DON’T LOOK AT ME IN THAT TONE OF VOICE

~ Dorothy Parker

I’ve been creating characters since, as a child, my parents taught me to do voices for animals. Now, I breathe life into brands and causes.

Each has a personality. That is defined by dominant features, traits and preferences. These impact the way they speak.

So, when I’m helping you find your tone of voice, I’m just helping you to understand your personality a little better. That way you can make sure you’re being authentic wherever you are.

Here are some examples from documents I’ve created with brands to help them settle in to how they sound.

Let’s have a chat about the way you talk, shall we?

The TOV One-Pager

Take a look at the Tone of Voice document I created for Comic Relief here.

What do we do?

Bring people together through entertainment. And we make them laugh. With big nights of telly, live events, internet stuff and half-decent merchandise. We care about things. We focus on helping people have a secure and stable start in life, a safe place to live, freedom from judgement due to identity or gender, and the best possible mental health.

What’s the problem?

There are lots but we’re selfishly talking about ourselves right now. We’re getting older. People are starting overlook us. Sad but true. But we will not roll over and weep into our 30th birthday cake. No. Instead, we’ll get better at knowing who we are and how we sound.

Which is how?

Positive, authentic and genuinely funny. Real people, real feelings, ridiculous feats of entertainment. We look people in the eye. Not having fundamental human rights isn’t funny; we just have a laugh trying to fix that. Technically, we talk like real people using a conversational tone that mixes longer and shorter sentences. Don’t overthink it. It’s how you already speak. We’re fun but we’re not flippant. We amuse people but we don’t make them cringe. We’re cheeky and irreverent. We laugh with not at. We’re clever never cocky.

What else?

Emoji? Within reason. Exclamation marks? Never. Break rules like the and, but, because at start of sentences? Definitely.

An excerpt from the Tone of Voice document I helped to create for Payment Sense.

Everybody knows the meerkats

Would you trust them if they were selling you life insurance, though? Probably not. So, VCCP Kin tasked me with exploring a variety of ways to discuss bulky dry content with wit and warmth.  I created Sandra: a chatty girl-next-door who gives you the lowdown like a character straight out of Coronation Street.

Sandra says… Her Majesty is not one to shy away from her duties as their owner too, and is very hands-on. Whenever she can she’ll walk and  feed the dogs herself, which is nothing new to her since she used to feed her beloved Dookie by hand when she was a child.  Nowadays though her doggies have the dedicated treatment of a doting mother, they each sleep in their own individual wicker  basket that is elevated off the ground so as to avoid any draft.

Their diet is a little more pedigree than most of our chums as it’s  designed by a team of veterinary experts. Oh, and they definitely don’t get any hand-me-downs as begging at the royal table is  strictly prohibited.

Did you know, there have been rumours that our Queen is so often photographed with her beloved pets because it lends a certain warmth to her  public image. That’s not the only reason that she keeps them though. They’re actually a great conversation piece, which if you think about it definitely comes in handy for Her Majesty because she meets quite a lot of strangers. So, it gives her something to  talk about and saves her any royally awkward silences. Beyond all that though, she just loves them, they provide her companionship and kindness that she can’t really get anywhere else. Let’s face it they don’t know she’s the Queen do they? And  they still love her. Which is nice.