dollop

Brand naming, tone of voice and copywriting.

Back in February 2022, a young (younger than me anyway) Copywriter got in touch, asking if he could pick my brains.

This has happened a few times, but something stood out about this chap.

He had a level of inquisitiveness and energy that I really warmed to. He wasn’t just interested in being given the magic formula (there isn’t one, folks), he was willing to get his head down and graft.

Over the next year and a bit, I shared my thoughts on all manner of copy-related questions and we built a bit of a rapport. Even met at a #CopywritersUnite do hosted by Joe Jeffries, in Brighton.

We’d natter about how to write a brief, contracts and creative process. I’d ‘crit’ his work.

Then out of the blue, a full 20 months after first bumping heads, he sent me a message on LinkedIn:

“Hello mate, how are ya? Would it be okay to call you sometime this week? I need some advice on a business idea x”

24 hours later I was coming up with names for his new venture – a design and marketing agency.

I knew it was going to be fun, but not this much fun.

Couldn’t sleep. The ideas just kept coming. Unfiltered, glorious madness.

His reaction was more than I could have wished for:

“Proper love so many names, J. And honestly have no idea how you’ve managed so many in such little time. One really jumped out at me… Domain is available too. Gonna sleep on it then send you a list of my faves, but that’s the one I’m already emotionally attached to.
Thanks so much.”

Emotionally attached!

We wrestled over the list, and emotional attachment aside, we got to a short list of potential names from my initial long list:

– Noddle
– Sherbert
– Bigmegamarvelous
– Dollop
– Extra Beans

I even ‘designed’ some ‘logos’ to bring them to life, with straplines and a snappy bit of positioning.

We chatted it through. He slept on it again and tested our three favourites on a few trusted compatriates. And eventually we agreed on ‘dollop’ with a lowercase ‘d’.

We both loved the strapline I’d come up with at the long list stage, and it stuck:

‘creativity with splattitude’

Then the project took on a life of its own. A combination of creative enthusiasm, absolute two-way trust and a committee of one making the final decisions, meant that things zipped along at a pace.

He ran some design ideas past me and I slowly but surely helped him and his designer colleague tease out a beautifully simple logo.

I wrote Home and About page copy.

Chuffed with my efforts, he asked me to write bios and the services pages, with a flattering, but also slightly petrifying sign-off to the brief:

“You have full creative permission to do whatever you want. If you need anything, just give me a buzz.”

And his reaction to the next tranche of copy?

“Ah mate, that is class… God knows how you crafted that copy out of the scrapheap of sentences I gave you. Legend as always. Thank you.”

When he said he was about to get some headshots done, the inside of my noggin lit up like Blackpool.

“Why don’t you get the portraits made as dollops of plasticine”.

He loved it, and I knew just the person to pull it off – Photographer and long-time friend, Alex Bamford.

TEXT:

Tom Davies
A container load of canny copywriting classiness.

The science of human psyche and the art of word weaving had a love child – and they called it Tom. Watch him make your brand dance, sing and hypnotise customers into submission.

Dean Hayden
A dirty great dash of dastardly design dexterity.

Ideas, shapes, colours and the spaces in between – wangled, wrangled and spangled into brand-building beauty. Damn, who knew you could look this good. Our Dean did.

David Saxton
A spectacular smattering of superior SEO smartitude.

Certified Google Partner, SEO Grandmaster and Tai Chi & Qigong Instructor; David is the way to page one inner peace. Welcome to Zen and the art of website maintenance.

It’s always the same. If a client gives more of themselves – shows more interest, encourages creativity and acknowledges a job well done – you can’t help but give even more back.

Then it snowballed into coming up with launch ideas for LinkedIn and ongoing blog posts.

And all this from saying yes to a fellow Copywriter a couple of years ago, who wanted a bit of advice.

“Wads of wisdom, a child-like excitement, and more determination than a honey bee. These are just a few of the traits you get as standard when you hire Jonathan Wilcock. With his help, we took dollop from a few neurons floating around my mind to a proper meaty brand I’m happy to take home and introduce to mum. Thank you.” Tom Davies, Creative Director and Chief Dolloper, dollop creative ltd.

And here’s a link to the dollop website

AND, I’m proud to say, I’ve now been made an honorary dolloper.

Dont you just love karma!

For another very different naming project, have a look at The Seven