Nolwenn de La Pintière — Copywriter, Publicis Sapient Paris
Nolwenn talks to TheNextGag about why she loves words, her creative process and how improv helps in her craft.
Nolwenn de La Pintière is a Copywriter at Publicis Sapient Paris in France.
Since 2012, Nolween de La Pintière has been working as a Creative at Publicis Sapient (formerly DigitasLBi) in Paris. She has conceived campaigns for brands such as Nissan, Lancôme, Karl Lagerfeld or Lipton.
Her work was awarded several prizes at advertising competitions, such as Eurobest or the Cristal Festival.
THENEXTGAG: WHAT DO YOU REPLY WHEN PEOPLE ASK YOU WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING ?
NOLWENN DE LA PINTIERE: I say that I am creative/copywriter. And when talking to people who don’t have a clue, I say that it is a bit like in the 99 Francs movie but without the cocaine.
I add that we work as a team, with an art director and a copywriter working on the idea. Then the art director translates it visually and we, copywriters, translate it through words.
I like to be able to change partners, to change teams and to change projects. That’s the reason why I work in an agency. Otherwise, I would just go client side.
TNG: DO YOU ALWAYS PARTNER WITH THE SAME ART DIRECTOR ?
NDLP: No. I like to switch partners. I find it cool. I don’t even report to the same creative director all the time. I like to be able to change partners, to change teams and to change projects. That’s the reason why I work in an agency. Otherwise, I would just go client side. I like being able to vary. One day, I am working with that person and then right after that, I am working with someone else on another project.
But, maybe, it is because I still haven’t found the ideal partner. Maybe I haven’t found the right person and, if I did find it, I would change my views. It is a bit like a romantic couple.
TNG: YOU MENTION VARIETY AND THAT’S SOMETHING THAT IMPRESSED ME WHEN I CHECKED YOUR PORTFOLIO. YOU’VE WORKED ON ALL KIND OF PLATFORMS.
NDLP: Yes, I like to vary platforms. And I get a lot of fun from it. I am a copywriter, but I help quite a lot with internal communications here at the agency. Last year, I helped organize a team building for all of our 400 people. I have also created internal videos. Such as the teaser video that introduced our Series Night. I wrote a teaser that included 80 references of TV series that you have to find.
And we have a lot of fun making this with some friends and people with motivation. It is cool to create stuff on a lot of different mediums.
And for the client work, we work on social, we do films … Now that I think about it, it’s true that I have been grateful to work on a lot of different formats. That being said, I haven’t done that many print ads. Everything but this classical format. Well, I did create some for the teaser of Meet&Match, the team building event that I did last year.
TNG: HOW DID YOU REACT WHEN THEY GAVE YOU THE ASSIGNMENT OF WORKING ON AN ESCAPE GAME ? WERE YOU SCARED ?
NDLP: No, that’s so cool. I love telling myself that I will be working on an escape game or a team building even though I have never conceived an event for 400 people. I have never done it but I find it cool to be able to work on so many different things.
Again, that being said, if I were to only work on films, I wouldn’t mind either. Because every film is unique.
In addition to that, what I enjoy is to create a whole experience. I like trying to create a full experience and to try to make it work. The day that I get bored at work, I’ll leave. But, as for now, I still get a lot of fun from what I do. And as long as it’s fun …
TNG: WHAT’S IS YOUR PROCESS WHEN WORKING ON A NEW PLATFORM ? DO YOU DOCUMENT YOURSELF A LOT ?
NDLP: Whether it is for a team building, video teasers, short films etc, I think that we definitely need to have a strong advertising culture and a strong general culture. We need to be aware of what is going on and what is coming out.
But, you also have to be careful not to flood yourself with too much information. Otherwise, you might restrict yourself in your thinking.
