After copywriting at Y&R Not Just Film, Only and enjoying the freelance ride for a few months, Laurine Verweyen now works happy and in prosper at Fitzroy, a strategic creative boutique in Amsterdam. In her spare time, she is a boardmember of JongeHonden, an organisation that helps young creatives to get a foot in the crazy market of advertising. Jongehonden is active in the Netherlands and Belgium and has about 350 students actively involved.

Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Born in ‘81, went to highschool both in the Netherlands and the States, studied Religion, Journalism and Artdirection, and mixed all 3 into a holy grail called Copywriting. I’ve been working in advertising for 2 years now.

What’s your reason for running JongeHonden?
We believe every junior creative can use a little help to oompf it up. Not everyone gets great chances in the beginning, but with JongeHonden, they can create these opportunities themselves. As a boardmember, it’s great to contribute to that. And it’s fun.

What do you find more important in an ad, the concept behind it or the sales?
Great ads have both. But advertising needs to sell, that’s why it was invented in the first place. When the agencies discovered creativity increased sales, it became a creative thing. Now sometimes creativity takes over. It should’t. Creativity can never stand in the way of sales.

What makes a good advertisement?
Good insight, smart thought, great execution.

What's the most common misconception about being an advertiser?
That we spend 8 hours a day thinking of ideas. And that’s all there is to it. I wish!

What skills are most important for advertiser?
Curiosity, flexibility and of course creativity.

And last, how should one become a great advertiser?
Shut down our computer. It’s hard, I know. But step away from the machine. Allow yourself boundaries of time and space to really focus on the idea. And neva eva look on adsoftheworld. That’s all been done before.