Big Words

Chic Magnets

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:59:00 +0000

A very big Happy New Year from Big Words. 2009 has begun with another copywriting job for the enterprising world music gurus at Cartell.

They are producing this year’s edition of the extremely popular So Frenchy, So Chic series, and they asked us to write the extended press release.

Promoted nationally as the ‘unofficial soundtrack to the French Film Festival’ and featuring the latest tunes from France, this is refreshingly modern music without the clichés of accordions and so on. (Apologies to any Chevalier and Piaf fans out there.)

A fringe benefit of this writing gig was receiving a preview copy of the double-CD. Needless to say, the Big Words offices have been alive with the sound of chanson for a couple of weeks now.

It’s been a pleasure to work on the press release with Cartell. They clearly know what they are doing – the first four So Frenchy, So Chic albums have sold over 70,000 copies. That’s a dedicated audience, which now includes us.

À bientôt!

Big Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:11:00 +0000

Q: Who wrote The Haunted House?
A: Hugo First

Ho ho ho. ‘Tis the season of the terrible bonbon jokes, horrible presents from distant aunts and awkward questions at the Christmas gathering.

‘Tis also the season when friends and family come together to share gifts, laughter and eat and drink their way into the new year.

We're hoping 'tis more of the latter this year.

2008 has been a big Big Words year. There is a new little Big Wordette (Kate’s baby, Claudia, who is only a few weeks old) and Rohan’s addition is arriving early in the new year (and along with it the hardest word choice of all – the baby’s name).

Talking of all things shiny and new - our friends at Camatic have a new website with copy provided by Big Words. If you need a seat for your personal office, home, cinema or stadium – then the guys at Camatic can help.

At Big Words we are excited about 2009. We are already moving into new copywriting areas as well as continuing to work with many of our long-term clients.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Good luck with the last minute shopping frenzy, have that extra serve of pudding and see you in 2009.

Hooked on classics

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:33:00 +0000

Continuing on a musical theme from our last post, we have recently had the pleasure of writing web copy for the Tinalley String Quartet.

Having won the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition, this Melbourne based foursome is constantly touring the globe and performing on stages from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw to the Sydney Opera House.

In fact our drafts for their new web content were read on the road during their recent tour, with our copywriting emailed to a different city in North America every couple of days.

The new look of the Quartet has been created by the maestro at Marke with the website strung together by the boys in the percussion section at eFront.

Bravo to the Quartet on their brand new website.

Nouvelle Vague! (Vaguely)

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 22:26:00 +0000

Well, we don't even know them vaguely. But through a couple of degrees of separation we’ve been writing for the highly successful acoustic-bossa-nova-80s-cover group from France. We’d have to check the folio, but we’re fairly certain this is the first time we’ve written copy for an international pop sensation.

Nouvelle Vague needed a press release for their upcoming Australian tour. It’s always a treat to write for people we admire, and this was a lot of fun. We even pulled out the dictionnaire from the old school days so we could write in some French phrases along the way.

You can read all of it here.

The client was Cartell Music. We certainly hope to rendezvous with them when more touring bands need copywriting or press releases.

Au revoir, and see you at the le gig in December.

Int. Designer

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:23:00 +0000

We’re used to working with designers, but usually they are web designers or graphic designers. So it’s been a pleasant change recently to work with another funky breed – the interior designer.

Deborah Schmideg designs high end residential projects in Melbourne with a reputation for a bold and contemporary style, and she needed copy to match.

Copywriting for this new website needed to be straightforward and help guide prospective clients through Deborah’s impressive folio. As a designer, Deborah knows a picture says a thousand words (give or take) so she only needed a handful of words from us for the content.

The website is currently being put together by our good friends at Henry Birman Design.

Milke, of human kindness

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:58:00 +0000

We're happy to announce the launch of milke.com.au, the website of Laura Milke, who called on Big Words for the copywriting. (Design is once again by Marke, with web work by eFront.)

Laura has been working behind the scenes of plays, gigs, launches, radio and TV shows around Melbourne for many, many years. She decided now was the time to launch her own brand and business. As she works in the three separate (but linked) areas of producing, project management and artist management, she needed a website which would distinguish her various offerings while at the same time telling her overarching story and her philosophy.

We don't usually print testimonials for our copywriting, but this email from Laura did make us feel pretty special: "It was like Santa had arrived with Christmas presents! I think it's awesome and exactly what I wanted."

