Strategy and copywriting: where’s the line? From senior writer Jamie Thorp

Jamie Thorp is a senior copywriter at Reed Words, where he produces work for the likes of Virgin, Sony and Wagamama – often alongside brand strategists. Over time, he’s noticed the lines between their roles aren’t always clear-cut. To explore this, he spoke with three strategists, Molly Rowan-Hamilton, Ashleigh Steinhobel and Emma Hopton, on where their roles overlap, how they differ and why the best work happens when copywriting and strategy come together.

What do we even mean by strategy and copywriting?

Here’s what each role does, in the simplest terms:

For example, Nike might decide that celebrating people’s personal achievements would be a good way to sell more trainers. That’s their strategy. A copywriter would then bring that strategy to life, creating a line like “Find your greatness“ – landing the idea that you should take pride in reaching your own goals, no matter how big or small they might be.

How do the lines sometimes blur?

That’s how the two roles work in theory, but it’s often not so clear-cut. “Strategy and copywriting are connected” is something I’ve heard since I started out in the design industry. They might have different job titles, but they overlap in lots of places:

As a side note, both also tend to come from completely random backgrounds. I’ve worked with a strategist who studied finance and a copywriter with a degree in zoology, to give you an idea.

Here’s where things get even blurrier: strategists often come up with great lines of copy, and copywriters sometimes shape the overall brand strategy. It makes sense. As Ashleigh Steinhobel, Senior Strategy Director at FutureBrand, says, “What strategists and copywriters share is the ability to make things meaningful.”

Both roles take research, data, and complex info (like interviews and 50-page briefs) and turn them into something clear and useful. That might mean explaining a brand’s vision to a CEO, guiding an internal design team, or making a campaign that resonates with customers.

At their core, strategists and copywriters are problem-solvers, wrestling with the complex until it is simple. So why am I not a strategist, and why are strategists not copywriters?

The differences

When I asked Molly Rowan-Hamilton, VP of Strategy at Live Nation, why she needs copywriters to bring her strategies to life, she put it this way: “For the same reason I have to hire a therapist to help me with my issues.”

Let's run with that analogy. Just like you might present problems to a therapist to work through, a strategist knows what a brand’s 'problem' is – but they need an expert copywriter to help untangle and express the solution as clearly as possible. Ashleigh explains it well: “Copywriting is about refining the strategy, understanding it, and then using a much richer set of tools to expand it.”

Think of branding like a story. Strategists create the story that a brand believes about itself. Copywriters use their skills to make the world believe it too.

How should strategists and copywriters work together?

The best agencies bring strategists and copywriters (designers are welcome too) into the same room from the start. When they work together from day one, strategy and copy shape each other – leading to richer ideas. That’s when we create something that feels "So right it’s invisible, or so right it's really visible," as Emma Hopton, Strategy Lead at Taxi Studio, says.

Good writing doesn’t just express a strategy – it helps test and refine it. That’s why Molly’s approach is to get copy involved early. “Give me a copy pick ’n’ mix – throw some ideas at me, and I’ll shape them in a way that works for the brand.” As soon as you put pen to paper, even a single line or word can reveal whether something feels right or off for the brand.

When strategy and copywriting bring their skills together, the result is work that’s not only clear, but also true to the brand’s spirit. As Ashleigh says, “A decent copywriter should ask: What are you trying to say? Let me say it for you, better.” When you find the best way of capturing an idea, it makes it easy for internal teams to understand and get behind, and far more compelling for audiences wherever the brand shows up in the world.

Because at the end of the day, both roles are about solving problems with words. Sometimes a copywriter needs to think like a strategist. And sometimes a strategist needs to write like a copywriter. The best work happens when the lines blur.

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