Copywriting UK | TENFOUR blog

“White drip!” the girl at the counter shouted behind her, before turning back to TENFOUR with a smile. No, not a personal comment… though it did have us thinking. TENFOUR had dropped by a central London Starbucks, and a white filter coffee was part of our order.

It reminded us of a story heard from a friend once. Sitting in one of the same American outlets, this friend asked her elderly grandma whether she’d like a cappuccino. “Ooh yes love, I’d really love a cuppa tea now” was the answer. Like we found out yesterday, these new names can take us by surprise.

TENFOUR’s been thinking that there’s a fine line when marketing to former customers. That’s a fine line between introducing customers to new products they’ll truly be interested in… and (what one might refer to in the legal profession as) pure stalking.

One of our girlfriends received a mailer in the post from catalogue shop, La Redoute. Here’s how it reads:

I understand it has been a while since we last heard from you… I’m currently compiling a list of customers who will receive a priority copy of the Autumn-Winter 2007 Collection. Regrettably, Ms X, your name is not on the list.

However, you can change this. To guarantee your copy of the NEW Autumn-Winter Collection, place an order from any of your current Collections within 30 days.

You got it. To receive a new La Redoute catalogue (containing lots of adverts for new products), Ms X should pick up the phone and buy something. Crumbs… gone are the days when you could get a free carriage clock with every purchase.

Arctic Monkey’s new album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, has been released today. 

For what it’s worth, TENFOUR reckons it’ll be the best-selling record of 2007… perhaps even the fastest selling album of all time. Any of you willing to bet against us?

We’ve written a bit about the Monkeys in the past - in particular, what businesses like yours and ours can learn from their success (see Apply a bit of Monkey magic). Though they’ve faced some challenges over the last 18 months, it seems they’ve come out smelling of roses (if the reviews of the new album are anything to go by).

Vote Sheffield for the new capital of England, we say. Well, maybe.

Barry Scott and Cillit Bang. Really… what on earth is that all about?

TENFOUR’s been wondering about the art of shouting on adverts. We’ve also been putting some thought to recent armchair complaints around TV channels cranking up the volume for ad breaks.

Does shouting really get the message across better? Do high decibel coin cleaning presentations get you off your sofa and down the local Tesco? Well, if that’s not what the creatives were thinking, perhaps it’s that old chestnut of super-cheesy adverts really sticking in the memory bank (see the badder the better post).

Let us know what you think.

TENFOUR’s just found out that William Wordworth’s classic poem, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’, has been reworked for a modern YouTube audience. It marks the 200th anniversary of the original and it’s a part of a Cumbria Tourism marketing push to get younger people to the Lake District. Cor blimey.

Check out the rhymes of MC Nuts below.