For the team building assignment, I watched a lot of team building-related stuff. And each time I thought that it was boring and didn’t reflect who we were. There are some companies that specialize into team building events that would offer activities that were cool but didn’t reflect our corporate culture. I think it is fun to take a cooking class with your colleagues, but it wouldn’t work for 400 people. That’s why we ended up creating a bespoke activity, where I had to write one hundred questions and we tried to create something that reflected who we were as a company. And it was fun. People enjoyed it and that’s the cool part. You can tell yourself that if people are happy you kind of succeeded a little bit.
TNG: IS THERE A MEDIUM THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO TACKLE NEXT ? WRITING A SONG FOR EXAMPLE ?
NDLP: I do a lot of theater. Not the classical theater but improv theater. I would love to have the opportunity to write a play.
TNG: IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE ADVERTISING IS TURNING TO NEW MEDIUMS WITH GE LAUNCHING A PODCAST SERIES, CARLS JR MAKING A BROADWAY PLAY OR MCDONALD’S RELEASING A PODCAST SERIES.
NDLP: It’s funny you said that because at the moment I also want to create a podcast. I have this idea — that came up to me last night — where there is definitely someone that you admire and that you would love to ask a question to. And I would do anything to find this person, ask him your question and get you the answer.
Let’s say you want to ask a specific question to comedian Fabrice Lucchini. Then I wouldn’t stop until I met Fabrice Lucchini, ask him your question and bring you back the answer. But that has nothing to do with advertising.
TNG: WHO IS THE PERSON THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO ASK A QUESTION TO ?
NDLP: Actually, I think I would love to ask a question to Fabrice Lucchini.
TNG: AND WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK FABRICE LUCCHINI ?
NDLP: I don’t really know. I think I would like to ask him if he is happy. I already know his answer because I know he is a unhappy person. I am sure I could talk to him for hours.
But, I would also like to ask him why he cares so much about words. Why does he feel the need to immerse himself into words and to retain them all ? That’s probably what I would ask him. Especially, because I know the answer to my first question. And actually, it might be a vicious circle as he is probably such into literature because he feels unhappy.
Oh, I would love to to get to meet him.
TNG: ARE YOU PISSED THAT YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO ENTER YOUR WORK AT CANNES OR OTHER AWARDS SHOWS THIS YEAR ?
NDLP: I don’t make ads to win awards. I do it for the people. I do advertising to create an experience for them, to serve them or bring them something that is useful.
I know that goes a bit against the philosophy in ad agencies where sometimes you create so much bullshit.
TNG: HOW DID YOU BECOME A COPYWRITER ?
NDLP: I did what people told me to do. When I was in high school, my French teacher told me “You should become a French teacher. You should get a Bachelor of Literature”. I said OK and I got a Bachelor of Literature. And after graduation, I realized that being a French teacher was cool but I would be missing something. I was a bit frustrated as it lacked creativity. Outside of school, I was already deep into theater, I would write essays and such. Something was missing.
And then, my father, who used to be an art director a long time ago told me “I could see you as a copywriter”. I said OK. And I went to Sciencescom, a communications school in Nantes. And that’s how I got into here.
TNG: WHAT SURPRISED YOU THE MOST WHEN YOU STARTED INTO ADVERTISING ?
NDLP: Advertising was my first job so I didn’t know anything except from that. But, they trusted me really soon. And that’s cool.
And the people. Here, people are such nice people. They’ve become friends. We spend weekends together, we take vacations together. I consider them as good friends.
TNG: WHAT’S THE THING THAT YOU WOULD TELL YOUR FORMER SELF TO PREPARE FOR THE AD AGENCIES WORLD ?
NDLP: I know. I could even tell the same thing to my current self “Work your ass off and go create stuff. Make videos, write things ...”.
But, at the same thing, you have to find the right partners with a lot of motivation to do such things. I hate working on my own. That’s also the reason why I love improv way much than other formats, such as one-man-shows for example. I might get into it someday but, right now, I enjoy working with others.
But the best feeling in the world is to have fun while you work. That’s the real cool part. And we are really lucky to work in such a field. Being a creative in advertising is such a blessing when you think about it. We can’t complain. We have work conditions that are really enjoyable.
Nolwenn de La Pintière
Copywriter
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