Scott Flood - Scott Flood Writing

LEGIBILITY FIRST, THEN BEAUTY

October 9, 2013 by Scott Flood

Two new retail businesses opened up just down the street. I passed them for a couple weeks with no clue as to what they offered. Then my curiosity got the better of me, so I walked over to see. One’s a hair salon and the other is a photographer.

Their signs are absolutely beautiful — and completely unreadable from more than ten feet away. That might be okay if their businesses were located on a quaint street in a tourist town, where visitors ambled back and forth at a slow pace. But they’re on a busy U.S. highway where the traffic often blows by at 40 mph.

SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT WITH A PIZZA WHEEL

October 2, 2013 by Scott Flood

Sometimes, companies are so focused on addressing a perceived shortfall or problem that they miss more important messages, or even send the wrong message to their stakeholders.

The newest commercial for Domino’s Pizza floored me because it’s a perfect example. Domino’s has been running a series of spots in which they admit that they haven’t been perfect in the past, but golly, they’re working on getting better. Most of the spots have been okay.

SUCCESS STORY: COMMUNITY SCAVENGER HUNT

September 25, 2013 by Scott Flood

Our Community Bank has been serving Owen County and the surrounding area for more than a century. But in these days of megabanks and cross-county competitors, consumers may be less likely to choose a truly local bank. After all, it’s tough to for a smaller bank to catch their attention.

To reinforce the message that OCB has been an important part of the community for such a long time, and that they understand the needs of community residents better than anyone else, we developed an advertising campaign that featured local landmarks. While those landmarks may not have been tourist attractions, they were the source of community pride — such as the bulldog statue outside Patricksburg Elementary School or the giant chicken that once decorated a Spencer eatery.

USE SINGLE OR DOUBLE QUOTES?

September 18, 2013 by Scott Flood

I don’t know whether to blame the Internet for something I’ve been seeing more of lately: the use of single quotation marks (‘) where double quotes (“) should be used.

Many issues related to punctuation are a matter of style, syntax, or personal preference. But the rules on quotation marks are pretty clear-cut.

COPYCATS ARE AMATEURS

September 11, 2013 by Scott Flood

Ever tried to be cooler than a teenager? It just doesn’t work. By the time you hear and learn the meaning of the latest expression or newest tidbit of slang, it’s ancient history. The first time you try to use it in front of said teenager, you’ll get a withering look that will add decades to your age.

The same holds true for advertising concepts. When a major national campaign captures the public’s interest, it’s usually because of an amazingly clever or innovative approach. Unfortunately, many company decision-makers are too lazy or unimaginative enough to come up with their own clever or innovative approach, so they simply copy the popular approach.

SUCCESS STORIES: HANGING AROUND THE OFFICE

September 4, 2013 by Scott Flood

B2B companies want to be noticed, and they need to remembered, so that when a company needs their services, they’ll call. But how do you do that in today’s noisy, fast-changing marketplace?

Russell Martin & Associates is one of the IT industry’s most-loved training firms. Instead of delivering the standard, dull training presentations, they’ve developed an intimate understanding of how people learn, and they apply it to helping project managers and others in the IT world improve their efficiency, quality, and workflow (among other things).

ASSORTED GOOFS & GAFFES

August 28, 2013 by Scott Flood

Time to take another look at public misuses of language. I won’t poke fun at private examples, but media, businesses, and others whose words are crafted for the public are fair game.

We’ll start with the Indianapolis Star, which is a constant source of typographical errors (especially online). Few are as amusing as the one that crept into a June essay about the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest. A caption spotlighting a particular hound referred to it as a “pure bread” dog. Not sure whether that was a reference to diet or muscle structure.

LOOSE LIPS (AND POSTS) SINK SHIPS

August 21, 2013 by Scott Flood

That headline comes from warnings issued to Americans during the World Wars of the last century. It was a reminder that sensitive data that was discussed publicly could be overheard by those working for the enemy. Military and diplomatic history is full of tales in which a careless remark doomed a battle or other operation.

The same holds true for the business world. In my ad agency days, I remember working on a hard-fought effort to keep a large client. Several people in the organization’s marketing department disliked my agency’s team and hoped to replace us with another shop that employed their friends. The run-up to the selection involved weeks of late hours and anxiety, because job cuts invariably follow the loss of a large account.

CONSISTENCY IS CRITICAL

August 7, 2013 by Scott Flood

For some reason, consistency gets a bad rap from many people. You may have heard some brush it aside with a quote: “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” In other words, consistency is valued only by people who aren’t bright or creative enough to value variety.

Well, not quite. That’s a misquote of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who actually wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Note that the word “foolish” appears before “consistency,” changing the whole meaning.

DOES YOUR BUSINESS REALLY NEED SEO?

July 31, 2013 by Scott Flood

As search engines have become the fastest and easiest way to gather information, many companies have invested a fortune in trying to be one of the first listings searchers see. Research supports the concept, noting that people are far more likely to click on listings near the top left-hand portion of the screen, which just happens to be where most search engines display them.

With that boom in search engines has come a boomlet of search-engine optimization (SEO) consultants. These IT wizards study how the search engines work and then retool websites to make them more attractive. Instead of focusing on the humans who read the information on the sites, they target the crawlers and spiders that lay the groundwork for search engines.