The Write Stuff

When the going gets tough, the tough get out and meet each other – or they should do. I’m a firm believer in working trade fairs, having seen ones such as MIDEM and the Film Market from the inside, as well as writing for MIPIM, MIPIM Asia and the MIPCOM fairs. Although many of these have seen falling figures since January of this year, one has seen a substantial growth of 10% in sales: EAS. With the Belgian agency Tagora, I wrote the website, brochure and collateral for the 2008 and 2009 editions.

Their business is attractions and theme parks, a sector that is growing. The explanation for this growth seems to be that people are travelling less far on holidays and will therefore be spending more time at theme parks, museums, attractions and attractions. Check the EAS 2009 site.

Having done some corporate vids and drives to promote companies as a good employer, I have to salute this lovely piece for Intel (the thing you have inside but you don’t really know the significance of – an interesting branding achievement in itself). It’s unabashedly nerdy, charming and shows great community spirit. There’s admiration of achievement, blondes, a coffee machine and people singing. My type of office, in fact! The agency is Venables Bell & Partners.

I couldn’t resist giving the website a little spring cleaning. I’ll be playing around with the layout over the coming days, and trying to get the Twitter posts onboard as well. If you have a Twitter account, check The Write Stuff’s account.

UPDATE: For those that visited the site yesterday, do not adjust your set! After playing around with the new layout, I decided this one was easier to read. I simply integrated the Twitter updates.

The EU’s DG Health & Consumers have come up with a viral campaign produced by the Mostra agency to increase awareness about online rights for younger shoppers. They just needed a wrap up line and did we have any ideas for a suitable URL?

Finding URLs is a bit like finding a brand name. Of course there is a perfect one that sums everything up in between 5-7 letters and is funny, witty and a guaranteed magnet for visitors in itself. Problem is, it’s been taken. There are also a good number of almost-perfect URLs that are very close to your best choice. But as this is a public service type of information, you can’t risk taking a name that might be hijacked by your close neighbour to peddle porn or something (a fate that befell the Festival de Cannes a few years back). So you have to dig a little deeper. With French-speaking copywriter Chantal Debauche we put together a few ideas and then wrote the list of do’s and don’ts to the client’s brief. The URL? Quite simply Gimme the info.

I dropped by the Entreprendre fair yesterday for one thing, a talk by comic strip artist Midam. If you have kids, you might know him better as the author of the Kid Paddle character. He gave a fascinating look at how he runs his business – as a business it is. Despite claiming he couldn’t really draw (modesty, modesty), he is applying a model for anyone involved in the creative industries.

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With the Cannes Fest (and its market) coming up, I’m reading a lot of blurbs, pitches and write-ups at the moment. These are the one- or two-line – sometimes only five-word – summaries that people use to grab our attention and perhaps give a little flavour of what the story is about. I always remember “Alien” being sold under the warning that “In space, no one can hear you scream“. The producers of “Speed” showed remarkable focus when they were pitching the project as “‘Die Hard’ on a bus“. That’s five words, folks. Considering the millions of profit it generated, I’d say that’s pretty effective writing.

So I thought I’d start a collection of killer taglines as I come across them. The opening salvo comes from the British company Swords & King.

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It’s cold and damp up here in northern Europe. So here’s something to look forward to: the ultimate wet dream for writers, a sunny swimming pool with a Wi-Fi connection!  I did some adaptations for two websites recently and can’t resist adding the photo just to brighten up my day. Villa Triagoz is located in St Barts in the Caribbean, while Les Sources is located in the south of France.

I was reading recently that  to keep moving forwards you have to set yourself goals, and a good trick is to have a visual reminder of that goal on your desk. I think many people now do this spontaneously, as I see a lot of glorious sunsets and family photos being used as screensavers.

Today, I must admit, this is exactly the way I feel. Yup, I’ll go for the sunny pool with a Wi-Fi connection!

Couldn’t resist plugging an old acquaintance who will be visiting Brussels late January. I met Simon Alexander a few years ago. He has a rather particular job: he sees the future and has made a number of sensational predictions over the years (notably “something sad” about The Beatles just days before John Lennon was shot).

I couldn’t help asking him about the current turmoil. He said it was bad but we would recover quickly, but added that the big one would come in 2012. I’m not sure whether that’s encouraging or not. But then, who said the future would necessarily be better? You’ll find more about him on Simon Alexander.

The European jazz label Igloo is celebrating its 30th anniversary at the end of the month. To announce this, we helped put together a press release that presents the core values of the label while announcing an anniversary concert on November 28 at the Marni Theatre in Brussels. They will also be featured in a special 2-hour edition of the radio programme “Crooner” on Belgium’s La Premiere radio on December 6 at 8pm.

Igloo have released first albums from artists such as Melanie De Biasio, Pascal Schumacher Quartet as well as work by Philip Catherine, Steve Houben, Manuel Hermia and Majjid Bekkas.

To check the press release, visit Live.pr. To listen to some of their music, visit Igloo on Last.fm. To visit their main site, check Igloo Records.

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Here’s a challenge. Take a shot of the client that actually means something, and will stop people in their tracks. The Tagora agency in Brussels did just that recently with a brochure for EAS, the European trade fair for the attractions industry. They put the owners and managers of attractions onto and in one case into their attractions. The two managers on the photo are actually on a ride, and it’s not Photoshopped either. They also got the manager of a water park to sit under a cascade with her laptop and in a business suit. It’s a simple, fun idea that makes for the best corporate portraits I’ve seen in ages. All you need is a good idea, a great photographer and clients that are willing to play ball.

I should also point out that the EAS was a success and The Write Stuff did the copywriting for the brochure of the next edition