Tone of voice isn’t about you, it’s about them

We’re an agency with a reputation for doing things differently - but surely copywriting is the same everywhere? Copy Director Clayton explains how exactly Robot Food finds its own way with words…

You need every copywriting skill there is

The more tools you have to draw on to solve a problem, the more confidence you have to explore it creatively. There are a lot of different types of copywriting, different disciplines with their own nuances, and I’ve done most of them in my career at different times and in different roles. But at Robot Food we use all of them, often in quick succession. It can be a challenge to jump from writing editorial copy to packaging copy or ad copy, or developing a tone of voice or a script, and then back again. But that’s the dynamic that means you’re always able to push creatively.

We get to the feel of tone of voice

A lot of brand tone of voice development focuses on style, the words you use, and ways of talking like being ‘playful’ or ‘quirky’. Friendly, but informative. But in a real-world application it’s impractical for most brands to be ‘playful’ in every single aspect of their copy. And everyone wants to be friendly. So what is there for copywriters to actually use? One of the most common complaints I’ve found from copywriters of all kinds over the years is that they find themselves looking at documents that don’t actually help them write brand copy. It sounds right, but when it comes to practical application of that brand voice, they’re lost.

We take tone of voice deeper, to ‘feel’. Because that’s what really really matters: you’re trying to make a human connection where someone reading the words feels something. Most people won’t remember what the words and messages say, because that’s about you, the brand. What they will remember is how they feel about a brand, because that’s about themselves. That feeling is an idea they create based on how they experience the brand as a whole.

Be more human

Another reason we try to think beyond style is that when we speak, we naturally change ours frequently. The way I talk to my colleagues is different to the way I talk to close friends, is different to the way I talk to my mum, or a stranger in the corner shop. It’s all me, the characteristics of how I talk are the same, I just adapt my style without thinking to suit my audience and what I’m talking about. For a brand, if you can get your tone of voice to replicate that rich nuance of how humans actually interact in different situations, brands will be infinitely more engaging – more human.

Tone needs to be seen as well as heard

A good tone of voice comes directly from a strong brand positioning - it’s the extension of it. That positioning work sets out all the things you want to be to your customers, what you want to represent – your tone of voice is one of the tools that brings that to life. Another thing we stress here at Robot Food is that tone of voice isn’t just words – because the customer never experiences it as just words. They take what you say with the brand’s visual style framing the words for them – images, brand colours, the fonts you use, the speed and style of motion elements. If the majority of communication is non-verbal, your tone of voice needs to be considered as part of the visual development.

Collaboration is commonly claimed but rarely achieved

Every agency says it’s collaborative. It’s one of those words that is now overused to such a degree that it no longer offers any insight into how they work. But true collaboration is much more than “I do my bit and you do your bit”.

We don’t have a ‘copy phase’, we’ve embedded copywriting into every phase of our creative process. It evolves with every progression of the creative. That’s the culture of Robot Food at work: collaboration means everyone – including the client – helps to shape the copy direction, just as the copy direction helps to shape everything else.

AI will steal your identity

I have no problem with people using AI copy tools like Chat GPT, if words aren’t your thing. If AI can express your thoughts much better than you can, in a fraction of the time, why wouldn’t you? But for a brand? Our Senior Copywriter Lizzie has looked at ample reasons why it’s better for a human to write your brand copy. And AI steals. Its literal MO is regurgitating what it finds elsewhere. If I’d invested my life savings growing my own brand, I wouldn’t be putting its identity in the hands of a plagiarism engine.

As for copywriters using AI – that I do have a problem with. AI is not going to get you that human connection. It’s not going to integrate your brand voice with the positioning and the visual identity. These are the things that you need to do yourself for the brands you work with, and shortcuts with AI are never going to give your clients what they need.

Find out more about the central role copywriting played in creative development for Nutriment, Badger Brewery, Cleancult, and NAW.