Concepteur-rédacteur
/I’m not sure if I ever told you guys, but in 2013, I was blessed to be accepted as one of the – I wanna say 17, but I can’t remember – students that were part of that year’s CELSA’s Master’s Program. Based on the West side of Paris, in the area known as Neuilly-sur-Seine, CELSA stands for Centre d’Etudes Littéraires et Scientifiques Appliquées and it’s essentially the Graduate School of Communication of the Sorbonne University.
Like I said, it was a blessing: a gift from the Heavens, if you will. After all, realistically, never in a gazillion years have I ever thought I’d even have the chance to walk the halls of such a prestigious institution, let alone study at it. And every single day I feel grateful for having been given this opportunity.
So there I was, feeling like one of God’s favorite children, and just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, I quickly realized that the year had one more surprise in store for me: through a very dear friend and classmate, I came to learn of something called Journée Agences Ouvertes (JAO), which is organized by the AACC, which stands for Association des Agences-Conseils en Communication (which is kind of an advertising / communication union, roughly speaking).
The Journée Agences Ouvertes, as the name itself states, is a day when communication, marketing and advertising agencies all over Paris open their doors to students attending such programs at the university. The goal is to give them a glimpse of the “real world”, show them the inner works of an agency and, hopefully, give them a better understanding of what’s to come after they graduate.
Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. Even though I was already super familiar with the “real world” of agencies (having spent the past 12 years as a cog in the agency machine), I was still very excited, since this would be the first (and probably only) time I’d get to visit agencies IN FRANCE. I’ve always been a great fan of French advertising, so this was a once in a lifetime thing for me. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
That day was unforgettable, mainly for two reasons.
It’s when I first heard – during my visit to the CLM BBDO agency – about a guy called Philippe Michel. He’s the ‘M’ in CLM BBDO. Yes, apparently, in the advertising world, becoming an initial is one of the perks of being an agency’s founder…;o). Anyway, the guy became my role model. You can learn why here.
Now this is the second reason, the one that changed my life: it’s when I first learned that in French, if you’re a copywriter, your job title reads as concepteur-rédacteur.
My mind was totally blown.
Because up until that point, even though I intuitively felt – and empirically knew – that conceptualizing represented the MOST important part of a copywriter’s work (feel free to disagree with me guys), that didn’t seem to be what most people in our industry thought. And if they did, they never mentioned it or expressed it out loud (as I did countless times).
Which is why seeing my job title (I’m a copywriter, yes) expressed in such a precise and accurate way – for the first time – felt like deliverance. For me, concepteur-redácteur leaves no room for doubt: as copywriters, our job is to THINK. Then, and ONLY then, is it to write.
And why did it change my life?
Because it gave me permission (and confidence) to break out of an incredibly wrong – and prejudicial – mindset: that the work of conceptualizing and that of writing are inextricably one and the same, like two halves of an orange and, as such, can only exist in unison.
That’s not true. It never was. And it never will be.
But if that’s the case, then why is it that the most widely accepted version has been (and still is) the one where copywriting is seen as this indivisible combination of thinking and writing? And why does the thought of dissociating the two seem so unfathomable?
My guess is this: because in order for there to a payment (from the client’s side), there has to be a deliverable (from the agency’s side). And across all industries and markets, since time immemorial, conventional wisdom dictates that deliverables must be concrete, for some reason. Tangible.
In the case of copywriting, it means the text. The headline. The copy. The slogan. The words.
The way our industry is structured today, all the thinking and reasoning and abstraction that go into the writing of these words doesn’t seem to count. No matter how great the idea is, unfortunately, it will only be seen as a deliverable once it’s expressed and presented in written form.
Personally, I don’t agree with this view. Never have. And it’s not for lack of trying. I swear: I’ve tried to agree with this view. I tried to play by the mainstream rule. I tried to accept conventional wisdom. But I failed miserably, every time. To this day, my conviction remains the same as it always was, ever since I was a student in college: in copywriting there are always TWO deliverables on the table.
The concept (the thinking part)
The copy that is born from this concept (the writing part)
And BOTH of them should be financially compensated.
Here’s a story I’d like to share with you. It happened one day when I approached an Art Director at the agency because we had both just been assigned to work together on a new account.
Me: Have you heard the news? The agency got this new account. It seems like you and I are going to be working together!
Her: Yay!! That’s great news! Which account?
Me: It’s a global account.
Her: Ohh, awesome. So does that mean we only get to work on the local version of the global campaign?
Me: Nope. We get to come up with a new concept!
Her: Awww… Shoot! I hate working on new concepts…
(Dramatic pause ensues)
Me: Hummm….I’m sorry. You what…?
Her: I don’t like working on concepts.
Me: But THAT’s the coolest part of our job! Creating. Conceptualizing. Building an entire world out of thin air! That’s the best part. How can you not like that part?
Her: Naaahh. I like the execution part.
As baffled as I was at the time, in hindsight, that moment was an epiphany. It was right there and then that I learned that not every creative enjoys (nor excels at) the ideation process. Here are other lessons that were given to me through that dialogue:
I learned that some of us are incredibly good at creating concepts, but don’t particularly excel at the execution part.
I learned that some of us dread – absolutely dread – the conceptualizing part, but are extremely good at executing.
I learned that some of us are immensely talented at both (ok, maybe THEY’RE God’s favorite children… ;o)).
This is the kind of revelation that, once you see it, you cannot un-see it. So, I started thinking. Maybe when the French say concepteur-rédacteur, it’s almost like saying songwriter-singer. Remember how we talked about Alicia Keys on last week’s post? She’s a songwriter (she creates the song, writes the lyrics, composes the melody) and a singer (she executes it all).
And although in this case, we’re talking about an artist – an extremely gifted artist, by the way – who can do both, we also know singing and songwriting are different métiers. Sure, they usually walk together. Sure, you mostly see them hand in hand. Sure, they complement each other. But in the end, we all understand that they’re different métiers.
There are people who feel more comfortable in the role of songwriting. And that’s ok.
There are other people whose skill sets make them better at singing. And that’s ok, too.
And then, there are people like Alicia Keys. And that’s MORE than ok. ;o))
The music industry has long understood that it’s not only about finding that one artist who can do both. It’s about collaboration. Think about it: the best albums, the most iconic songs, the most timeless tracks and the most legendary tunes. They were and continue to be a product of collaboration between artists, with each professional doing what he/she does best.
I hope someday soon, the advertising, marketing and communication industry will follow in the same footsteps. And when that day comes, I hope I’m still alive to see some student in France (or anywhere else in the world, for that matter) have the opportunity to choose between three career paths, instead of one.
Becoming a concepteur-rédacteur.
Becoming a concepteur.
Becoming a rédacteur.
And if he or she ever picks option number 2, I hope they’ll consider joining my decrepit old self on this crazy, beautiful and amazingly fun journey into the conceptual world. ;o)