communication – Wade Howland

January 12, 2021January 18, 2021

In Context

Louis Theroux recently hosted Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle on his Grounded podcast, and part of their conversation was around some of his edgier jokes and the resulting media outrage. Boyle in turn makes a really good point, and it’s one relevant to all of us in professional communications.

Context.

His opinion is, of course something he says to a comedy crowd at 10pm in Newcastle doesn’t read as well in a newspaper as someone has breakfast in Surrey.

Context.

The comedy crowd’s ready for the punchline. Someone reading a paper looking to stoke outrage – and maintain easy content for a week or so – not so much. Of course not. They haven’t (literally) bought in to the joke and the person telling it.

Let’s not forget this principle applies to all communications we put out there; from internal comms to industry to ads and marketing campaigns.

Does your message make sense to your audience in context?

I’ve seen organisational announcements so long some employees literally didn’t read all the way through to the actual announcement.

We’ve all seen ad campaigns so busy celebrating their own creativity the product and brand effectively disappear.

Online copy so bad it seems to forget you know what the internet is and how it works.

Context (to put it scientifically) gives your messaging ooooomph. It makes it more digestible for your audience – and in turn more effective.

Think about what your message means to people. Where it will work best. How and when it will be consumed.

A lot of people – and organisations – forget this. They spend time working on getting the message right to their own minds, and it then becomes an unwinnable challenge to try to force it into places it doesn’t always naturally sit.

The context of your message delivery really matters, and building it into everything you do, or write, or publish, or create, will ensure you’re in a position to really see a return on the investments and resources you use.

To talk to me more about how context is critical to your communications, start with an email to wadehowland@internode.on.net

February 20, 2020

Write for your Intended Audience (aka Who Do We Sign For?)

All communication should have a reason.

And underpinned by that reason, it should be presented in the way most quickly and efficiently understood by your target audience, no matter the medium.

Always consider who you’re talking to. How is that person best going to understand what you’re saying?

I really hate seeing public signage presented in a way likely to miss the audience. So it’s been decided at a bureaucratic level there’s a need for some information?

Great. The very least you can do is make it clear and understandable to users. Now, take a look at this.

This sign is 200m from the Adelaide Convention Centre, right on the edge of the city centre, in an area with international conventions and hotels. It’s on a popular walking and cycling path used by locals and tourists.

There must be a clearer way to say this.

You’d probably need better-than-conversational English to read and understand this. As a safety message, it’s a fail. As general information, it’s a fail. Even just the words ‘PLEASE SHARE’ and an arrow in each direction would be easier to consume – and understand – for non-English speakers.

Every time I walk past it, I wince. How can it be so important a sign is required, but the execution is so flawed? Any consideration for the very real (and very international) audience is completely overlooked.

And I know it’s always easy to criticise others, so I use this as a reminder for my own work.

Am I really keeping my audience in mind when I write? Ask any copywriter; especially when we work on big jobs it can be hard to take a step back and look at what you’re presenting.

But it’s worth it. Because if you fail to impact your audience, you’ve failed. And with just a bit of critical thinking when you review your work you can stay on the right path, whether it’s narrow or not.

March 26, 2019

Isn’t The Fight Worth It?

The recent discovery of an elite college admission scam in the US was shocking (in scope) but not terribly surprising. An article today was written by a college professor who teaches the ‘entitled students’, complete with advice from staff to new educators.

“Lower your standards,” they advise new colleagues. “The fight isn’t worth it, and the administration won’t back you up if you try.”

This results in an increased workload as staff find themselves

hounded to provide a remedial education on top of an already heavy set of official duties.

In other words – watering down their expertise.

This results in intelligent, highly-educated people having to compromise their abilities and efforts to placate those undeserving of this level of support. From my outsider’s perspective it seems not only damaging, but unsustainable.

It really jumped out as it comes just a day after a tweet from Tom Goodwin (@tomfgoodwin) had me thinking about the parallels in marketing and advertising.

The brutal truth is clients are being given too much say in their creative direction.

The revenue chase sees businesses placing more value on money coming in than work going out, which in turn creates a disproportionately-weighted sense of worth in what clients want and expect.

