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Graduate case studies

Graduate case studies
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Ceri - 
Head Writer

Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

About the job

Main responsibilities

Writing copy for smoothie labels and cartons, writing the weekly newsletter, coming up with ideas and words for everything from adverts to packaging, websites and events.

Typical day

There is no so such thing as a typical day at Fruit Towers but every Monday, the Creative team sit down with our Creative Studio Manager to go through the week's priorities and who is working on what briefs. Once a week we all get together in the Crit to show what we're working on and get each other's input into how we can make it better and help on stuff that isn't working. Then it's off to your desk to plan out your week and book in meetings with the right brand managers and designers before getting stuck in.

I tend to work on several briefs at once, big, small, some long term, some quick and urgent. Usually there will be a label refresh of some kind going on (we change our smoothie labels at least twice year) as well as bigger projects like The Big Knit campaign that happens every November through to smaller briefs like a line of copy for a Facebook post or a promotional flyer for one of our customers.

Each week, I get to write the innocent weekly newsletter that goes out to 40,000 people each month. Often there might not be anything 'new' to talk about which means you get to write about what you want (within reason) which keeps it interesting to write and hopefully to read.

innocent has all sorts of campaigns going on throughout the year, old and new, so there's often a kick off meeting or brainstorm session. Apart from the I.T team, the Creative team is the only team that sit together in the company so there can be a lot of desk hopping from one designer's desk to another to write and edit copy on screen with them.

Proofing before things go to print is done internally and externally to make sure there are no glaring errors and at least 7 pairs of eyes check, check and recheck things before they go out.

What do I enjoy about my job?

I love that I get to work with people who are my friends everyday who also happen to be brilliant at what they do. I get to work in a place which is the right side of work hard, play hard but where you still go home at a reasonable time. And I don't have to wear shoes unless I go outside.

From coming up with science experiments for kids, learning all about mangoes, writing captions for a goat stuck up a tree and finding new memes every week, I love that I get to write about everything and anything.

It's amazing to come up with ideas and then make them happen, even if sometimes you just said something because it sounded funny. One chap came up with the phrase Buy One, Get One Bee from the Buy One Get One Free line when we were talking about what could be done to save the dwindling bee population. Skip forward a couple of years to 2010 where we launched our Buy One Get One Bee campaign in the UK and Europe.To date, over 2 million bees have been reintroduced back into the wild and hundreds of new hives built. I love that innocent is a place where stuff like that happens.

Challenging aspects

It's sometimes hard to think of new ways to say the same thing about a smoothie or particular piece of fruit when you've written about it so many times before. However, to badly misquote a far better writer than me, constraints are liberating. So you have to think smart and that's where the fun starts.

It can also be tough when your favourite idea doesn't get picked but again, that just means you have to really sweat the ones that have been. I find it's a good thing to save all your ideas anyway, even the ones that never get used as there might be a gem in there for another project. One day. Maybe.

Why did this area of work appeal to me?

I came across innocent when I was living in Australia after university and decided that this was a company who I really wanted to work for, not just because of the great stuff they made and the way they wrote but also because of what they stood for.

The company has five values which are at the heart of everything they make and do; to be natural, commercial, generous, entrepreneurial and responsible. Plus they also looked like a fine bunch of people to work with which made me want to work there even more.

Skills/qualifications I use in my job?

My degree was really helpful in teaching me how to edit, knowing what makes a good sentence and what reads well as well as being good at researching into stories, ideas and facts to make sure what you're writing is actually true.

Training I receive as part of my job

I spent a lot of time with Dan Germain, our Head of Creative, when I started doing the job of writer. No one else apart from him had done the job before and he came up with the infamous tone. It was really important to do that at the start and I've continued to learn loads from him over the years which has been ace. I also went on the innocent writing course prior to starting the job which was all about how to write in the innocent tone of voice and what makes good writing. Again, invaluable in doing what I do.

Outside of innocent, I took a course in Creative Writing at Central St Martins and also went on two brilliant courses with Dark Angels (www.dark-angels.org.uk) who specialise at putting creativity back into business writing. I'd highly recommend doing their foundation course if you're looking at getting into copywriting.


Career information

Brief history since leaving University

Administrative Officer, DEFRA

Trade Marketing Communications Assistant, innocent drinks

Where do I see myself in the future?

Helping people tell their stories, coming up with ideas on how to do that other than just a website or poster and making their words really work for them would make me very happy indeed. That and a cottage near the sea with a wood burner, big windows and a writing desk with a great view. Preferably with a decent espresso bar nearby.


Advice to students

My piece of advice to students

Handwritten letters. It's a dying art and a well thought out, personalised and interesting hand written letter on good paper is far harder to ignore than justanotheremail in an overflowing inbox.


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Last updated: 10 Apr 2013