A 5-month training for aspiring copywriters [Updated]

On 29th January 2007, 95% The Advertising Academy, started an intensive 5-month training for aspiring copywriters.

You don’t need to have an art or advertising background, just good grammar, good writing skills and a love for creative ideas.

You'll be trained by Janet Lee, a Creative Director who has won over 80 advertising awards in her 20 year career. Click on the title of this post to read more about Janet, seen here with graduate Jo.




The advertising industry is short of good copywriters. At 95%, we often get emails like this :
“I desperately need a good copywriter. Someone young, enthusiastic and looking for an opportunity within an agency environment that allows unrestrained explosion of his/her talent. Someone who graduated NOT from advertising schools but the school of life!”
Nantha Kumar
Managing Director
Earth, Wind & Fire

"Tell me when your first batch graduates.  I'll be waiting outside in the hallway with letters of offer in hand!"
Pek Andee
Creative Group Head
Brandz Communication

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COPYWRITERS IN PROGRESS

This 5-month training is designed to develop the individual's writing and thinking patterns - it is more than just a workshop or a copywriting course that teaches you only the skills. It nurtures creative talent and leads participants to explore and discover their own unique way of creating great ads, while developing the personal qualities that lead to a successful career.

Participants will learn to look beyond mastery of language, to explore strategic brand building issues and conceptualise great communication ideas.

They'll understand what passion really is. And they'll understand the huge difference between someone who can do copywriting, and a true copywriter.

Towards the end of the training, participants will be presenting their work to panel of industry leaders : top Creative Directors and Agency Heads who are their potential employers.

Here are some of the panelists, from left : Trainer Janet, Executive Creative Director of McCann-Erickson Szu Lee, Film Director Steven Ang, Executive Creative Director of TBWA-ISC\Malaysia Bas Moreu.



On June 14th, 4 leading copy based Creative Directors came to judge our participants' work : they are ECD of Bates Malaysia Ajay Bakshi, Creative Group Head of Brandz Pek Andee, ECD & MD of Dentsu Malaysia SP Lee and ECD of Dentsu Utama Hisham Sahuddin.

After the judging, this is what Ajay wrote...

"On the evidence of the well-crafted headlines and sharp ideas I saw in abundance during my visit, 95% seems an excellent way for any aspiring copywriter to sharpen his or her conceptual and crafting skills, and to run the very real risk of having fun in the process."

To find out more about the 5-month Copywriters In Progress, email janetlee@95percent.com.my, or call Janet at 03-22877095.

If you’re interested to see if copywriting is for you, sign up for "Me? A Copywriter?" workshop (updated 13th June 2012).

Date : 24th June 2012 (Sunday)
Time : 3pm - 6pm
Venue : 95% The Advertising Academy. Suite 2.02, 1 Jalan Medan Setia 1, Bukit Damansara, 50490 Kuala Lumpur.
Workshop Fee : RM50
Call 03-2287 7095 to book your seat.


SOME OF THE CURRENT PARTICIPANTS..........................

Here, meet some aspiring copywriters :

"Classes are rarely conventional and almost always exciting. Every class is an exercise in experiential learning. I was inspired by the insights gained so early in the course; into retail wars, branding and psychology, consumer behaviour. It challenges me to be more observant, more critical and more sensitive with my everyday interactions, commercial or otherwise. This is rather subtle education... the kind that no textbooks teach you."
- Anuradha Kaliappan, copywriting student.

"Only 3 weeks in to the course and I am beginning to see life around me from a completely different perspective.
My inhibitions and pre conceived ideas about the world and its people have been stripped away. This training has opened me up, filled me with confidence, enthusiasm and passion, and awakened my creative nature more than I thought possible.
Our trainers are charismatic, their personalities are infectious, and in sharing their knowledge and experiences, it will take me places I never imagined I could go. There is still a lot more to come. Bring it on!!"
Victoria Robertson

"Values gained? Plenty. Plus you get to know more of yourself. That's what 95% will give you. I consider it more of a journey. Not there yet, but I'm enjoying the ride."
Farid Izanee

Ng He Xiang
"95% has taught me so much more than just copywriting. It has taught me about myself and my potential as well as my strengths and weaknesses. It gave me a whole new perspective on how to go about solving problems. 95% showed me a whole new world of possibilities."

"What sums it up for me - knowing that I'm no longer merely dreaming to realise my aspirations, but actually being in the process of realizing my aspired dreams :-) The fact that my fatigue at the end of the day - juggling a full-time job in publishing + CIP classes 3 times a week - is a result of exerted passion in being, pleasure for living. Call me a geek but I actually look forward to classes and assignments! This is not merely a training of how to break into the field of advertising or writing prints that sell; I'm also learning to unleash my heart potentials, to tap into my imagination and cultivate the garden of my soul because ultimately, Creativity is about feeling chemistry between myself and the world around me. Of course, winning a pencil would be nice too! All in good time ;-)"

~Copywriter wannabe + Wunderkind soon-to-be~ Ellie.