Despite our experience and education, we often find ourselves in a position of having to defer to people who don’t have the benefit of either of those things. And this is no casual client-bashing. The ability to listen to clients and understand their business and category is a fundamental skill for all marketers and communicators.

But there’s a clear parallel between the influence money has in both marketing and education: both sectors are wilting to accommodate revenue streams. Both risk diluting their ability to deliver the quality they’re meant to. It’s a sense of short-termism so short we can’t see it happening.

The fight is worth it. Our first step as creatives and marketers is to openly acknowledge it as Tom did in his tweet. Only from there can we really address the problem.

August 16, 2018August 22, 2018

How Your Marketing Communications are Consumed, and Why it Matters More than We Admit

Consumers don’t see your ad in isolation.

They don’t hear a radio commercial with a script in front of them, scanning the words like it’s a Disney Read-Along from when I was a kid. “You will know it’s time to turn the page…”

Drivers – who in this context are potential consumers and purchasers of your brand who just happen to be in a car – don’t stop and focus on each billboard they pass. It’s just another piece of information to process (or ignore) among many when you’re behind the wheel.

Ads in print appear alongside articles and other advertisements. On TV ads come in clusters. Even targeted digital ads are part of the wider online experience and not a natural focus point for the attention of browsers skimming news, videos or the socials.

And this is obvious. We all inherently know it.

But too many marketers forget this basic truth when they create a campaign. And this isolationist approach to consumer messaging diminishes your end product. If you haven’t considered the environment in which the message is being received by the intended audience, you haven’t done your job properly.

Our role in writing, crafting and delivering marketing communications is to make it clear and memorable. Be relevant. Be concise.

Be efficient with the extraordinarily limited time you have to make an impact.

Here’s a tactic I use when presenting radio scripts to clients: I read it aloud, but I don’t give them a copy. No reading, just listen.

Then I encourage them to do the same, even if just to a business partner. This gets them a step closer to understanding how the ad will work.

Does it make sense when you simply listen? Is the impact there? Do the words fall in a way that sounds right? (And from the radio advertising practitioner inside me: Would it be stronger if they didn’t, creating a jarring effect for listeners?)

In truth, media professionals are understandably reluctant to tell a client their ad or campaign will be battling for attention.

But as professionals we should recognise the situation, and do all we can to ensure it is as effective as it can possibly be within any existing constraints, regulations and parameters. Which means considering how the communications will be consumed.

If we can’t do that much, we risk poor returns for clients.

Consumers don’t see your ad in isolation. Use that knowledge to make what you create better.

August 7, 2018

Customer Experience, Professionalism and What Goes on Behind the Curtain

How would your clients feel if they saw how you operate on their behalf?

If every piece of communication was transparent and available for clients to see…how would you feel? More importantly, how would they feel?

I’m a believer in an organisation’s Customer Experience (CX) starting deep within the business. It’s something I’ve touched on – and learnt a lot about – through my work with 6 Degrees Consulting.

Cultivated as part of organisational culture, CX can shape and guide the way we communicate with each other within the business, influencing our external behaviour: how we then communicate with clients, potential consumers, suppliers and stakeholders.

In short – your actions behind the scenes influence how you interact with others.

So when I get an email like this, it always amazes me.

Hopefully you r working?

Cheers

A genuine email, genuinely forwarded by an agency on behalf of a genuine client. With an email chain to follow to find the actual request, and decipher any action required.

How should a paying client feel if they saw how their business was handled?

And this informs my approach to any written communications involving work for clients. I write any peripheral detail in emails and responses attached to work, pitches, quotes or responses as though a client will see them.

As seen above, there’s plenty of professionals who will simply forward emails. Not reading them thoroughly could mean flippant or uncharitable remarks going to a client and potentially causing all kinds of damage to relationships and reputations.

There’s nothing to lose by treating everything you do as though it will be seen by everyone. It’s another facet of Customer Experience, demonstrating the respect you show to those you work with and for.

Because the thought of Hopefully you r working? – as client or service provider – is quietly terrifying. And in this digital age of instant communications, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

July 25, 2018July 26, 2018

Is Sport the Best Game in Town for Marketers?

A (sponsored) piece this week in Marketing Mag looks at sport in the marketing mix. Overlooking my hatred for the term engagement, it raises some interesting points.

