The design industry's casual approach to producing copy should wake up to the benefits of in house brand writers, says Martin Hennessey.

Dan Radley, Start's head of copy for the past five years, oversees seven full-time brand writers, who work for clients such as Royal mail, Virgin, Hertz and Deutsche Telecom.

"Freelance writers help us deal when workflow increases unexpectedly, but we get tremendous value for money from our in-house writers," he says. "Not only do in-house writers reduce freelance bills and increase profitability, says Radley, they add a dimension to client relationships that is hard for designers to achieve on their own".

"The very nature of what brand writers do, trying to get under the skin of a business strategy, means that writers build extremely strong relationships with senior people on the client side," says Radley.