Copywriting today: AI and craftsmanship

Copywriting in Transition

The marketing of products and services has changed significantly over the past ten years – particularly with respect to technological possibilities. Artificial intelligence can facilitate copywriting by providing a framework and prompts, but it cannot completely replace it.

Writing Advertisements with AI

Artificial intelligence is increasingly spreading in our (working) lives and is often seen as competition. The more text is created by algorithms and partially used for entire websites, the more the question arises: How much craftsmanship is still involved in good advertising texts? The most recent example of the shift from “handmade” texts to artificially generated texts is Chat GPT. Suddenly, texts could be created extensively with just a few inputs and adjustments. For us as a media agency, the central question was not whether our advertising texts would now only be written by artificial intelligence. Rather, it was about meaningfully integrating this technology into our everyday work, learning the advantages and also the weaknesses of the system: Where is human experience and competence needed to finally achieve a really good result? What can we do better than AI? For this reason, regular training is also part of our professional routine. In addition to internal training, we also take advantage of external offers – such as the OMT Copywriting Seminar. One day, where we exchanged ideas with other copywriters under the guidance of Sandra Brestrich, practiced together, and learned from each other. Through interesting learning content and constructive criticism, not only was our own writing practice enriched – the perspective of the customers was also brought more into focus.

Copywriting is not Content Writing

Right at the beginning, it was made clear again that we distinguish between copywriting and content writing: Copywriting has a clear goal – it is supposed to prompt action, such as the purchase of a product. In contrast, content writing focuses on building trust, informing, and entertaining – such as on a blog. Although writing itself is a very creative process, creativity is out of place in copywriting: It is about understanding the craft and using suitable tools to build a text that motivates others. The relevance of good advertising texts remains high: Due to the multitude of ads, banners, and advertising videos, high-quality texts are more important than ever to capture the precious attention of (potential) customers. Messages are far too often overlooked due to inflationarily used phrases or a lack of knowledge about the target audience. The quality of good texts is not only tied to the budget – even with relatively low expenditure, successful campaigns can be implemented. The prerequisite is that copywriters have the necessary competence and adaptability to deliver good results at any scale. The challenge can also lie in limitations regardless of the budget: For example, if only a few words fit in an advertisement or the message needs to be made precise for stylistic reasons.

Symbiosis Between AI and Craftsmanship

The way we market products and services online has changed significantly in the last ten years, and naturally, so has our working method concerning AI. The foundation for successfully dealing with innovations is, as so often, the willingness to learn. In relation to artificial intelligence, this means: It can facilitate the work of copywriters by providing a framework and prompts. Nevertheless, copywriting cannot be replaced by an algorithm, as the participants of the OMT seminar also agreed. The use of various AI tools is individual, even within a company. What may be a good prompt for social media ads creates unnecessary additional work when it comes to fact-based advertising texts – after all, every claim must be checked for its truthfulness.

For truly good advertising texts, human experience and abstraction ability are necessary. Interchangeable 08/15 sameness is far too often produced – whether through unreflective use of AI tools or mere “checking off” copywriting guidelines. Continuously learning and becoming familiar with new technologies is the key. Good copywriting today means working technically sound – while maintaining a certain openness to new things.