Stratton Craig Blog

Ad of the week - Jack Daniel's

Think whiskey, think Jack Daniel’s. The Tennessee sour mash brand has become as recognisable a sight in tube stations as it is in supermarkets, thanks to a long history of eloquent and nostalgic adverts.

We love the way that Jack Daniel’s uses black and white images to evoke the brand’s history. But as you’d expect, it’s the great copy that makes the adverts really stand out to us.

Fantastic one-liners are delivered with a consistent tone of voice, and the twang of the USA’s Deep South is unmistakable.

A photograph of three men relaxing with their arms folded, dressed in shirts, overalls and caps, is brought to life by the caption: ‘Ask our barrelmen what makes whiskey-making the ideal job. They’ll likely tell you it’s the “whiskey-making”.’

The image of a long, perfectly-lit line of wooden barrels is marked: ‘With all due respect to progress, the world could use a little less plastic.’

Read a series of the adverts in succession and you’ll find that a story begins to develop. You can imagine the slow, labour-of-love production of the whiskey by dedicated barrelmen unperturbed by the passage of time. When you’re choosing a bottle from the packed spirits section of a shop, it’s a persuasive narrative.

A final advertisement has the line: ‘The source of more than a few good stories.’

Every Jack Daniel’s advert tells a story with copy that reveals a personality as deep and rich as the whiskey itself. Equally importantly – this story sells whiskey.

What’s your favourite advert at the moment? Whether it’s the beautiful design or the compelling copy that you love – we want to hear about it! Just leave a comment in the box below.

Good Product Descriptions Lead To Better Sales

Consumer polls reveal that one of the most important features of brand pages on social media or of a company website is product description, along with user reviews and images. A great product description not only leads to better sales but also guarantees good Google rankings, if it is done properly.

Good copywriting will help brands to stand out among their competitors, the Econsultancy blog says. Just like any other piece of writing, product descriptions should be aimed at a particular audience and tailored to appeal to that audience, including the tone of voice and the language used. A brand selling baby products should use a warmer tone and stress the product safety, while teenage fashion retailers should adopt more lively language and emphasise trends, for instance.

Econsultancy notes that brands should pay special attention to consistency. Even if they sell a variety of products, all product descriptions should be similar in terms of length and shape. For example, if some of the product descriptions include bullet points, it could be a good idea to organise all descriptions in a similar style. That way, consumers will know what to expect once they have seen several descriptions. A particular advantage of bullet points is that they suit the typical consumer´s scanning-like reading technique.

Even if the product descriptions are great, there is little chance that users will get to see them unless the right keywords to rank them in search engines are also present. However, brands should remember that overdoing it is not a good strategy, as keyword stuffing not only looks unnatural but may lead to a Google penalty.

Turn followers into customers

Companies are now using digital communications to connect with customers who were previously out of their reach, including international audiences. However, the best digital marketing strategies achieve more than directing traffic to a company’s website, or recruiting followers to social media pages.

The Swedish branch of UNICEF recently identified a problem with its social media strategy: the Facebook page had attracted more than 180,000 ‘likes’, and the Twitter account around 10,000 followers, but very few of these digital supporters were donating money.

A campaign was launched to counteract this, with the tagline ‘Likes don’t save lives. Money does’.

Converting attention to income is important, whatever service or product a company is offering. We’ve compiled a list of ways that you can improve conversions, even if you are working to a tight budget.

Provide free, well-researched content. Digital browsers have access to an entire world of products, services and information, so persuading them to buy from your company is difficult. An engaging tone is appealing, and offering free, helpful content to your visitors is equally valuable to your company. Visitors who receive beneficial information are more likely to trust and make use of your paid services.

Understand what your audience is looking for. Study the recipients of your digital communications, and consider what they are looking for when they browse the internet. If you occupy a niche market your visitors might be interested in blog posts offering guidance. If you’re in a digitally competitive industry (such as fashion, or leisure and tourism) they could be after exclusive offers.

Engage with your digital visitors. Do not simply promote your company. By ensuring your content is informative, diverse and interesting, you can interact with visitors. This is particularly important for direct messages, or responses to queries and complaints. Personalising these communications shows your followers that you value their input, and will help you build relationships with them.

Limit your use of promotional messages. Posting too many sales messages on your Facebook page, or frequently emailing promotions to your followers, is likely to drive them away. Mixing a limited number of sales communications with useful content and an engaging tone will make them appear more interesting and readable.

Offer exclusive benefits to your digital followers. When you do post promotions or sales messages online, include special benefits for your digital followers. Rewarding them for interacting with you invites future engagement.

If you'd like to discuss how we can help you to enhance your digital presence and convert more visitors, contact us today.

Is it possible to talk about tone of voice without mentioning the big three?

Have you ever decided that you wanted to speak with the voice of, say, Brian Blessed? It’d be fun to have such a distinctive, booming sound for a while - but eventually, you’d probably get sick of people mistaking you for the man himself. Sounding exactly like someone else doesn’t always work in your favour, so why do brands do it?

When we ask our clients the question “How do you want to sound?” during our Blueprint workshops, the most typical answers we get include one, two or all of what we’ve termed ‘The Big Three’. That’s Innocent, Apple and John Lewis. “We want to sound like them.”

It’s true that these three companies have all mastered tone of voice, and that they’re instantly recognisable. More than that, the brands are all respected and trusted by consumers thanks to a consistent and honest image. It’s not that surprising that you’d want your own brand to sound like them - the problem is that, to truly stand out from the competition, you need to sound like YOU.

Once we get past that initial answer of “We want to sound like…” and start asking why that is, something interesting happens. The next answer the client gives is something along the lines of “We want to sound honest/friendly/likeable/informal.” While those may be traits you’ve recognised that you share with The Big Three, to get those ideas across you don’t need to mention those brands at all. It’s possible to have a tone of voice that includes all of those characteristics and still ends up unique.

By taking a journey through your brand identity with a tailored Blueprint, we’ll help you to work out who you really are and what you stand for. It’s worked for plenty of our clients in the past - so why not join them? Get in touch today to arrange a workshop.

Crown Estate Moves To Integrated Reporting

The Crown Estate has announced plans to move towards integrated reporting and to reveal the full environmental and social impact of its property portfolio. Its first “total contribution” report was released at the start of May, Business Green reports.

In an effort to find out more about the plans and what motivated the organisation to embrace integrated reporting, Business Green interviewed Mark Gough, the Crown Estate´s head of sustainability. He explained that measuring the value of the Crown Estate´s work had been discussed at the organisation for quite some time but the idea of integrated reporting was introduced by Alison Nimmo when she was appointed CEO.

The Crown Estate is also trying to embed sustainability in its business plan and decision making by developing tools to integrate the concept across all areas of business, such as including sustainable criteria in investment papers, Gough explained.

Following the organisation´s collaboration with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), the Crown Estate will produce one report that will replace the two separate annual and sustainability reports. Gough noted that the focus of the report is on the value of the Crown Estate´s work and on inspiring business customers to follow the same path. Over the next three years the organisation will be working on further integration, he added.

According to Gough, integrated reporting was just the natural next step for the Crown Estate, since it had already discussed some of the figures with customers. Gough believes that the organisation should use its influence and act as a catalyst for businesses to take on integrated reporting.