Gerry Marychurch
SENIOR . Specialist writer
Hello, I’m Gerry. I used to work at Ogilvy and then Y&R. Now I freelance with The Pond.
If they had to re-build me, like they did the Six Million Dollar Man, I’d be all ‘0’s and ‘1’s (ie. binary code). Digital is definitely my area of focus, having worked with Shift, Terabyte, Tribal DDB and Saatchi DGS on various projects.
Broadly speaking, I'm what you call an entrepreneurial content developer. Apart from doing the bread and butter stuff for other people, I'm currently working on an iPhone app for commuters, a lifestyle magazine based on hyperlocal content and an adventure tourism site.
I run a blog on the latest in digital from overseas, be it a stunning piece of flashturbation or report into social media trends.
And my favourite past-time is sitting with designers, annoying them with my suggestions. (This is the easy bit after I'm done with all the IA, content etc.)
Let's talk soon (how about NOW?).
Financial – banking, finance, fund management, superannuation.
Retail – FMCG, telcos, pharmaceuticals, appliances.
Web – copy, concepts, editing.
Honest
My writing is nothing if not honest. That means I tend to avoid things like over-promise and exaggeration unless the tone is deliberately over-the-top.
Conversational
Everything is 'you' and 'us' rather than 'the company' or 'customers'. The tone is friendly and the attitude is inclusive.
Benefit-driven
I’m a great consumer advocate, always asking what’s in it for your target market. You may not always like this, but it will produce the best results.
Unpretentious
Sure, I studied Classics at Otago but you won't find me walking around quoting Greek philosophers or expressing myself in a sonnet.
Flavoursome
I like copy that is raspberry ripple…you know, that expresses information in interesting ways…although I can do plain vanilla quite convincingly too.
Bike 75 (Kookmeyer Institute)
After reading Razorfish’s report that said 44% of Twitter users were online for deals I decided to test the waters with this site for local store, Bike 75. The idea behind the Twitter domination of the homepage was to engage users in a genuine two-way conversation from the beginning. This was part of my master plan to position Bike 75 as the friendliest bike store in town (various competitors at the top end of the bike market can be a bit stuffy).
RightLight (Saatchi DGS)
Do you have energy efficient bulbs in your home? Well you should! They cost a bit more at the checkout but last up to ten times longer and burn a lot less energy. This site is loaded with everything you could ever want to know about lighting (and then some).
ANZ One (Tribal DDB)
Here’s a micro site for a new banking product from ANZ. If you’re blind you can listen to the introduction from the talking lady. And if you’re deaf, you can just read the words like any normal site. Magic.