The Turing Test for brands 20 / February / 2014 In 1950, computer scientist Alan Turing came up with a test for artificial intelligence; what became known as The Turing Test. Could people tell if a machine or a person was ‘talking’ to them? If a computer could fool someone into thinking there was a person in charge, it passed the test. We’ve ctrl-alt-deleted the […]
Tone of voice. No tone of voice. 25 / April / 2012 What is tone of voice? And does it really matter? We can show you. All we need is some butter and a Jedi Master. TONE OF VOICE A humble ingredient, no more: a rousing tone for Lurpak plays on how you feel when you’ve baked something yourself. Clever. NO TONE OF VOICE Spend £££s to […]
Meet our new recruit 24 / May / 2011 DEAR VALENTINE, THIS IS TO TELL YOU ARE MY FRIEND AS WELL AS MY VALENTINE. AND THAT I INTEND TO WRITE YOU YOU LOTS OF LETTERS… (From the Olivetti Valentine user manual.) We just bought a Valentine typewriter. It was made over forty years ago. So why does its user manual feel (and sound) brighter, […]
Tone of what? 09 / December / 2010 Tone of voice. Writers, agencies and consultancies all talk about it. But what is it? What does it look (or sound) like and do you need one? Here’s a list of questions people often ask. With some answers. WHAT IS TONE OF VOICE? Most brands have a logo, a colour palette and typeface. Tone of […]
WTF? 03 / August / 2010 theres nuthin worse than a brand trying 2 get down with da kids. & its even worse when they try 2 write like them. like KitKat did with its ‘OMG! MY CHUNKY JUST GOT FUNKY!’ adz last yr. so when we came across an email the other day with da subject ‘Gr8 News‘ we thought […]
Cooking up a tone of voice (and a side of tips) 08 / February / 2010 Here’s how a recipe for ‘My Epic BBQ Sauce’ starts: ‘I really love this barbecue sauce. There are loads of layers of flavours that make it truly insane.’ Who wrote it? Here are a couple more tasters, this time from the chef’s restaurant menus: ‘Our tasty Cornish field mushrooms and our whopping great beef tomatoes.’ […]