Web – copy, concepts, editing, information architecture.
Journalism – interviews, profiles, features, news.
Public relations – media releases, media liaison, media coaching, interview prep.
Brochures.
Speeches.
I am a fully trained and experienced journalist so I strive for brevity, clarity, wit, and punch in everything I write. I’ve also got a First-Class Honours Degree in English Literature so I’m not averse to a bit of lyricism, circumlocution, or metaphorical flights of fancy if that’s what the project demands.
I always take great care to match style to client and audience. My first task is to get to know you, your organisation, your brand. Then my question is: who is your audience? Once I’ve quickly got all that in my head, we should be away laughing.
As an editor, my mission is to slash through padding, destroy waffle, crush clichés without mercy, and impose order on scrambled sentences and mangled syntax. But don’t worry, I’ll be gentle.
KPMG: Rugby World Cup / Inside The Business
KPMG and Saatchi Design came up with the idea of creating a website to leverage KPMG's involvement with the Rugby World Cup. Good idea, but they needed one crucial ingredient neither organisation could deliver: dozens of business-friendly feature articles with which to populate the site. That's where me and another Pond writer came in. Over three months we interviewed a slew of people intimately engaged with delivering the world's third-largest sporting event and turned their stories into compelling digital content.
http://www.insidethebusiness.co.nz/
Gen-i: Business Continuity
The Christchurch quake has put disaster preparedness at the top of everyone's priority list so Gen-i asked me to revamp the Business Continuity Planning section of their website to make it simpler and easier for businesses to use. The result is a thoroughly updated set of webpages, including a BCP checklist so businesses can check out the process at a glance.
Gen-i: Cloud Computing
New Zealand’s largest ICT services provider is determined to lead the market where it needs to go – and one of those destinations is cloud computing. So they asked me to create copy for an intranet microsite that would give their sales people sufficient insights to effectively market cloud to their client base.
Designworks
My work with Gen-i on their cloud computing offering made me the logical choice to dig deeper and provide a flexible copy ‘toolbox’ that Designworks could use to provide copy for various uses across several media. This project involved working closely with Designworks’ heads of copy and strategy to develop key messages and tone of voice documents to ensure the correct fit of the final product.
Gen-i: Fixed Voice
I transformed basic bulleted info into on-message copy for a series of intranet pages designed to assist frontline sales staff to upsell clients on a range of fixed line business services. A big part of my task was to impose order on the material and make suggestions for how that ordering would appear on-screen.
Gen-i: Video Collaboration
I created copy for a series of intranet pages explaining Gen-i’s video collaboration offerings to sales and other staff, and provided advice on how that copy might be ordered for maximum readability on-screen.
Deloitte (brochure)
Renowned as the most 'human' of the Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte puts big effort into making their graduate brochure a friendly and fun thing to pick up and read. To that end they needed me to interview 14 of their people – 7 partners and 7 grads – and produce 14 highly crafted pieces of insight to lure new employees into the biz. The process worked so well that my copy sailed through client approvals with hardly any changes.
Gen-i: Mobility
The clever people in Gen-i’s marketing department came up with some remarkably good, on-message copy explaining their mobile services – but they needed some extra help with readability and ‘punching up’ headlines and intros. So that’s what I gave them.
www.xpo.co.nz
Recently formed from the sale of DMG World Media, XPO Exhibitions organises, markets, and sells large-scale events, especially trade exhibitions. Completely rebranded, they needed a new website to match - but it had to be short, punchy, and functional, but also friendly and accessible.
www.listenup.co.nz
This website for the Pindrop Foundation about how loud noises can cause permanent hearing loss had to appeal to three distinct audiences: kids aged between 8 and 12, their parents, and their teachers. The aim was to alert all three audiences to the dangers of loud noises and what they can do to protect themselves in a non-preaching manner.
Eagle Flight Training
An interesting one this – writing a sales brochure for a flight training school within very tight deadlines. So there was a ton of technical info to absorb and convert into compelling copy in an extremely short timeframe. Add to that Russian clients for whom English is a second language and you could say this job took some careful management to complete it on time and on budget.
JB Attachments
Even if you’re the largest and most successful inventor and fabricator of digger attachments and provider of trenchless drilling equipment in New Zealand, you still need to tell people about it. So JB Attachments hired me to write a series of articles for trade publications on both sides of the Tasman showcasing their ground-breaking work in attachments, drilling, protective cabs for heavy machinery, and lots more. Brilliant stuff.
www.lumenate.co.nz/
A brand new website for a brand new company that imports and distributes high-end LED lighting. LEDs cost much more than conventional lights but are much cheaper to run and last a lifetime, so the site needed to educate potential customers and sell them on the long-term savings. Oh, and LEDs are safer than so-called 'Eco-lights' because they're not filled with deadly mercury vapour. And they're fully recyclable. And ... oh, just go to the website.
http://foundryasset.com
A new investment advice company entering the market has got to establish credibility pretty damn fast (especially in a market as jittery as ours). Backed by the chaps who set up 42 Below, Foundry Asset Management needed a smart brochure site with copy that kept things simple but communicated the company's depth. So that's what I gave them.
www.fisherhouse.co.nz
A brand new website for a brand new restaurant. A no-expense-spared refit of the historic former home of Sir Woolf Fisher has resulted in an up-market function centre incorporating bar, restaurant, cafe, and meeting rooms. My job was to pull it all together into some digital content that struck the right tone throughout and sold the establishment's features with style.
www.johnstonholtmeier.co.nz
A business consultancy with a difference: this one specialises in go to market strategy. Communicating the hard-nosed yet creative nature of this company's approach required digital content that packs in a lot of explanation without overwhelming the reader - and inspires them to pick up the phone.
Telecom XT Network
I wrote various elements of Telecom's spunky new XT Mobile Network website with The Pond's digital team, a process that involved precisely matching tone and style, strict version control, and tight teamwork. In particular, I evolved the content for new Global Roaming microsite and the T-World pages from basic material provided by the client, and wrote a ton of definitions for 'hover text' notes throughout the entire site.
Odyssey House (web)
A complete revamp of the organisation’s existing website to make it more user-friendly for two distinct audiences: ordinary people looking for addiction treatment information for themselves or a loved one, and professionals such as funding providers, DHBs, and media.
Build NZ / Design NZ 2009 (sales brochure)
I’ve written the sales materials for this trade exhibition for several years now and it’s a tricky proposition to come up with something that feels inclusive for both builders and designers.