Copywriting that works
DIY and Building Supplies
I have created campaigns for many major brands in this category. I launched Jewson builders merchants in the UK and helped make it the market leader in less than 12 months.
As a New Zealand copywriter I worked with Wattyl for two years - and this was both theirs and my favourite piece.
Like the brand itself, the concept appeals to your common sense.
Real Estate
I have worked with a number of real estate brands over the years (Ray White, Bayleys, REAL - Real Estate and Lawyers). My longest association has been with with the various Matthew Smith agencies. Matthew currently owns and operates Ray White Waiheke and Devonport. I provide content copywriting services as a freelance copywriter. (Enlarge)
Wine
Robard & Butler had been doing everything right for years - good product, excellent distribution, distinctive packaging, attractive price. The only thing they had forgotten to do was define the brand, and that meant they were in danger of becoming a cut-price plonk on the lowest shelf of the supermarket. I helped define what the brand stood for and this campaign demonstrated how that could be communicated to wine drinkers who wanted to discover a very decent wine for a very good price. Research told us that the kind of wine drinkers we were after were the ones who read the labels on the bottles and responded to an interesting story, not just a recommendation for which food to match the wine with. The aim was also to raise the profile of the brand and then raise the price, which is exactly what this campaign was designed to do. See more here.
More Wine (and why not?)
This campaign led to a 30% increase in sales in one month. The only thing that changed for that month was the advertising. Not only did sales increase as a result, the campaign defined the brand and its tone of voice from then on. Stoneleigh became such a successful wine label that Pernod-Ricard bought it outright four years later. Click here to see more of the campaign.
Household Appliances
I've worked as a New Zealand copywriter with a number of big brands in this category: Electrolux, Smeg, Classique, Viking. It's a crowded market and there is a certain way of doing things, but I found that the brands that didn't take themselves too seriously did best of all. Smeg was a shining example when I worked with them; they didn't bat an eyelid when we decided to mess with their world famous logo.
Retirement Villages
Knightsbridge had 78 apartments to sell, and they felt that treating them as ordinary real estate wasn't going to work. I created a campaign of half a dozen concepts and we sold every single apartment within six weeks. Sadly I have lost the versions of the concepts with the finished copy, but you get the idea of our approach from the headlines. In this one I used my cousin's actual wedding photo. I was the five year old page boy - yuk.
If you'd like to see the rest of the campaign click here.
After the success of this campaign
I was asked to work with four other villages owned by the group.
Not-for-Profit and NGOs
I have worked successfully with a number of charities and NGO's: the Breast Cancer Foundation (NZ); the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind; Epilepsy NZ; Help a Child to See (UK); Unicef’s eradicate polio programme. This is one of the most successful charity concepts I have created. The Breast Cancer Foundation asked me not to show bare breasts, but when I tested this concept against the the ones that were 'on brief' and asked women which they were most likely to respond to, this one was the one they chose.
