Craig is a friend of ours through one of our best best friends from Tokyo (Nanako: also on the jobs page for Singapore). Craig has been living and working in Singapore for 41/2 years and has some great information to share for expats looking at working in advertising in Asia.

"Essentially when a client needs a marketing campaign, it would be my job to come up with a concept for it, whether it would be print advertising or a television commercial, or some other type of marketing," explains Craig as to what a copywriter does. Ultimately, Craig is a writer, so he spends more time on the words to be used in the advertising concept and then works with an art director to visually represent his words. In most cases, clients don't know exactly what they want, so it's Craig's job to present the most effective ways of advertising the product they want to sell. He helps identify the target market and the style of advertising that should be used whether it be "cool or funky" or a more serious style.

This is Craig's third job in the advertising industry. He completed a university degree in film but then got interested in advertising, so he went traveling around the world to see where he could get a job in that field. Asia has always fascinated him so he went first to Hong Kong and then Bangkok. However, a lot of people said that for foreigners looking for a job in advertising, Singapore was the place. He arrived in Singapore and started working for an internet advertising company, but because the internet was so new and there was no real framework on which to base the business, the experience was different to that of working with print and television. So Craig went job hunting door-to-door and impressed his employers enough to get himself a great job.

"I think a lot of people don't make their money until they switch jobs," explains Craig as to the potential income that can be made in advertising. "...you build a portfolio of funny and interesting ads, then you'll find you can ask for a lot more money at your next job." He also says that the fantastic benefit of working in Singapore is that even if you are are earning millions, you will still only be paying 20% tax per year. Most people pay between 12-15%.

Are you a writer? Is advertising something you think would suit you as a career? "When I got here, I really realised Singapore is the place for this particular industry. If you are a writer, and you speak English and you're looking to get your foot in the door, then Singapore is the spot to be." Considering his experience in searching for this job across the world, I believe him and think you should too!