A brand for $50? Great! Except for the weak link… me.
I was really excited to have a little play with the latest automation tool for business branding – Tailor. It’s not a completely new idea; Justin Champney has been running Buildabrand for quite some time. But each new execution sees improvements in the process, and nobody can deny that one of the most fun (and […]
7 Video Types to Add to Your Content Strategy
A cracking blog post from the gang at Habit Creative. Spot on!
Good enough v brilliant – the changing roles of content delivery
With bags of experience as a jobbing journalist, I have been through the fear factor of technological change before. When I was in my 20s, at the vanguard of online writing, I laughed in my youthful way at how people like me were supplanting much more experienced journalists. It’s not really funny (people’s livelihoods never […]
A living style guide for corporate writing – it’s about ‘feel’, not rules.
Corporate journalism style is a living and evolving beast. When I began writing, over twenty years ago (eek!), many businesses spent months putting together lengthy droning white papers; today, nobody has time to read them. Yet, before we dismiss them with a laugh, it’s worth remembering that in those days there was a different subtext. These […]
The death of long-form has been greatly exaggerated…
Lovely piece here from the gang at LikeMinds (interview with a VP at Ogilvy) on the value of long-form in advertising. The idea that we have the attention span of a goldfish is simply not true – and particularly in B2B, there is immense value in the consultative sell. Bespoking, relationship-building and value generation all […]
Unpleasantness on social media
I spend a lot of time writing about healthcare. I also spend a lot of time writing about marketing (and to be honest, writing about writing). It’s not often I get to do them both together; but this extraordinary story caught my eye. It is the story of an Essex GP surgery which will potentially sanction […]
Is Buzzfeed really that bad?!
Back in June, that doyen of business reporting, Robert Peston, gave the Charles Wheeler Memorial Lecture at the University of Westminster. He spent some of his time sticking a couple of well-manicured fingers up at Buzzfeed, the hugely successful content stream business which relies significantly on Listicles (lists of bitesize nuggets) and animated GIFs. He says, […]
49 words never to use…
The lovely and immensely talented Janet Murray has put together this post called “49 words you should avoid in your press releases. We think this deserves to be applied to most marketing materials! Enjoy.
Importance of The Notification Centre
Great blog post here about the value of the mobile Notification Centre. I agree with all this – and it has implications for concise writing, too…
We love: Scoopshot
The line between professional content and user-generated content is becoming ever more blurred; and for many brands this is great news. They often seek the authenticity of ‘real’ stories and situations. Take, for example, pictures. There are plenty of places to buy low-cost imagery with easy-to-understand licenses (everything from Getty to IStock, for example). Yet […]