Why no Grand LIA? Great writers understand how great writing contributes to a brand’s success. Great clients get it, too. And you know that Nike wouldn’t quite be Nike without ‘Just Do It’? So, the idea of verbal branding doesn’t need to prove itself. But it does need to define itself.
And this year, we saw great examples of writing in brand names, taglines, and tone of voice, all of which were moments of creative genius. But we didn’t see anything that we felt broke down boundaries in the discipline. And ironically (all writers love irony), without breaking boundaries, it’s harder to show where those boundaries are. So, no Grand LIA in Verbal Identity this year.
Work: At its best, great writing speaks to you and you start to imagine the kind of person who’s saying it. Great writing, whether it’s an endline, a piece of copy, a tone of voice that goes across the brand, or even in something as succinct as jus the brand name, creates a persona. You’d know what to expect if you phoned the company up. We saw some pieces of writing that did just this. There was a piece of dense copy that had us all leaning closer and closer to our screens to suck up every last drop of it. We saw a brand name that was a leap of genius. I was stunned by the mental gymnastics of Chinese naming agencies, which can take a Western name and produce a near-sounding version of that name in the local language which somehow conveys the same essence of the brand. (I can’t do that in English.) And we watched, again and again, a TV script or two which, just through the dialogue, created a strong sense of brand. I was prepared to act out any of the commercials to prove that it was all in the writing, not in the acting, but my kind offer was refused. Odd.
Jury: There’s a magic and mechanics in great writing. Everyone on the jury had an appreciation of both. This year’s Verbal Identity jury was drawn from someone who sits in Japan helping Western brands behave in language like a Japanese brand would, to someone who sits in a café near an agency in London carefully crafting eight words which will be remembered by a million people, to people who sit in America and somehow cram all of a company’s hopes and ambition for a new brand into a single brand name, to the world’s most respected journalist on the subject of language in business. And me.
Why no Grand LIA? Great writers understand how great writing contributes to a brand’s success. Great clients get it, too. And you know that Nike wouldn’t quite be Nike without ‘Just Do It’? So, the idea of verbal branding doesn’t need to prove itself. But it does need to define itself.
And this year, we saw great examples of writing in brand names, taglines, and tone of voice, all of which were moments of creative genius. But we didn’t see anything that we felt broke down boundaries in the discipline. And ironically (all writers love irony), without breaking boundaries, it’s harder to show where those boundaries are. So, no Grand LIA in Verbal Identity this year.
Work: At its best, great writing speaks to you and you start to imagine the kind of person who’s saying it. Great writing, whether it’s an endline, a piece of copy, a tone of voice that goes across the brand, or even in something as succinct as jus the brand name, creates a persona. You’d know what to expect if you phoned the company up. We saw some pieces of writing that did just this. There was a piece of dense copy that had us all leaning closer and closer to our screens to suck up every last drop of it. We saw a brand name that was a leap of genius. I was stunned by the mental gymnastics of Chinese naming agencies, which can take a Western name and produce a near-sounding version of that name in the local language which somehow conveys the same essence of the brand. (I can’t do that in English.) And we watched, again and again, a TV script or two which, just through the dialogue, created a strong sense of brand. I was prepared to act out any of the commercials to prove that it was all in the writing, not in the acting, but my kind offer was refused. Odd.
Jury: There’s a magic and mechanics in great writing. Everyone on the jury had an appreciation of both. This year’s Verbal Identity jury was drawn from someone who sits in Japan helping Western brands behave in language like a Japanese brand would, to someone who sits in a café near an agency in London carefully crafting eight words which will be remembered by a million people, to people who sit in America and somehow cram all of a company’s hopes and ambition for a new brand into a single brand name, to the world’s most respected journalist on the subject of language in business. And me.