When copywriting presses its intended audience’s buttons – it’s brilliant. Things work. The world is a better place. We can all be happy. But writing good copy for yourself is difficult. It’s easy to get in a pickle with it – mostly because its hard to get into your audience’s shoes and then get a [...]
Author Archives: ellen
Radical creativity in the workplace. Twallop?
March 25, 2010 – 4:02 pm
I’m curious. I have questions about the point and the value of injecting creativity into the workplace, particularly in terms of language and branding. * What does great radical creativity in the workplace look like? * What’s the business case for injecting radical creativity into the workplace? * How could it be useful and give [...]
WriteClub: Flash fiction workshop
October 6, 2009 – 10:47 am
Monday 26th October, 7-9 pm At The Skiff. 49 Cheltenham Place, Brighton BN1 4AB. Not for the faint hearted. Challenge yourself. This writing workshop will put you on the spot – you have no choice – you have to write a poem or short story for a set amount of time, and you HAVE TO [...]
Event: The Writers’ Circle, #Brighton
August 12, 2009 – 11:20 am
On Monday August 31st from 5.30 until 6.30 @theskiff A safe space for professional writers, copywriters, journalists, scriptwriters, marketers, language enthusiasts and bloggers to sit down together, have a cup of tea or a bottle of something, moan, marvel, share their tricks and chat about their working methods. Feel free to come even if you’re [...]
Event: Getting ideas to make sense.
May 12, 2009 – 3:16 pm
Monday May 18, 2009 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm At: The Skiff, 49 Cheltenham Place, Brighton, England BN1 4AB Not a workshop, more of a work-it-out-together. Who we are: Ellen de Vries (The Copy House) is concerned with helping people to find clear language to explain their brands, projects and what they do. Charlie Davies (project [...]
“But all the other URLs were gone.”
January 27, 2009 – 3:11 pm
How can nonsense naming for companies and products be good for business on the web? I’ve seen really fine examples and really bad ones out there – so I’ve put together some guidelines, and ideas. Let’s start with a checklist for the pitfalls. How to get it wrong – a checklist. Perhaps we’ve been driven [...]
Visual + Verbal = Wholesome branding
November 4, 2008 – 9:00 am
What happens when you take a visual designer and a big supply of tea and biscuits and throw them into a room with a copywriter (or a ‘brand language consultant’ if you prefer)? Carl Jeffrey from Fellow (a ‘creative midwife’ who delivers creative ideas) and I have recently spent a good chunk of time on [...]
The tricks that get adults to absorb information
October 29, 2008 – 3:00 pm
What do you reckon is the best way to get people to absorb information? There’s a huge ‘can’t-believe-I-never-saw-it-before’ link between successful marketing and this lovely theory called ‘Andragogy’ (coined by Alexander Kapp and expanded by a guy called Malcom Shepherd Knowles). If you do have anything to do with marketing on the web, you probably [...]
Do you emit infectious passion? Branding and the social web.
October 26, 2008 – 11:50 pm
Going on the two conferences I attended in the last three days; Conference and Women in Media – there’s lots to say about the morphing role of language in social media development. In my opinion, this state of flux is super-excellent news for copywriters (your friendly brand language managers) as well those who author and [...]
Making Presentations. A Workshop. 30th October
October 9, 2008 – 11:00 am
7.00 to 9.30pm @ The Werks. Sign up now or Contact me and pay on the day. Do you have difficulty making presentations? How do you engage people, or get them to understand you? This is a useful hands-on workshop to help you build successful presentations. The main idea is to give you presentation techniques, [...]