For context: I like sport, so I look at this from the middle ground of curious marketing professional AND target audience. This middle ground is admittedly anecdotal, but worth investigating.

Anne Parsons is absolutely right in saying ‘sport is the content choice that will always deliver a mass audience’. It’s demonstrated clearly in the value of broadcast rights, and in viewing figures. In a fragmenting industry offering more and more options for audiences, live sport is a constant.

But is there a high level of engagement for the sponsorship and advertising communications around the action? Surely the audience is sold as ‘highly engaged’ because it is absorbed in the actual game?

Parsons also makes two claims I can’t agree with. She writes: ‘what occurs in the two-and-a-half hours of an AFL match is the stuff that is then talked about at water coolers around the country for the rest of the week’.

With all due respect, this may betray the fact she’s not a sports fan herself.

From experience across sports, countries and environments, the ‘water cooler’ talk is heavily weighted towards the next game. As such, any marketing communications audiences were exposed to during the broadcast are no longer relevant (if recalled at all, which we’ll get to). The focus isn’t on the broadcast as a whole. What matters is the game, and how it shapes expectations for fans as they move towards the next one.

The article also states ‘[the consumer’s] level of animation and care…. is reflected in their attention to the game and their receptivity to the messages they receive as part of that environment’.

Did you spot the contradiction? ‘Attention to the game’ by definition precludes an ability to be receptive to ‘the messages they receive as part of that environment’. Don’t mistake watching the minutiae of the game for focussing on the broadcast as a whole.

Keep in mind the score, timeclock and other statistics taking up screen space. As a fan there’s a lot of constantly updating information to absorb before you can even think about peripherals like in-stadium advertising and broadcast sponsors.

This is borne out in a 2016 study by Ho Keat Leng, with research demonstrating that ‘when spectators were more involved in the…event, there was a significant decrease in the number of brands recalled’.

Not ideal if you’re paying big money.

Sport delivers a vast audience. But you risk wasting your marketing budget unless data reveals your target audience and its sport-viewing habits are genuinely receptive to the execution and delivery of your message. And this is usually only realistic for big brands.

Better ROI for SMBs may be driven by thinking broader than advertising during broadcasts, or at the ground. Consider other options available in your market.

Does a local team offer individual player sponsorships? Do TV and radio outlets in your market have weekly player segments you can sponsor or align your brand with? Look at popular sports podcasts you can partner with.

There may even be more value by investigating grassroots opportunities in markets around you.

Sport is big business, but leveraging it for measurably successful marketing demands an analytical approach and smart thinking.

In this game, due diligence is everything.

June 6, 2018

100 words on…your brand and esports

The momentum behind esports is now unstoppable. The hows and whys are no longer important.

This is: if you’re smart you can now access an audience that has traditionally been difficult (at best) to reach.

Tomas Haffenden has this great piece up at Mumbrella well worth a read. Traditional marketing is not the way forward here.

One answer comes from the 1996 game Wipeout 2097. Red Bull was heavily featured in-game, with advertising around the track. The brand fit the game, the audience and the experience.

Esports are not for every brand. But for some they’re a chance to impact an elusive audience.

February 9, 2018

100 words on…the power of the personal

Direct communication with your customers can be genuinely powerful.

If you make sure it’s actually genuine.

My energy plan is up for renewal, and I’ve been skimming a product review site. What immediately stands out is a brand (in this case Origin) responding professionally and politely.

But the tone’s not right.

It hides behind the collective, and compounds this by offering generic email contacts – stripping the communication of genuine impact.

Saying I’ll look into it, and email me, makes a world of difference.

Despite their intentions, Origin is still presenting as a faceless corporation – undoing the great work their diligent, open communications could do.

January 11, 2018

100 words on…um and uh

A study by Mark Liberman on the use of um and uh in spoken English looks at use of these filler words – and the frequency – by gender.

We use them in the act of speaking, when we need a moment to clarify our next sentence. In (unscripted) conversation, silence is an invite for others to fill the space.

Um and uh signify we’re not finished.

Quirky note – males use uh 14% less when talking to females, who in turn increase their uhs when talking to males.

From a communications viewpoint, it looks like a subconscious case of knowing and accommodating your audience.