A line is just one sentence — but the right one will outlive the campaign, the client, and the brand. Write like somebody will read it twice.
A note pinned above the deskSix pieces that earned their keep — chosen for the line that did the lifting, not the budget that paid for it.
Three-line manifesto rewrite for the Tata Tea Premium Strong relaunch. Pulled the campaign off "brewed for the bold" and into a daily-choice frame. Ran across the year with no visual change.
Three monologues from second-hand 501 owners across Bombay, Bangalore, and Manipur. Wrote in three languages, kept the cadence inside 132 words per monologue.
Twenty-page voice document for Bombay Bicycle Co. Set the house rules for tone, vocabulary, and the four sentences they would never use again.
Six-page ingredient story for Forest Essentials' Ayurvedic line. Landed the pull line on the first draft. The rest of the page stayed in the editor's mark-up for a month.
Sub-line for a heritage tea anti-pitch. Ran across 24 sites in three cities. Got a hundred letters.
A thirty-second radio spot for a long-distance bus operator. Single voice, no music. The agency tried to add music; we held the silence.
Four open files. Stage tags shown in the corner of each draft. STET means keep the line as-written; DRAFT means pre-client; IN REVIEW means out for notes.
Three-line manifesto rewrite. "Brewed for the bold." Replaced with "Strong is a setting. Choose it daily." Body copy in tightening.
Three monologues for the second-hand denim film. Marathi and Hindi versions parallel-tracked. Final cut at 132 words per spot.
Brand-voice document, twenty pages. House tone is "the slow honest sentence" — drafting the vocabulary set this week, examples next.
Six-page editorial for the Ayurvedic ingredient story. STET on "we forage, you flourish" — client liked it on the first read.
The brief should sound like the brand called the reader, not the other way around. Read it out loud before you send it.
Every line earns its place. If a six-word version exists, the four-word version is hiding somewhere — find it.
Pick the rules early — em-dashes or hyphens, the Oxford comma or not, "you" or "your reader". Keep the same voice across every surface.
The first three sentences of a first draft are usually throat-clearing. Delete them and start at sentence four — it's nearly always where the real opener lives.
Every brief is asking one thing. Find that one thing on a sticky note before you open the doc.
Know what the last line is going to do before you write the first one. It saves a draft.