7(ish) questions with Simon Andrew
Simon Andrew is a multi-talented writer from Cape Town, South Africa. He’s now living in Munich, Germany helping global brands tell their stories in anything-but-plain, creative English.
Copywriting, branding, naming, helping yours truly understand how big a whale actually is – he’s excelled at all of this and more. These days you can find him bringing clarity to a complex world at his agency St. Clair’s.
I asked him a few Qs about how he gets a little help from his robot friends, and he delivered, along with some bad news for mediocre writers.
Do you remember what you did the first time you used an LLM? Were you more like “woah, magic” or “wtf, tragic”?
Yes, I do. I signed up for Jasper way back in September of 2022 and I was completely blown away. I used it to write some video scripts in a predefined tone of voice and it did a pretty good job, even by today's standards. I could hardly believe it at the time. It was immediately clear that copywriting had changed forever. The subscription cost €1000 a year back then, which seemed an insanely good deal at the time.
After the release of ChatGPT at about quarter of the price a few months later the deal seemed somewhat less good. I did not renew my annual subscription to Jasper. For the record, if my job was to come up with tons of average-grade digital campaigns and content for multiple different clients, I would still be using Jasper.
A particularly amazing Jasper feature is that you can load different tones of voice for different clients, which you can then select depending on the particular client you happen to be working on for a given job. And you can develop all copy elements of complex, multi-channel campaigns off a single prompt. It’s powerful.
However, since I focus on delivering high quality creative for a small spectrum of clients, I can get what assistance I need from ChatGPT.
These days, are there aspects where you find AI particularly helpful, and others where you prefer to rely solely on your own human creativity?
It'll come as no surprise that, for the most part, I look at AI as a tool to prepare the canvas rather than do the painting. This might involve asking ChatGPT or Gemini to come up with ideas that I can riff off or to the write the first draft of a script or content piece, which I can use as a starting point.
There are instances where I can use certain elements generated by AI almost in their entirety. These are the exception, though, and not the norm. If I want something really creative or novel it's still down to me. I have yet to have the experience where AI comes up with something that is mind-blowingly original. It has not happened once that I can think of.
From a copy point of view functional tools for tasks like SEO are extremely helpful. I have used Surfer for two websites and was impressed by the results. Also, perplexity is great for fact checking.
I've developed some habits using AI. For instance, I’ll talk with it about what I’m trying to do, who I’m trying to talk to and some conceptual springboards that I’m thinking of, and see if the response reinforces my concepts or helps me move into a different direction. I also love making GPTs for different projects so I feel like I have specialists for different things, like a little gang. But these days I’m actually using Claude a lot more as more after working with my little minions, kind of like a gut-check. Have you developed any unique workflows or techniques?
ChatGPT and occasionally Gemini meet most of my needs as a copywriter. I have tried things like getting Jasper to write a script and then getting an avatar on synthesia to perform the script. I think it works extraordinarily well.
The only trouble with synthesia and other video avatar tools is that they lack the essential ingredients of authenticity. This does not mean that one should write them off but, rather, use them for things that are appropriate. For example, I wouldn't use an AI avatar to promote my brand to the world, but I would use it internally to, for example, create B2B market personas.
There’s a lot of noise around AI replacing human writers. My take is that we’re going to see some brands (and agencies) using it to replace people, and the quality of content they pump out is going to absolutely plummet. And I think we’ve seen a bit of this already, there’s been kind of a FIRE ALL THE WRITERS vibe going around, which I think is going to be quickly followed by OOPS HIRE ALL THE WRITERS.
Having said that, I also feel that there are a ton of brands who don’t really care about the quality of their creative (cough, performance marketing) and as long as their logo is in front of eyeballs, they’re happy. What's your take on this? How do you see the balance between AI and human writers evolving?
AI is actually pretty good at producing average content, say, for search engines and this does have a role. It’s good enough, especially if the people who generate the content know how to write great prompts. And to those who worry about Google deprioritizing such content, this problem too can be solved with smart prompting, minimal editing and AI content checkers like sapling. If mediocre is good enough for your brand, AI has your back. But if you're a mediocre writer who has always prioritized quantity over quality, you're in real trouble. Consider yourself replaced.
For the moment, at least, I think writers who can come up with original concepts and copy based on smart strategic insights are safe. Especially if they know how to use AI to create efficiencies which can then be leavened with human creativity.
“If I had to guess I’d say the last input required from humans will be the aspect of taste”
And as a follow up, from your experience, what aspects of copywriting do you think will always require human insight, regardless of how advanced AI becomes?
Sad to say I think the day will come when humans will be completely excluded from the loop. It's not hard to imagine an AI system that could generate multiple ideas, test them on real humans and then select, adjust, combine and retest concepts until it achieves something more effective than any human could ever come up with.
“But will AI ever be able to come up with the lateral leaps the human mind is capable of?” I hear you ask. I think the answer to this is a hard yes because although these “intuitive” leaps appear somewhat mysterious or magical I believe they are still the result of mechanical thought processes, many of which are well-known and practiced in the creative professions.
If I had to guess I'd say the last input required from humans will be the aspect of taste. That is, the evaluation of the efficacy and appropriateness of an idea in the greater cultural milieu. At the moment this is done “by feel” by people who have years of experience in the creative professions. And let it be said that they don't always get it right. Even the best are far from infallible, subject to all sorts of biases and incapable of processing all but extremely limited data sets, slowly. It's not hard to imagine that AI might be able to improve on this in the not-too-distant future.
I haven’t had very good results trying to emulate brand voice with any of the tools I’ve used. How do you ensure that AI-assisted content maintains the brand's unique voice and doesn't fall into generic “Hey, fellow humans” territory?
I have had the good fortune to apply brand voice with various tools and I think very successfully so. One can create standard tone of voice prompts which can be applied in generic tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to ensure outputs are created in the desired brand tone of voice. Or one can use more sophisticated tools like Jasper where you can train the AI by uploading copy samples or connecting it to exemplary URLs.
It literally takes minutes, and the results are amazing. In the case of Jasper one can load any number of different tones of voice so you just select whichever tone of voice you might need for a particular job. This is particularly handy for those working on multiple brands or for those who have to address different audiences across different platforms on the same brand.
The truth is that AI isn’t creative in the same way humans are, but the way it puts things together, I feel, can be called creative. Are there unexpected ways AI has enhanced your creative thinking or can you share an example of how AI has surprised you creatively?
One way it has enhanced my creative thinking is that it opens up many more avenues for me to explore much faster than I would be able to do on my own. For example, one job I do fairly regularly is generating name options for new brands. While AI has yet to come up with a novel name that a client has bought it has enabled me to work twice as fast which means I can create many more options. This is super helpful in naming because the more gravel one shifts the more chance one has of finding a diamond.
What advice would you give writers who are just starting to use AI in their work?
Begin with generic tools like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. Use the prompts “Help me((name any task, e.g. write great prompts for copywriting))” and “Break it down in a step-by-step process” and “Walk me through each step in detail” and “explain it to me like I’m a five-year-old”. Chat to the LLM you are working with, like a friend. Ask it what it needs to deliver the best possible result for a given task. And do check all important facts to avoid hallucination errors.
In addition, research what specialist tools are available in your area of specialisation, e.g. Surfer for SEO or Jasper for copywriting. Sign up for free trials and see if they work for you before committing.
My final thought would be that while LLM tools are the ultimate labour-saving devices they should not be treated as an invitation to be lazy. As with most things, the more you put in, the more you get out.
