I have been working as a Copywriter for different agencies, which means thinking of ideas and writing down concepts every day, also getting the chance to be involved in filming, photography, radio, digital and different media. I love my job. As I recently finished my Masters in London and I wanted to get the most out of my time before my return ticket expires. I started applying to ad, digital, integrated, award winning and start-up agencies, in my order of preference; there are thousands in the UK. Although, I just had 2 months left in UK so I just kept knocking on doors until someone opens it. And Face said: “Welcome”.
Face is a Research Co-creation agency – a long adjective to describe an agency –
I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do there, but for me is exciting when you don’t know about a field because there is a great opportunity to learn, it is exactly like travelling, you will have an amazing time in a place where you haven’t been, rather than the usual hotel on the beach where holidays are nice but predictable.
What is a Copywriter going to do in a Research Co-Creation Agency?
Most people would think…co-creation…comes from the verb create… creativity… yes, it would make sense. Although, while sitting at this desk I’m not thinking of concepts for campaigns, I’m really not.
For those of you that don’t know, like me in October, Co-Creation refers to the relationship between consumers & brands, with researchers and experts in the middle truly finding insights. How? It’s not the classic market research; times have changed and now you cannot only get insights by having 8 people sitting in a room. At Face they developed different online communities for women, young people, men, etc. They create dynamic research experiences that deliver rich and varied output, from video diaries and mobile status updates to creative whiteboards and idea generation – this ensures a fun and interesting research environment for participants.
After this explanation, I was hoping to be a “Researcher” creating tasks and using all of my imagination to get the most from respondents. But I was needed for the Project Management Department. So after several attempts to transform any process into something creative, my boss guided me to a new world: UX.
So these days my creativity focuses on User Experience, which is quite interesting. This process ensures that everything that happens, let’s say in your website, happens for a reason with your conscious intent, meaning that you planned every possible action that a user does, understanding their expectations.
According to Jesse James Garret’s book, the experience of a user in the web results from a whole set of decisions, built upon each other. If you peel back the 5 layers of this experience you understand how these decisions were made.
The Five planes. The Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garret
At Face I’m helping to develop a new community from the bare bones. Not thinking of how it looks and what the Homepage’s text is, but understanding the platform, testing the functions, redefining the features based on research not on suppositions, pulling out data from surveys, knowing the requirements and drawing all the possible actions that users can perform.
I have been learning a lot, but mostly I’ve discovered that this business is about ideas, from any part of the office, just walk to the next desk or next floor, talk to people from a different department – they can inspire you even more.
They say a smart person can learn something from a stupid question. So, what is a Copywriter doing in a Co-Creative Agency?