From all of us elves in the workshop of web copy, you're very welcome, Laura. And for anyone in need of a producer for their next creative endevour, we recommend the goodness of Milke.

Big friends in the big city

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:44:00 +0000

Congratulations to our friends at eFront and Marke who have moved out of their digs at Port Melbourne and into their new office space in Little Collins Street, Melbourne.

White walls, lots of Macs, funky square glasses on 50% of the staff – they’re really smashing stereotypes for a web design and branding studio.

We’ve spoken about the fine work of eFront before, getting websites up and running without learning geekese, but we haven’t mentioned Marke. That’s because Marke was previously known as Luke Gerner. Actually that’s how his mum still refers to him.

Big Words has provided copywriting for several projects with Marke and we always recommend them for brand strategy, design or art direction. In fact this very site and our own brand is a mark of Marke.

Congratulations to Marke on the new name and the new haircut, both of which were a long time coming. And congrats to both businesses on the new address in the big smoke. Expect many more meetings at Gil’s Diner with us.

Take a seat

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 06:13:00 +0000

Camatic Seating is one of those quiet achievers who have been hiding their light under a metaphoric bushel for far too long. If you have been to a concert, a sporting event or even a lecture in the last 20 years you have probably sat in a Camatic seat. From the Sydney Opera House to cinemas to baseball stadiums across the US, they’ve been putting contented bums on seats for years.

This was an involved copywriting job for Big Words and the extensive brochure series is ongoing. The brief was to generate excitement for the brand and get our hands dirty fact-checking the technical writing.

The material and tone needed to appeal to a wide audience – from architects, to venue managers to small business owners. An extra twist was using our ‘American’ dictionaries to make sure the language and spelling worked for all their clients.

To be honest, we were hoping for a comfy chair to be thrown in as a bonus. We'll keep checking the letterbox just in case…

Fjäll good

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 04:00:00 +0000

The closest we'll get to the ski season this year is writing web copy for Fjäll (that’s Swedish for mountain if you are ever looking for directions in Sweden), a boutique resort in Falls Creek.

This was the type of job where the pictures did most of the work and it was up to Big Words to write minimal copy to complement the sparse Scandinavian design (brought to you by Cornwell).

This had to be written quicker than a trip down a black run to maximise winter exposure. The results are up and running here. Just add egg nog.

More of all that jazz

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:09:00 +0000

We’re proud of the types of jobs we usually write – web content, product brochures, advertising copy – but a song title is something new.

Actually we didn’t really write it, but we did mention it as a possible title to our friend and local jazz musician Daimon Brunton for one of the tracks on his new album, My Favourite Things.

The title is I’m Cheap! Buy Me Now!! (which refers to those little stickers found on CDs at JB Hi-Fi) and it’s a great finish to a great album. Jazzheads who want to check it out should visit daimonbrunton.com.

Daimon also called upon our services to write a press release and promotional copy to be sent out to record stores around the world. (It's also on his website.) It made a nice change to work with someone in the performing arts, and with an up-and-coming Melbourne musician too.

Congrats on the album, Daimon. Now we need to think of some catchy titles for the follow-up...

SEO'S OK

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:41:00 +0000

A major project for us this year has been writing for Seek Learning, rewriting the web content for one of their many popular divisions.

This was a SEO heavy project, but hopefully you’ll never know reading it. That’s the trick with SEO content – you want the little Google bots to pick out key words, but you want to appeal to a human readership too.

The website we worked on will be launched in due course, so seek and ye won’t find just yet. But stay tuned.

Watch this placeholder

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:07:00 +0000

The last few months have not only seen us in the service of national companies like Seek but also copywriting for several small businesses around Melbourne, such as the one-man-band Mark Goldberg Business Consulting.

Mark is using his years of experience in the finance and business world to launch his own enterprise, and he called on us to write the copy for his initial print ad and placeholder. The look is by our friends at Henry Birman Design.

A placeholder is a far more attractive and effective alternative to the common “Under Construction” or “Website Coming Soon” pages most people use before their full site is up and running. It doesn’t have to say much, just enough web content tell everyone who you are and a few contact details.

We look forward to working with Mark on the web copy for the entire site down the track.

Buxton buddies

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:35:00 +0000

We want to give a quick shout out to an old friend, the real estate company Buxton. Last year we rewrote their entire sales collateral when they were undergoing a radical re-branding with Cornwell Design.

We’re pleased to say the new look was a big hit in Melbourne’s bayside suburbs. They recently asked us to provide some brochure copy and print ads to increase their visibility in the market – you’ve probably seen them in the property sections of the newspaper.

