Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Insight in
Today I met the third client of mine to tell me they’ve drastically cut their marketing budget.
When I hear the words ‘budget cut’ from a client, I usually think they’re about to ask me to work for Read the rest of this entry »
Cool It Schools Poetry Competition
I’ve just found this site helping schools to build climate change awareness among children. Cool It Schools are running a poetry competition – Writing the World – for International Year of Chemistry, which – aside from the seemingly petty £2 entry fee – looks quite appealing. Pass the details on to your kids’ schools; you might discover another Dylan Evans. Dylan (age 8) was last years’ winner. Quite deservedly. I’d have given him the top prize just for writing: ‘weirder than leeches’. You can see his poem on the Writing the World page. Closing date 23rd July.
Falling off the fence
I’ve written a couple of blogs for different organisations this month. They all had one thing in common; they wanted to give their opinion on something relevant to their industry or area of expertise without offending or alienating customers and service users. Which isn’t that easy, because it’s very easy to offend when you critique. Not because you’re being aggressive, but because others may be defensive.
To really withdraw from this risk, you need to sit on the fence. In this position, you can balance the view from both fields. Which is fine when you want to produce bland copy that helps people explore both sides of a coin. But, when you’re looking for something attention-grabbing, sitting on the fence – as the saying goes – gives you splinters. Personally, I don’t get on with opinion ‘from the fence’. Not just because I don’t want to spend my evening removing splinters, but because I don’t trust it.
I managed to talk my clients round to taking a clear position. Here are the benefits:
:o)
I am a convert to the emoticon. Not those hideous yellow graphic smileys you can add to your emails if you’re under 16, but the punctuation emoticon. The PE.
At the beginning of my PE journey, I was hugely skeptical :-/ and annoyed >:-[ by all PEs, considering users to be complete :-@! However, the more of the little :-) faces I saw, the more :-)) I became. My relatively short time as a PE user has so far been an enjoyable one; I’ve got over my snobbish ‘I’m far too sensible for all this silliness’ position and have joined the throngs, considering them a lot less offensive than the use / overuse of the exclamation mark!!!!!!!!!!
Discovering there were Homer Simpson (_8^(|) pirate, P-( smoking, :-i Frank Zappa :^{= and even pope PEs +<:-) just makes the process more imaginative and amusing.
Radio 4 Mash-Up
Sometime last year, I was on the phone to a writer friend of mine. I’d caught her parked up at some anonymous soul-sapping service station, munching her lunch and listening to a CD. Mid-chat, my friend changed her CD. Now, at this point, you could be thinking one of two things:
1. Either I am so interminably dull, that I wouldn’t notice when I’ve bored someone so much that they’ve listened to an entire CD while I’ve been rambling on or,
2. I’ve just proved (as if proof were needed) that age-old adage that women can eat, talk, listen, write, apply make-up, prove the existence of the Higgs boson and change CDs, all at the same time.
Finished Words and a blatant bit of promotion
In a departure from my usual blog observations (blogservations? blobservations?) this is a brief but belated apology for the absence of writing samples and the continued presence of that annoying ‘updating’ message. I’ve been busy, but will try and sort a few appropriate bits to post soon. In the mean time, please contact me to request specific work samples or to view some of my latest stuff. This has worked well for recent enquiries, as I’ve been able to tailor samples to suit sectors and needs.
The last few months have seen me working on a disparate bunch of briefs from 2012 Olympic sponsorship programmes to corporate brochures, websites, tenders, news pieces and film reviews. I’ve been working for designers, brand agencies, charities, marketing consultants, local government, production companies, small business and FMCG manufacturers. I’ve also been training and continue to develop bespoke writing and tendering workshops for business. So if any of that sounds interesting, useful or relevant, please get in touch.
As you were.
Squawk
Whenever there’s a significant break in blogging, you can assume:
1. I’m really busy producing wonderful stuff for lovely clients. So busy, that to blog would be like hurling metaphorical blancmange in their faces. So instead, my silence sends out a message of productiveness: “I am so focused on your project, I have no time to blog. Not a single second. I don’t want to blog in fact. I am loving this project.”
My Own Private Ardagh-o
I took a guinea pig to the vets this morning. Before I tell you what the receptionist said to me when I walked in, I’m going to point out that the guinea pig in question was named by my daughter when she was five. It might also help to picture the receptionist as an extremely efficient, quite scary, very loud, immaculately turned out, rather posh middle-aged woman who looked like she holidays in John Lewis.
Right, so, there I am struggling to get in the door carrying a cardboard box that’s lurching wildly from side to side when I hear: “Pebbles Starling?” I had an instant need to laugh out loud. Which I know is quite childish, but I find the application of human surname to animal alias, really, really funny. I don’t know why. I just do.
Copywriter not required
A rather heated debate today with design friends resulted in my conceding to the view that a copywriter isn’t always necessary. I should point out that I was outnumbered by five to one for the entire duration of the debate and we were only talking about magazine ads. However, I’ve been presented with some great proof which, despite the obvious career suicide, I’m happy to share.
Saatchi’s copy claptrap
I know it’s not nice to slam other people’s copy efforts, but this one really is screaming out for a virtual red pen. Charles Saatchi’s new show British Art Now has an accompanying catalogue which honestly defies belief. Here’s an excerpt all about the artists:
“Articulated as doublespeak, they hand-make the virtual, cite history in fugue fervour, and find the poetic and enduring in the cacophony of pop cultural din.”
Great isn’t it?
The real McCoy
Quote of the day from the hugely talented Rich McCoy:
“I think the whole world needs copywriters. The more I work with them, the more important I think they are in the mix.”
