How the Pros Hire Copywriters.

[The exercise below was devised at Young & Rubicam New York.  It has been used for years to help Creative Directors and HR Managers determine how well prospective writers perform on their own given no supervision or corporate style restrictions and very little time.]  

Dear Candidate:  

We have reviewed your resume and would like to further evaluate your reasoning ability and creative talents.   

The input paragraph plus your own life experience gives you just enough information to construct a logical strategic solution to a marketing problem, then execute against that strategy.    

Your output will be evaluated on its clarity, brevity and style.  You have 24 hours to complete the exercise.   You must work on your own.

Thank you, and good thinking! 

INPUT:   

 "________ will be a new, competitively priced, sized and packaged Proctor & Gamble laundry detergent that  contains 9% more surfactants than TIDE or ALL and 6% more whiteners than FAB.  Double-blind in-home tests among a proportional sample of  US households (700 urban and 300 suburban/rural) confirm that the detergent cleans urban oil, grease, grime, soot, and airborne emission particulates from washable fabrics noticeably better than all three competitors.  However, it does not appear to clean grass stains or normal backyard dirt quite as well as the others."

OUTPUT:  Using only the input given above:

I. Brand Strategies.  Please write:

A.  A Marketing Strategy in 25 words or less.

B.  A Brand Promise in 25 words or less.

II. One Campaign Idea.  Please prepare:

A. One brand name.

B. One to three outdoor boards.  

C. One :30 radio or TV commercial.

Include thumbnails or rough layouts if you wish.  Use any word or graphics application. 

To submit your work:

EMAIL: Attach Word Doc, PPT or PDF files to an email to:  peter@burkhardworks.com.

Thank you for taking The Final Cut Copy Test! We will review your work in the next few days and inform you of our evaluation.

Peter A. Burkhard

Reference Pages:

Logical Analysis Leading to a Leap of Faith - The Essence of Communications Strategy.

Lesson Plans in Advertising - A complete seminar on the basics of strategy and creative for entrepreneurs.

How To Write Radio Copy - Create a brand image in your prospect's mind using just words and sound.

Complete Campaigns - Dozens of examples of solutions to similar real life marketing problems.

What is a Copywriter?  To many HR/Recs, "copy" means to replicate, imitate, or otherwise follow directions.  "Copywriter", though, derives from the Latin copia, and implies an entirely different agenda.

The Creative Recruitment Process - Object lessons drawn from the archives of HR/Recs nationwide.  Only the names have been changed...