It’s nice to be able to continue working with a client dedicated to their brand and consistency of voice in their copy.

Hockey and all that jazz

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:03:00 +0000

Anyone in the media would have worked with or at least heard of Prue Bassett Publicity at one time or another.

Over the past month we’ve had the pleasure of working with Prue on a couple of detailed press releases for international events coming to town: the Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy in 2009 and the 2008 Melbourne Jazz Festival.

Having read literally thousands of press releases over the years for our work as freelance journalists, we’ve drawn our own conclusions on what works and what doesn’t. Most importantly, the best press releases are never admired as great pieces of writing – the best press releases are those that inspire action from the media.

Of course these two major events will hardly need much of a push, but it was still a thrill to work with a master of the media like Prue to get these documents just right.

If it ain't brokered

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 10:39:00 +0000

Recently we’ve been writing for Mortgage Broker Melbourne, a small business run by Marc Barlow. Marc had decided that he needed some new copywriting to suit his shiny new style.

Re-branding can be a complete overhaul or just a tweak, depending on what is required. In this case it was a case of fine tuning. Or finessing. Some people like to say they massaged the content, but we’re just not comfortable saying we offer that service.

In any case MBM’s text now suits their new brand across its tags, web content and brochure copy. Something new for us was writing an automated email response for MBM, so that when prospective customers visit the site and register an interest, they receive a personalised introduction from Marc.

Good luck with the new look, Marc. And if anyone is interested in a new mortgage, Marc is a lot nicer to deal with than banks...

Designed with an HB

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:45:00 +0000

Well gosh, maybe it’s the whole Valentines Day vibe, but we wanted to publicly announce our new relationship with Henry Birman Design.

We hold a special place in our heart for HBD since they were one of our first clients to find us by googling a mere week after our site was launched.

They told us they liked what they read, and wanted something similar for the relaunch of their own site. It is always a pleasure to work with clients who appreciate the power of the right words (over many words) and of course the best designers are always renowned for a less-is-more philosophy.

Their website is up and running with a little bit about their history and examples of some previous work. We’re already talking about working to provide copywriting for some of their future projects.

To quote Casablanca, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Back to school

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:51:00 +0000

Students all over the country are returning to school, but we’ve been working there over the holidays.

Our homework was set by Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School, one of Melbourne’s most prestigious private schools. They needed to update their advertising material for prospective parents using fresh, straightforward copy.

We’re used to the drafting process with clients, but getting the old red-pen marks from teachers did make us feel like we were back at school (the only thing missing was the ol' lunch box aroma). That’s okay – the end result of our copywriting was given an A+. Elephant stamp for presentation to the school’s designers too.

Gluttons for pun-ishment

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:02:00 +0000

Our first international client, and it’s a tasty one. The Malaysia based design company 8Snap (for 8 Souls and a Pint) recruited us to write some promotional copy for a Melbourne business venture called Ads On Pails.

This new initiative is to sell space on the sides of takeaway food containers for ads. Not a bad idea when you consider the exposure a customer will have to those ads while enjoying their dinner.

This brief most appetising – we were instructed to come up with as many culinary puns in the copywriting as possible. Deliciously fun to write.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Kate) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 04:19:00 +0000

We’re currently enjoying some holidays, but we just wanted to write to congratulate our friends at eFront on their silver medal for this very web site. It was awarded by the Australian Web Designers Network for 2007.

Perhaps in 2008 we can win them a gold with some truly inspiring and patriotic professional copywriting. It is an Olympic year after all. Please cue the national anthem…

In the meantime, a very Happy New Year to everyone who uses Big Words.

Why Big Words?

noreply@blogger.com (Rohan) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:22:00 +0000

We needed a new name to tell people we had grown, that we were bigger, that our clients were bigger, and that we were now taking on bigger jobs. We also wanted to tell people what we were about, and we decided that ultimately we were about using the right words.

So we thought: big and words. How to convey that in a name? A few months later our designer told us he refused to leave our office until we settled on something. A few days later we finally decided, and our designer got to go home.

Choosing a name can be daunting. Trends come and go, but everyone wants something timeless. Playgrounds in 2007 are a blend of old fashioned Charlottes and Isabelles, modern T’aylahs and Jaxons, quirky Ichabods and Apples. You want a name that stands out, but that won’t be teased at recess.

So we are delighted to announce the arrival of Big Words. 8 lbs 5 oz.