Perfect.
Rich’s quote is an extract from a brief online exchange we had earlier today about Saatchi. Saatchi and his quite gob-smackingly incomprehensible British Art Now catalogue. I shan’t sully this post with the details. It really needs separate treatment. Which I’m going to give it in just a minute. In the mean time, here’s that quote again:
“I think the whole world needs copywriters. The more I work with them, the more important I think they are in the mix.”
Did you get that?
Tinker, tailor: Writing to your niche
Generally speaking, I try to avoid re-blogging anything to do with blogging – especially when the post is blatant corporate selling. So, it’s with a not-insignificant amount of knuckle-chewing that I pass this on. This is a post from Hubspot about how blogs are using more complicated language than traditional media. This shouldn’t be a surprise: old media = well-trained journalists who can write; blogs = anyone. Plus a few good copywriters. *Cough*
Maths minus boredom
I absolutely love this. New Math by Craig Damrauer – a wry approach to maths for word and language lovers. An addictive site – review at leisure.
This post is about posters.
With only a week to go, this is just irresistible. Jonathan Jones introduces a feature in today’s Culture Guardian showcasing alternative takes on the political campaign poster from some of Britain’s leading artists. You can see their work here plus more detailed commentary from each artist (and Jonathan’s introduction) here.
I agree with the article tone that official campaign offerings are more than unimpressive, but I’ve really enjoyed the unofficial and not so underground stuff like My David Cameron. If anyone can teach the big parties a thing or two about clear copy, it’s the creators of some of these gems.
Very early comments on the Guardian site suggest there is a big gap between fine art and graphic design when it comes to posters. My own take – unsurprisingly – is it comes down to the copy and the connection the copy has with the design. Hence my favourite of the lot is this one by Goshka Macuga. Clear, clever, totally connected to its purpose and comes with a back-story.
Eye Drops Off Shelf – the wonder of headline writing
I spent part of yesterday advising on sales copy. My client felt their existing copy wasn’t punchy enough and was – in parts – ambiguous. We talked a bit about ambiguity and then got onto the inevitable conversation about ambiguity in newspaper headlines, like this: “Stolen Painting Found by Tree.” Clever tree. And these: “Miners Refuse to Work after Death” and “Police Found Safe Under Bed.” Lovely.
From ambiguous to apparent, it’s always possible to swing too far the other way. Two cherished but quite hopeless headlines from the States: “Official: Only Rain Will Cure Drought.” And this one from the Collinsville Herald-Journal in Illinois: “Economist Uses Theory to Explain Economy.” Great!
Finally, from apparent to accomplished, my all-time favourite headline from Private Eye – on the library strike in Essex: “Book Lack in Ongar.”
Talent.
Ferry clear thinking
Joe Ferry – head of design and service design at Virgin Atlantic – spoke eloquently in yesterday’s Media Guardian about innovation in service design. What he said was so sensible, it’s the kind of thinking we all secretly hope goes on in the heads of our clients:
“We often work with external agencies. They work with so many different companies that they can bring you totally new ideas from other industries.” He goes on to say that “…the objective in service design is to define exactly what it is you want the experience to be and then work back to establish how you can navigate the constraints you have – and actually deliver that.”
Feedback
I was asked yesterday what the theme of my blog is. I thought I’d share my answer: I don’t have a theme. I write about things that interest me in the hope that you might:
a. Find it interesting
b. Discover how I write
c. Discover something new
d. Laugh
That’s it really. I’ll write about copywriting only if I think I’ve got something useful to share with you. Otherwise, you’ll see all sorts of comment from design and photography to innovation and (cough) dancing.
I’ll be making the comment function a little easier soon, but in the mean time, keep emailing me.
Breaking the rules – Elvis style
I love this extract from Vanity Fair’s ‘The First of Elvis’ article – a profile of photographer Al Wertheimer who followed Elvis in 1956:
“He dared to move,” says Wertheimer. “Singers just did not move onstage in those days. You stood there like Frank Sinatra or Perry Como, and you sang from the waist up. Elvis broke all the rules. He moved his hips. He charged the microphone. He was introducing something that was just not acceptable to grown-ups and the more conservative groups. I have the William Morris guys getting him into a corner, and they’re giving him advice: ‘Now, Elvis, look, you get up there, you sing your song, but don’t move too much.’ Elvis dutifully listened. He wouldn’t argue with them. But once he got onstage he did what he wanted. And it created such a sensation. Not because you could hear him sing—there was too much screaming going on. The kids loved it. And the kids were the ones who bought the 45s.”
Nothing quite like ignoring the William Morris guys.
What’s the (second) Big Idea?
I’ve been reading a few blogs by fairly well-lit individuals in the business and marketing world. Some appear to conjure up new concepts on a regular basis. Quite aside from how exhausting this must be, it made me think about whether it’s actually possible to come up with more than one Big Idea.
One or two of my subscriptions include the blogs of successful business gurus, considered experts who are watched by a certain sector of Corporate plc for the next big thing – this on the basis that they’ve already delivered one widely adopted Big Idea. But are subsequent pearls of wisdom original new ideas of value and reason for contact, or just the same story set in a different scene?
Get Ya Hoop On
I read recently that school children in Middlesborough have been taking part in a new exercise called ‘Hoop Hip’. This involves spinning hula hoops around parts of your body to hip hop music.
When I was at school, exercise was compulsory netball. Hula hoops were considered silly fashion things and were definitely not found in the sports locker. We had a theme tune though – a sadistic growl courtesy of the PE teacher: “Defend! Mark her! Not her, her! Move. Your. Back. Side. Noooow!”