Today I called a French colleague and made her tell me about the weather where she was before we could get on with my real reason to call. Earlier, I spoke to another colleague in Dubai and we talked about the snow. On another call with a team in South Africa they told me how […]
Category Archives: Best Practice
Have you fallen into the exaggeration trap?
If you ask a room full of people what’s really important to them they will tell you trust is one of the most important things there is. I know because we did this recently. Of course, trust, yes very important – everybody nods. We have to trust people, we have to be trusted. We must […]
Not everyone wants to be a teacher
A very good friend of mine quit his high paying, glamourous, sport related job in Switzerland to become a secondary school teacher. Now he’s happier in his work than he’s ever been. When I talked to him about his decision he said “I always just assumed everyone enjoyed school and wanted to be a teacher. […]
Getting good at getting good feedback
In my last blog I talked about how to give good feedback. But, of course, feedback needs to work both ways. If you’re asking for feedback then you’re asking for someone’s considered opinion. Because of their experience, their knowledge or their skill you’re asking them for help. If you’re simply asking them to rubberstamp something […]
How to give good feedback
In the content team at Cisco we have a saying: if you’re working on something alone, there’s a problem. We all know the benefits of working collaboratively, how important it is to get different views (or insights, to use some business speak) on a work product. So, very often we’ll be asked to feedback on […]
What’s the story?
So, there’s this guy. He wants to propose to his girlfriend in a fun way. They met through “a popular dating app” so he decides to create his own app that mimics it and leads her through a series of clues until she arrives at the proposal. But of course, he’s not an app developer. […]
Find your inspiration
“Where do you get your inspiration from?” The thing I’ve been asked most since I started this blog. (Ok, probably still my number one question is “can I use the logo here” but this is coming in second.) It’s hard question to answer – inspiration can really come from anywhere – but for me there […]
Take the Y out of yours
Many years ago I used to work as a video producer/editor or what we used to call “Predators”. I was involved in the whole process of the video from the script, lighting and camera work. Then doing all the post production myself: editing in Premier and doing all the motion graphics in After Effects. Subtitling. […]
10 questions for writing great copy
1. Have you written a brief? What do you want people to know, feel and do? 2. Does it start with a big idea? Something that makes people stop and think “I’ve never thought of that before.” 3. Have you used language in an interesting way? “This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. […]
Nobody knows what you know
As a brand person you often get the same questions again and again. I have a whole notebook in Evernote with stock responses that I tweak and send practically weekly. This is the reason you can’t send out our logo. This is how to handle partner comms on social media. This is where you can […]
Check. Double check. Check again.
Full disclosure: Arsenal fan. What’s more annoying than reading copy you’ve already read? Advertising campaigns that include spelling mistakes and bizarre capitalization. Going out in your name. That’s the reality for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club this week who’ve released a campaign on the London Underground that includes two different incorrect spellings of the word “premium”. As […]
Rules are made to be interpreted
For any type of marketing there’s going to be some in house rules. There has to be. Often these are obvious: use the logo, include the URL. Sometimes they are a matter of style. Don’t crop the logo or, format the URL: www.likethis.com not: http://www.likethis.com/ . Occasionally they are more important and could have legal ramifications: don’t let others trade off our brand and […]