transition, its evolution, not its resurrection.

Hi,

It has to do with your goal. My guess is that is from the Miami Ad School -their NYC campus?

If your goal is to get a job in an agency they are a good choice. They'll help you build a book and they have tons of contacts. If you goal is to do freelance work with a focus on direct response you can find course recommendations in the forum that are more appropriate.

It helps if you are clear about your end goal.