Could you resist checking out the full story when confronted by a headline like this? I couldn’t - if you’re intrigued too, read more here.
Author Archive for John
I seem to get lots of mediocre newsletters in my email. You know the sort of thing - you register with a website, choose to receive their newsletter and maybe look at it once or twice before your brain learns to ignore it when it appears in your inbox.
I signed up to Maxïmo Park’s mailings because they’re one of my favourite bands. And their regular missives have been genuinely refreshing. Record labels tend to use bands’ newsletters to plug other groups - and they do it without much subtlety.
Maxïmo Park are a bit different, as they seem to want to really connect with their fans through the newsletter. The latest has lots of information about their tour, but it’s rather endearingly presented in a slightly rambling way:
As always we have sneakily kept some tickets back until the last minute, so if you click on the appropriate links you can try and get hold of said tickets so you can come to our Doncaster and Newcastle Arena shows. Speaking of Newcastle Arena we have still to announce the special guests so if the tension is getting too much, sorry, but I guarantee we are way more tense than you!
Ok, it’s not exactly the snappiest copy ever written. But it’s signed off by Lukas, the band’s keyboardist. And you know what? I reckon he might actually have written it.
When your target audience is a group of fans who really want to know what they band’s about, that authenticity is more important than anything. I think that goes for most newsletters. If you sound genuine, you’ll get more people clicking through to find out more. And more of those people will probably buy from you.
And of course the best way to sound genuine is to be genuine. Try to fake it and your subscribers will see straight through you.
I just popped BBC Five Live on before heading to bed, and was met with the breaking news that Jose Mourinho is leaving his post as Chelsea manager.
There’s no official word as I write this, but I imagine there’s a good bit of substance to it if the BBC is running the story.
In all likelihood it’ll be filling the airwaves tomorrow, but does it really merit the current prominence on the BBC News homepage? It’s the top story, with a generic “BREAKING NEWS” image.
Call me old fashioned, but I’m not sure a “football manager leaves club” story should ever lead the news - even if it is one of the highest profile managers at one of the world’s biggest clubs.
… writing a post about inappropriate advertising on Facebook. But then Wordpress destroyed all my hard work.
That means you’ll just have to make do with a screenshot of the advert that prompted the rant. I think it speaks for itself. It could’ve come straight from a piece of junk email. Honestly - don’t they have an advertising policy?
After my last slightly-abortive attempt at mobile blogging (I blame Vodafone’s data charges), I’m going to try uploading photos to my Flickr account straight from the Reading Festival.
It probably won’t work (there’ll be no coverage or I’ll lose my phone in a moshpit), but if it does, check out all the photos in my Reading Festival set on Flickr. I was planning to pull them straight into this blog, but I’m a bit rusty on the technical side and can’t work out how. Anyone have any tips?
Update: I’m having trouble getting photos to go into a specific set in Flickr, and it’s a pain getting them uploaded anyway, so please check out my mobile blog instead for the latest pics from Reading. Like I said, I haven’t worked out the technical side yet…
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s excellent piece of product naming, I have some advice for Woolworths. If you’re reducing the price of something, make sure it’s actually a reduction. “Was £1.25, now £1.99″ didn’t strike me as an unmissable deal.
Sarah Jessica Parker doesn’t seem to have done much since Sex and the City (this isn’t a typical start to a blog posting, I know, but bear with me for a minute).
However, she has launched a couple of perfumes. The first was called ‘Lovely‘. As product names go, this is like launching a car called the Toyota Fast, or flogging bottled water called Damp. I think there’s a slight possibility it’s some sort of parody, but even if it is, that’s just the sort of contrived nonsense only a perfume manufacturer could come up with.
It doesn’t get any better. The second fragrance is called ‘Covet‘. Covet? You’d never buy a mobile phone called the Nokia You Really Want This. And neither should you buy this perfume. If they can’t be bothered thinking up a good name, do you think they took much time worrying about the smell?
If I’m honest, I’m not sure what conclusions to draw from this. I really just wanted to point out a truly dire piece of naming. Lovely? It isn’t. Covet? I don’t. Sarah Jessica Parker should probably stick to acting.
I spotted this sign in a branch of Budgens in Ealing. Presumably it’s the management’s take on diplomacy.
What it says: “Would customers please refrain from reading newspapers and magazines in the store as this can cause congestion for other shoppers.”
What they really mean: “If you’re not buying, clear off.”
I think Innocent Drinks started the cutesy copy trend. What better way to make your brand seem more friendly, approachable and quirky? It’s why they tell you to “shake it up baby” on their smoothie labels (translation: shake before drinking).
But over the last couple of years it’s taken off. Big time. Everyone wants their brand to be cuddly, and it’s starting to grate a bit.
Why sell sparkling water when you could sell “bumpy water”? Why put up a sign saying a house is sold when you can say it’s been “spoken for”? These are just two examples I’ve spotted in the past couple of weeks.
I think there comes a point when quirky, cutesy copy just looks contrived. Like the bloke in the pub wearing designer gear and talking a bit too loudly, it just makes you cringe.
I’m not saying there isn’t a place for it. But there’s a fine line between looking clever and looking like you’re trying too hard. And right now, I don’t think cutesy copy alone is enough to separate your brand from the competition. So maybe it’s time to find another way to be different.
Buying a train ticket in the UK is fraught with difficulty. There are loads of different ticket types, depending on whether you want to travel at peak time or off-peak, first or standard class, and whether you’d rather buy in advance or at the last minute.
Just in case you weren’t confused enough already, sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a return fare as two separate singles. And it can be even cheaper if you split one single into two separate legs, even if both are on the same train. In short, it’s really difficult to be sure you’re getting the best deal.
This over-complex ticketing system is crying out for a website to make it easier.
Right now, each train company has its own website selling tickets. But most of them are based on the same underlying system - the one that powers TheTrainLine.
It’s really not that intuitive. When I tried to buy a ticket from Reading to Edinburgh earlier today, it gave me a choice of 19 different ticket types, ranging in price from £21 to £184.50. And it presented them in one huge table, with no advice about which would be the best for my circumstances.
Virgin Trains do it a bit better. They have a new website which seems to be bespoke. It claims to show the cheapest prices for your particular circumstances.
It certainly cuts down the number of options, but it’s still far from easy-to-use. You always seem to be several clicks away from actually making a purchase. And changing your journey details is difficult because the site’s not been designed with the ‘back’ button in mind.
Add in a random error or two (”Due to inactivity, this site has timed out. This is for your security.”) and it’s enough to make you queue up at the local ticket office instead.
Truth is, the Virgin site is the best of a bad bunch at the moment. The ticket model is screaming out for a decent online booking service to let you:
- Search just for the cheapest fares, or for flexible tickets
- View fares over different time periods, so you can see when it’s cheapest to travel
- Alert you (via RSS or an email) when the cheap tickets for the dates you want go on sale
- Enter a starting point and see the cheapest places to go to for a weekend away
The first train company to sort this one out properly will clean up. They’ve been doing it with plane tickets for yonks - why don’t they just get the people from Skyscanner or Expedia on the case?
Making the trains run on time is another matter altogether, of course…
Visitor comments