Young Lion Reflects on the Ad Industry and Humber Experience

Ellen Porteous is a 2017 graduate of the Bachelor of Creative Advertising and is currently working as a copywriter at boutique agency, Abacus. She started her career at Cossette in the CRM department and has been thriving as a copywriter ever since!

Ellen recently won a Cannes Young Lions Award for work on a campaign to raise awareness of the discrimination facing transgender and non-binary youth. We sat down with her to ask her a few questions about the brief and the skills needed to become a successful copywriter.

Describe the concept of your Cannes submission.

The brief was about transgender and non-binary youth, specifically the discrimination and violence they face. My partner (Leo Januskausas) and I did a lot of research on the topic in order to do Gender Creative Kids Canada justice. Our main insight was that the world is divided into twos (girl and boy, pink, and blue, mom, and dad), but there are kids who find themselves in the middle, in the grey area. Those are the kids that need help navigating this cis-gendered world. That’s why we created They Scouts, a digital community and survival toolkit to help trans, non-binary, and gender-fluid kids feel less alone.

Name 3 important skills to succeed as a copywriter.

Adaptability - Sometimes you write an amazing piece of copy or have a great idea, but account managers, your creative director, or the client isn’t loving it. It may be off-brand, or legally it’s a big no-no! Whatever the reason is, you’ll have to make some adjustments. It sucks, but that’s part of the job.

Emotional intelligence - Having emotional intelligence can help you avoid pitching tone-deaf ads, get into the consumer mindset when writing, read the room during a client presentation, and so on.

Time management - As a creative, you’ll also be expected to jump from project to project without missing a beat. Not to mention, timelines are crazy tight depending on the client and the task. If you don’t have this skill, you’ll learn it pretty quickly.

A sentence or two about your Humber experience:

The [Bachelor of Creative Advertising] program is where I discovered my love of writing and made long-lasting friendships. The profs are passionate and extremely supportive. The program definitely mimics the ad industry with regard to its competitive nature.

Personally, I was in the middle of the pack. I felt quite average. I rarely won those Ad Studio competitions and I was one of the last few students in my year to get an internship. But I kept working hard, I stayed hungry, and I delivered consistently good work. Trust me when I say that not winning those competitions, or not getting an internship first, is not indicative of your future career. (You should still try your best, though.) Your time will come and you’ll end up exactly where you’re supposed to be.

What's one core message you received from mentors in your industry?

Ask questions. The more questions you ask, the more prepared you’ll be. If you have questions about the brief and strategy, ask them. It’s better to ask and do it right, then to not and have to do it all over again. One of my creative directors told me to always ask the client or accounts team to give you the “straight line.” What’s that single-minded message we’re trying to communicate? Use that as your starting point.