ONOMATOPOEIA
…Quite simply, we like this word because it doesn’t sound anything like what it means!
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Stratton Craig Copywriter Blog
Word of the week
Word of the week
COSY
…This has got to be one of the warmest words we know. It’s not particularly fancy and it’s anything but unusual – but we love it all the same for the smile it never fails to bring to our faces!
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Your audience is migrating online – are you there yet?
In the face of increasing migration online by readerships, audiences and advertisers, it appears that only the foolhardiest of regional businesses would ignore this ongoing and irreversible trend.
It stands to reason that as more and more switch to online sources for news, information, products and services, the advertisers (and commercial realities) of mass customer migration will follow.
And in the face of massive revenue declines, we’ve seen the offline publishers – mainly the newspaper and magazine proprietors – attempt to woo audiences in cyberspace.
According to Advertising Age:
“Aware of the need to lock in faithful readers, most newspapers are turning online to deepen these relationships. No print publications can attract the high numbers that Google, Yahoo or even TV companies boast, so the quality of the relationship becomes critical if they want to bring advertisers on board.”
This certainly makes for a sensible approach – and the old adage of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ applies. Magazines have followed suit, too, with a plethora of titles ditching their offline print runs and vamping up online-only versions in an attempt to cut costs and revitalise readerships.
UK newspapers have tried a number of tactics, such as launching specific microsites – the Mirror’s celebrity website 3am, for example, was launched to pull in a small number of loyal fans who could then be effectively marketed to relevant advertisers for a high perceived value.
Business realities
Businesses, too, are looking online to increase their marketing spend in the light of falling offline interest: after all, as the marketing manager of a medium-sized firm in the UK, would you continue to invest in expensive magazine advertising amid falling circulation and readership, or pump revenues into online portals such as Facebook, which has more than 350 million regular users?
Twitter, according to PC magazines, has experienced a 1,382 percent growth in the last 12 months. Whilst the revenue models are still being discussed by Management at Twitter Central, there is no doubt that when they decide on how the social media platform will sustain itself beyond further venture capital funds and grow commercially (and organically), the newly-recruited sales teams across the world will be in a strong leverage position to entice businesses on board.
Not that online migration is all linked into social media platforms – the picture is, of course, bigger and broader than this.
Whilst social media remains the big story over the last decade for online marketers, the inexorable drift towards all things web shows a bigger picture of audience migration. A bigger picture which digital marketing cannot fail to ignore, or to adapt to. Traditional marketing of your business is already redundant, in case you hadn’t noticed. 2010 will see further digital dominance.
Global decline
It has been estimated that nearly 50 percent of American newspaper advertising revenue has now disappeared, whilst there has been a 27 percent increase in the number of American readers accessing online news portals for daily updates.
Where, we wonder, are the advertisers now heading? The answer is becoming clear. They must go where the audiences are, or follow the print publications in their decline.
Not that the picture is all doom and gloom. Current advertising rate cards for printed products are amongst the lowest figures for years, but in the face of declining readerships, few marketers see the inherent value in saving budget to reach fewer potential customers.
The mantra has always unfortunately been ‘minimum spend, maximum reach’ and the internet is, in part, answering this call. But there is far more to explore.
Quality content still drives much of the traffic movement online, and savvy marketers should be looking to advertise and participate on social media platforms such as Facebook, Friendfeed, and Twitter as well as some of the popular and well-read blogging sites relevant to their commercial sectors.
Often, the spend required to advertise here is far less than traditional sources offline, although the actual reach and buy-in from online audiences is higher: no phone call to make, simply a click of a mouse, a purchase call to action, a credit or debit card transaction… both online advertiser and customer are happy.
Future review
So, when it comes time to review your quarterly ad spend, and the usual monthly call arrives from the sales executive on your key industry title, are you going to once again sign off the spend – or are you going to investigate the increased reach and buy-in you could well gain online instead?
Audience migration has been instigated by the internet – your marketing focus needs to follow suit. Not convinced? Remember that nearly 75 percent of all the top Brands are now advertising, for example, on Facebook. Fact: three out of four multinational companies have already observed their audience migration.
Looks like 2010 could make or break the attention span of your audience.
Word of the week
LUSH
…We love words that have multiple meanings, and it’s even better when those meanings merge into one another. Both adjective and noun – luxurious, rich, sexy and a drunk – we like ‘lush’ because it’s decadent in every way.
