Copywriting for premium brands

Over several years, I’ve written brand stories, web & blog copy, brochure copy and promotional copy for many high end brands. Clients include Ralph Trustees Limited (The Grove, The Athenaeum, Runnymede-on-Thames), Laing Jewellers, and distilleries such as Benromach, Ardbeg and Glenmorangie. Below, you can read about my work for Bulgari Hotel London, Turnbull & Asser Shirtmakers and Archerfield Golf & Spa.

Bulgari Hotel

The beautiful Bulgari hotel, spa and residences opened its doors on Knightsbridge in London in June 2012. I wrote the copy for their website and Spa brochure. The copy needed to feel exactly right for this international brand. To come up with the solution, I explored the language for their key products: Bulgari jewellery, leather goods and watches. I combined my suggestions with their brand guidelines to create the tone and style for the London hotel. The client is very happy with the result, which sits within the Bulgari portfolio of niche products.

 

Turnbull & Asser Shirtmakers

Turnbull & Asser are London’s premier Master Shirtmakers. They occupy a unique place in the establishment… in a curiously anti-establishment way. They invented the ’60′s radical Kipper Tie and tie-less turtleneck; they made Picasso’s blouson shirts; David Frost and Lord Snowdon were famously refused admission to a black tie party while sporting T&A’s fancy new white satin dress shirts, resulting in 2,000 orders within 10 days. Going further back in time, they designed and made Churchill’s wartime zipped ‘siren’ suits – and frequently repaired cigar burns in the fabric. F.Scott Fitzgerald was another fan:  Gatsby’s numerous, beautiful T&A shirts made Daisy so deliriously and fatefully happy. Turnbull & Asser first opened shop during the British Empire’s boomtime in Regency England. The brand has been around for a long time.

Today they continue to make beautiful handcrafted shirts and ties for everyone from James Bond (on and off set) to execs.

I worked with Sedley Place Digital (now 80 Days) to give their new website the ‘voice’ and content that would be right for their disparate target audience. It’s a hard-working e-commerce site for custom products and also drives wealthier gentlemen in-store for bespoke fittings.

Copywriting for a client such as this involves handling large content and oodles of detail, together with taking every opportunity to build the brand. It also involves some ‘hand-holding’, as their older website felt very dry and dated and the client needed some convincing to update their brand to a) use their fabulous but unsung heritage and b) use it in a way that attracts, not deters, the contemporary buyer.

The resulting website copy works hand-in-glove with the design. Diction is pitched quite high and the language is precise, using words such as ‘physiognomy’; sentence structures feel traditional but still use modern active English so that the copy moves quickly; SEO keywords are naturally woven into the copy; complex heritage stories are distilled down into digestible and interesting cameos; an otherwise dry-sounding making process feels silky and compelling.

Archerfield Links Spa – Fletcher’s Cottage

The beautiful Archerfield Links in East Lothian opened a fabulous Spa. Copy to promote it to the client’s database of golfers and corporate clients had to work hard to encourage bookings ahead of the opening. I also worked with the Spa Consultant and client to pull together and write the spa treatment menu, and a new website which is currently under development.

Over the years I’ve continued to work for the client, tightening up their brand language on their primary website too.

Design by Tayburn