ad words

We continue to install WordPress for clients at an ever increasing pace. But we stopped calling it a Blog. Read the rest of this entry »

We have several real estate and development clients. A common term in their parlance, mixed-use development, has always discomforted me a bit. Read the rest of this entry »

The Wall Street Journal quoted research firm eMarketer today about the size of the online ad economy. The results are eye-popping. Read the rest of this entry »

Every post needs to start with a catchy headline. More than anything else, a headline determines whether or not a viewer will read your post. Read the rest of this entry »

And now, it’s time for another installment of Bad Copywriting. This time around, the booby prize goes to Limited Too.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Free” is a powerful motivator in a subject line, but care must be taken to avoid being snared in the spam filter.

Read the rest of this entry »

This came up just today. For the record:

There are 70-75 words in a :30 TV commercial

80 is too many and 6o words feels too loose.

Although a writer may be able to read 85 words in half a minute, that hectic pace doesn’t allow for nuance, meaning or emphasis. Tighten it up and give the copy room to breathe.

After all, it’s the meaning the audience takes away, not how many words you can cram in.

Gino Cosme has pulled together 10 Tips for the Online Copywriters in a recent article for South Africa’s Bizcommunity.com.

As usual, Gino offers sound advice, summarized here: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m as cynical as the next guy. It’s pretty hard to get me to open something. But how about this email headline from Marriott: Read the rest of this entry »

This is a follow-up to our earlier post about using verbs for links on websites. Thanks to everyone for their comments.

The consensus seems to be that Read the rest of this entry »

Why is Microsoft Word’s built-in dictionary so lame? Everybody has known this for years and remarks about it anecdotally. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you capitalize the word “Internet?” And when does a proper name become a common noun?

This is an issue of some importance to all online copywriters. It’s bothered us for some time that Internet remains a proper noun – after all, we don’t capitalize Cable or Water or Electricity. But, like the Internet, they are all piped to the house by a utility. Read the rest of this entry »

Oy vay.

Heard this on TV this morning at the gym:

“Cingular is now the new AT&T”

I had my back to the TV and thought to myself “what does that mean? Which brand died?”

It reminds me of the evergreen pitch from the fashionistas:

“Brown is the new black.”

Every season, a new variation on the same tired admonition: “gray is the new black,” “green is the new black,” “blue is the new black.” Translation:

Brown has replaced black.

So if Cingular is now the new AT&T, has Cingular replaced AT&T?

Au contraire. AT&T has replaced Cingular.

How can such a big company full of smart people make such a silly mistake? Answer: navel gazing. We’re guessing the original line was “Cingular is now AT&T.” Simple, functional, communicative.

But then some genius said “add the word new, Bob. We want people to know we’re the new AT&T. Not that stodgy old company we used to be.”

So Cingular is now the new AT&T. Red is the new black. And we miss the old Ma Bell.