Editorial Skills for Charities Workshop

26 January 2012

www.charitycomms.org.uk

1

Conveying brand through language and tone of voice

2

Words, not just pictures

Writing is how you talk to your supporters. It is how you have a conversation. It is how you build the relationship with your brand.

3

Words, not just pictures

Design is done by designers, but we all write.

4

The written communications landscape is vast and complex

•Annual report

•Social media

•PR

•Newsletter

•Supporter magazine

•DM

•Campaign materials

5

Your brand is the thing that brings it all together

6

Your brand is the thing that connects people to your story

7

What is brand?

8

What is brand?

A brand is a set of ideas, images and associations that people carry around in their heads about you.

9

What is brand?

“Brand is the space you occupy in someone else’s mind.”Anita Roddick

10

Standing out

For some brands, their voice is a more prominent selling point.

11

Standing out

And for some it is becoming so.

12

What makes a brand?

13

Content (language) and personality (tone) should work together

14

Why your voice and tone matters

It is part of a system of how you communicate your brand

HOW YOU LOOK + HOW YOU SOUND + HOW YOU BEHAVE = BRAND

15

Not just a logo

16

End poverty. Together.

17

•Short, active sentence structures: "stop" "sponsor" " buy"

•Strident: "we won’t accept this"

•Explain what they do in simple terms anyone can understand: "we want a world where no one goes to bed hungry"

•Use lots of easily understood facts: "70% of the worlds poorest people are women and girls"

•Talk about world issues in simple, uncomplicated language - divide the world simply into "rich" and "poor”

The simple, uncomplicated language makes their work accessible and makes world problems seem solvable. Its classic storytelling - using words that create images in people's minds.

18

•Talk in snappy soundbites designed for the busy charity ‘consumer’

•Their tone-of-voice is ‘provocative optimism’ - they balance the problem with the solution

•Prompt outrage, not guilt

•Emotional/emotive, impassioned. They have an opinion and express it.

19

Similar story, different personality

About life, not death. Warm, emotive, personal, community driven.

Technical gravitas, professional, authoritative.

20

Consistency is everything

21

Consistency makes people understand what makes you special

22

Consistency builds trust

23

Consistency makes you distinct

24

Consistency means you are not starting again everytime

Lets talk...

+44 (0)1273 600 500talk@weareneo.com

Neo8 Beaconsfield Studios 25 Ditchling Rise Brighton BN1 4QLUnited Kingdom

+44 (0)1273 600 500 talk@weareneo.comweareneo.com