Copy Righter

Ian Atkinson is a multi award-winning creative director at one of the UK's most successful agency groups. After studying psychology at university, he became a copywriter. He specialises in direct and digital media and has worked on advertising and marketing campaigns for some of the best-known brands in their sectors - including Avis, Barclays, Dyson, Macmillan, National Geographic, Next, Oxfam, Sky, The Red Cross and Zurich. As well as a creative director, copywriter and author, he runs regular creative training days, gives talks on creativity, advertising and marketing and is an occasional awards judge.

• Contents 1.The Fantastic Four: How to write good copy 1.1 How to write purposefully Specific objective, universal objective, clarity & focus 1.2 How to write practically Punctuation, grammar, typography & layout 1.3 How to write pleasingly Aristotle, audience, tone & interest 1.4 How to write persuasively WIIFM, Maslow, motivation & emotional vs rational 2. The Famous Five: How to write great copy 2.1 Content Proposition, interrogation & insight 2.2 Context Brand, audience & medium 2.3 Create Concept, style & structure 2.4 Compel Potent psychological triggers 2.5 Craft Review, edit & polish 3.Quick Wins: 25 tips and techniques 3.1 Start with a short one 3.2 Features tell, benefits sell 3.3 Avoid cliches 3.4 Be unusual 3.5 Metaphors, similes and analogies 3.6 Hardwired words 3.7 Wax lyrical 3.8 Solutions not problems 3.9 Nouns beat adjectives 3.10 Avoid talking about cost 3.11 Quantify 3.12 Be active not passive 3.13 Keep it short (or long) 3.14 Avoid a woolly ramble 3.15 Don't get them disagreeing 3.16 Don't know it, feel it 3.17 Show not tell 3.18 Three's the magic number 3.19 Tell them what you want 3.20 Urgency 3.21 The tease 3.22 Make it flow 3.23 Paint a picture 3.24 Reframe it 3.25 Back to the start 4.The Magnificent Seven: Copy examples, from brief to execution 4.1 Press ad 4.2 Dimensional mailing 4.3 Poster 4.4 Email 4.5 TV 4.6 Mail pack 4.7 Blog 5. Appendices 5.1 How to brief 5.2 How to give feedback 5.3 How to deal with amends 5.4 How to get better