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Back to basics with blogging
Word of the week
GLUM
…There’s an as yet unnamed genre of words – it’s moving towards onomatopoeia, but when it gets halfway, it turns left and heads off. It contains words that make you look like what they are. It’s always great to find words that do unusual things, and with its human interaction we think ‘glum’ definitely fits the bill!
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The ten commandments of social media
Word of the week
JUGGLE
…We just love the comic sound of this word, and if you think about what our language sounds like to non-English speakers this word must sound pretty strange!
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The Copywriter – February 2010
The Copywriter January 2010
Word Clouds
Wishing you a very happy new year!
Just before the end of 2009, we were asked by Communicate magazine to look at the language used in the annual reports of the four nominated companies for Best Overall Annual Report in the FTSE 100 category at the IRS Best Practice Awards. Below is the article.
In January we’re offering our word cloud service to anyone who would like us to review a piece of communication. To find out more please email Harriette Hobbs harriette@strattoncraig.co.uk.
Here’s to a busy and exciting 2010!
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At the time these word clouds appeared, these four companies were operating in the eye of the storm, which hit the financial markets in 2008. Some felt the effects more keenly than others.
The 3i cloud is about as gloomy as they come. During the financial year to March 2009, the UK’s oldest private equity group was in the thick of the most rapid economic downturn in its long and illustrious history. It took a beating, reporting a record loss of £2.15bn in the year to March 2009. The cloud is darkened by words like ‘debt’ (54 mentions), ‘fall’ (32) and ‘loss’ (25). The word ‘gearing’ is mentioned 15 times. Given that 3i’s own gearing reached an excruciating 103 per cent, while net debt stood at more than £2bn this is perhaps not surprising. The word ‘upturn’ is dangled in front of investors’ noses in the chairman’s statement but doesn’t make it onto the cloud.
Marks and Spencer, the grande dame of the British high street, was meanwhile suffering more than its fair share of difficulties as a result of the downturn. The words ‘customer’ and ‘food’ are writ large as it seeks to reassure investors it is focusing on shoppers and its celebrated (but pricey) food offering in the face of stiff competition from rivals. What is striking though is the word ‘governance’ with 75 mentions in all. At the time, Sir Stuart Rose was taking flak from institutional investors following a board decision allowing him to take on both the chairman and chief executive roles, against corporate governance best practice. The repetition of ‘governance’ may play into the popular idea that if you say a word often enough, people will start to believe you are doing something about it. M&S has just announced the appointment of a new chief executive and things have improved. From a position of relative safety, Sir Stuart was recently reported to have described the Christmas 2008 trading period as “Armageddon” although there is no reference to that word in the cloud.
In Centrica’s annual report, the word ‘customer’ is mentioned more frequently than the word ‘shareholder’, which is perhaps surprising given its investor audience. This may be part of a broader attempt to present a customer-friendly face after the owner of British Gas caused howls of protest in 2008 following soaring profits at its residential unit. The words ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ feature prominently too, and are perhaps indicative of the extreme levels of volatility in wholesale gas and power prices Centrica experienced at the time.
But the picture was brighter at Tullow Oil and this cloud’s lining looks distinctly silver compared to the others. The words ‘upside’ and ‘potential’ appear frequently with ‘success’ garnering 96 mentions. Tullow’s renewed focus on exploration in African countries is shown in this cloud, with ‘Africa’ appearing 49 times, ‘Ghana’ 74 times and ‘Uganda’ 68 times. The company is not shy about its good fortune. The words ‘deliver’, ‘growth’, ‘success’ and ‘strong’ (which is mentioned 66 times), feature heavily. But the tone is measured, a reflection perhaps of the hazardous nature of its business: the word ‘risks’ crops up 110 times.
The word ‘responsibility’ comes up in all three except the M&S cloud, although words such as governance, independent and audit are sprinkled liberally here. While the word may well feature in previous reports as organisations highlight corporate and social responsibility, you can’t help wondering if it might have become even more attractive – sexy even – as companies sought to soothe and reassure in the wake of the seismic events of 2008.
Cherkizovo
For the second year running we have been commissioned to provide the copy for the annual report of one of Russia’s leading meat production companies. We started with extensive groundwork, including a trip to Russia to undertake interviews with key personnel and gather information. With the support of our account management team we ensured that deadlines were met and feedback was incorporated. We are now preparing to replicate the success of last year’s report.