Jan-Hendrik Simons + Creative Director Copy
Copywriting + Content Marketing + Prompt Engineering + Campaign Ideas + Text Analysis + Tonality Development + Seminars + Training
„Resist the temptation to write the kind of copy which wins awards.“
David Ogilvy
I have been creating campaigns and writing copy for global and local brands since 1999. Naturally, the feedback follows. I’ve had everything from ‘goes down like smooth silk’ to ‘not quite there yet’, and even ‘get a new writer, get a new text’.
That last demand actually came on one of my very first assignments. I rewrote the copy myself, and the feedback came back: ‘You can tell a new writer has been at work here.’ It was an early lesson in the subjectivity of the job: everyone can read and has a personal taste, but feedback on copy is often rooted more in mood or habit than anything else.
The same applies to awards. Quite apart from the fact they are often paraded by those with the least claim to them, they ignore the core purpose of copywriting for advertising: we write to sell. Which means we write for the consumer. Language is our connection to them – the specific choice of words and tone that sparks a positive reaction, building trust, desire, or affinity.
Can words sell?
To put it briefly: Yes.
But the question is: which words do you use? And just as important: which ones do you leave out? As mentioned, language is often born of habit. It can cause a brand to rigidify and miss the mark with its audience entirely. Intended emotion becomes an empty phrase; intended impact falls flat.
Often, it’s just a matter of nuance. We were promoting a speed trap alert feature that isn’t legal in Germany, so we simply opened with: ‚Do you drive abroad often?‘ That line satisfied the legal team and saw sales almost double. It proves that every text should start with one thought: what is it that really hooks the audience?
Words are stubborn.
Especially when the aim is to shift a brand’s tone and vocabulary.
The challenge isn’t the audience. For them, copy either lands, or it doesn’t. The real resistance comes from the people behind the brands. Many of them operate with a sort of mental checklist of what ‚fits‘, and that is exactly how a brand ends up fossilised in clichés.
„In the age of information overload, the ultimate luxury is meaning and context.“
Louis Rossetto, WIRED, 1993
Usually, this is where the portfolio takes the spotlight. However, I prefer to present my work as a narrative. These are the reasons why: NDAs often protect my projects. / My copy occasionally paves the way for others to take over. / Portfolios rarely offer true insight into the specific contribution made. / I am definitely not a designer.
Tonality arises from a network of words.
Create a brand signature with impact.
BMW wants to sound like only BMW can. Globally. First came the stock-take, then the formal writing guidelines and the development of the brand tonality. This trickled down to campaign messages for individual models and involved some necessary tweaking of an AI to prevent it from making tonal blunders.
Every step is designed to make life easier for markets, agencies, writers, and project leads – giving them the tools and copy examples to distinguish between quality copy and mere fluff, based on solid methodological, stylistic, and content-based references.
The Holy Trinity of good tone.
A small project turned into a big one.
From a single chapter to a multi-layered story.
This only works with dedicated principals.
The collaboration with the BMW department was probably the most enjoyable part, and it really drove the work forward. As is always the case, the key is simply trusting in one another’s skills. Even with many miles between us, the relationship remains close, and working with the leading agency Jung von Matt, which created the Nomenclature, feels genuinely personal.
AI is not a copywriter.
It is a business partner.
Language models are undeniably exciting; they’re improving all the time and are brilliant for ironing out one’s own deficiencies. But if a business labours under the delusion that it can replace its writers with software, it will cost them dearly in the medium term. Humans need to be stirred to feel a sense of belonging, and artificial language simply cannot forge that connection. The power to move people through language lives in friction, fractures, ambiguity, and the element of surprise. Caught in a constant flux of interpretation, words are just empty vessels waiting to be filled by the act of creative contextualisation.
AI loves to butter you up, which inevitably leads to worse writing.
Advertising means storytelling.
Wow, what a profound insight.
I did Social Anthropology as my main subject, with a minor in Modern German Literature. My focus was on Indian religion and myths. Towards the end of my degree, I was already earning a living as an online copywriter. I guess that’s why my dissertation was such a departure from the rest of the studies. My course was all about stories. To this day, that’s what interests me most about advertising – despite all the compromises that come with writing about products to sell them.
No portfolio, just publications.
Not all of it, just a few bites.
10 Challenges to win a Ford EcoSport
Gold isn’t everything
Discover the taste of Germany
Lichtblick_Website
Jim Beam reinvents the lime
Mount Kenya Projekt by Tchibo
Writing like in an engine room
Hamburg becomes a cycling city
The BMW M2 hits the bend
Try to get in the cockpit
Favourite project was scrapped too quickly
zestonics Supplements Corporate Design
You’ve come so far.
Send me a message.
Companies and agencies I worked for.
Apologies if any are missing.
Not-so-famous last words
You’ve actually come this far.
Technologically, reaching the masses has never been easier. Communicatively, actually moving them has never been more complex. That’s the gap I bridge as a Copywriter, CD, and Concept Developer.
My focus is on crafting high-end, entertaining copy. Whether it lives on a screen or on paper is secondary. Thanks to twenty years of eclectic projects and shifting client expectations, I’ve developed the skills to deliver complete brand experiences that go far beyond just putting words on a page.
Some photos from where I live as a reward for your perseverance…
