Mindy Lance, Senior Copywriter
Bio
Mindy writes and edits just about anything. Her recent projects have included work for Siemens Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Quintiles, SciQuest and Cherokee Investment Partners. Her strategic thinking helps clients transform complex topics into straightforward, compelling language.Articles
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What I learned being a Nielsen family
Feb 14, 2010 :: Mindy Lance :: 4 CommentsI just sent back my family's TV viewing diary for Nielsen — you know, the folks that do the TV ratings to tell advertisers what people are watching. Besides showing me that I'm more into reality shows than I care to confess, the whole process raised some other questions:
• Do you really think everyone writes down everything they watch? I'm a stickler for following the rules, but my teenage son couldn't be bothered and probably didn't want us to know how much or what he was watching. (Phineas & Ferb doesn't really sound like homework, does it?) And if it's anything like a diet diary, there's a whole lot of rationalizing going on.
• The diary shows what programs we watched and even accommodated DVR playback to watch programs later. But do they think that I watched only part of the whole hour-long show when I logged it in for 30-45 minutes? Or do they just assume I whizzed through the commercials? That seems to be quite a leap. I'm sure they know what they're doing, but it feels like voodoo to me.
• Even when I wrote down what I was watching, it was in 15-minute increments. Sometimes I'd spend 5 minutes just deciding if I wanted to keep watching, but then change to something else. Or the TV was on one show, but I was focused on setting the DVR or resetting timers on the DVR or deleting shows from the DVR. Managing the DVR can be as much of a chore as managing email.
• Note to advertisers: You know how your ad tells a great story capped off with your logo at the end? People are watching the entertaining part, then clicking through your logo. So they know the great ad but aren't making that critical brand connection. Might want to rethink the ending — save a last zinger or twist for after the logo to keep us watching. Or you could do what TV networks all seem to do – leave their logo on the screen all the time. I'm seeing that more but it's a little annoying.
What else is Nielsen missing?
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The great TP debate - over or under?
Jan 29, 2010 :: Mindy Lance :: 6 CommentsNeed a break from all the intense issues in the headlines these days? Make your voice heard on the red-hot question of whether you roll your toilet paper over or under. [I promise to use massive willpower to avoid all the easy bathroom puns.] Cottonelle is going all out with its Roll Poll, creating a feisty forum for debating the pros and cons of how you roll.
You can start a Roll Poll Throwdown – basically choosing from characters such as a tough firefighter and high society matron [for the Over team] and an uber-hip yoga guy and crazy cat lady [for the Under team] to give their best reasons. You don't really believe these are real people, but they are just serious enough to be funny. Then you can cast your own vote.
It's a genius way to promote a product easily taken for granted: Tap into an irresistible debate [much like Coke or Pepsi, creamy or crunchy peanut butter] to get people talking. It's a topic where very few people are ambivalent. You just can't help taking sides. As of this writing, Over is the clear winner – 76% to 24%. North Carolina is a heavy over state at 86%. Yes, you can check a US map to see how your state voted with street videos of opinionated rollers from each state. Interestingly, California is the only under state. [Hmmm...what do we make of that?]
The Roll Poll took advantage of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube along with TV ads and guerilla ads spotted on trains and bus stops. And it appears that the mommy blogs have bought in. A quick Google search turns up tons of them. Apparently Cottonelle got the word out to this key consumer audience by offering free TP – a month's worth – to bloggers who encouraged their readers to go vote.
And no TP campaign would be complete without a celebrity or two. Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott are taking opposite sides, appearing at the Roll Poll Great Debate in Times Square in honor of Thomas Crapper Day, Jan. 27. [No, really, he's credited with the invention of the flush toilet. Historians say it was John Harrington, but that's another debate.]
It's all light-hearted fun with serious branding all over it. So how do you roll?
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Grammar Gangsta Says: Celebrate National Grammar Day
Mar 4, 2009 :: Mindy Lance :: 3 CommentsYo, O.G.G. here with my boy Furious D, looking for some brothers and sisters who love words. At a place like Capstrat filled wall to wall with professional communicators, every day is grammar day, right? Today, the whole country gets into the act.
If you have a sec, visit http://nationalgrammarday.com/ for a little fun, a bunch of links, a drink recipe and even a clickable playlist of songs whose authors ought to be rapped across the knuckles by nuns.
Are you hardcore enough to join us? Wanna be a player at Capstrat? We’re coming to the ‘hood to educate you on life in the gang. You up for it? Watch for details on when and where. Till then, holla back with your pet peeves – you know, the grammar and spelling errors that make that vein in your temple throb. No peeve too petty.
Peace out.
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Desperately seeking content - but not from a newspaper
Jul 1, 2008 :: Mindy Lance :: 1 CommentsThe clamor for information rages on, but where will we get it? Traditional media are dying a slow death – an AP article last Sunday said newspapers are now in survival mode. Staff cuts are hitting hard at the Hartford Courant, the Baltimore Sun, and the Daytona Beach-Journal. The venerable Tribune Co. is looking to sell Newsday. Closer to home, the News & Observer announced last Friday that its Business section would be integrated into the same section as local news, a reflection of cutbacks. McClatchy Co., N&O’s parent, said more staff cuts are coming.
So what’s going to take the place of newspapers? Will it be a new breed of media company? At Web Content 2008, Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 declared that online content marketing is the future of media and expressed his condolences to anyone working in traditional media. Pointing to shrinking media company budgets and the myriad technologies that allow the smallest companies to deliver targeted content, Pulizzi and Junta42 are banking on custom publishing. This company helps match marketers with branded content providers, content advertising agencies, direct marketing and PR firms, integrated marketing firms and post-advertising agencies — at no charge.
And content delivery goes beyond blogs and e-newsletters. Junta42 lists – you guessed it – 42 ways to deliver your content, including virtual tradeshows, online games, e-books, vodcasts, and digital magazines.
What's missing here is any type of objective reporting. I understand the power of customized content, but I’m not sure it will totally replace the role of the fourth estate – or if it should. Maybe instead of journalism empires like the Tribune or McClatchy, we’ll just have journalists for hire, building personal brands as trusted, impartial sources of news. Or maybe product marketers will draw crowds by providing news articles even if it doesn't tie into their products.Sure, the line has blurred between news and entertainment, and I'm all for online content marketing. But shouldn't news and marketing still be separate?
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Give a noun some love
Jun 24, 2008 :: Mindy Lance :: 1 CommentsAt the Web Content 08 [WC08] last week, I had a syntactical epiphany: the noun is making a comeback. For decades now, verbs were the darling of writers — think more action! — while nouns have been dismissed as stodgy and murky, the equivalent of sludge in a conversation’s engine. Who needs ’em?
Well, turns out we all do. Jerome Nadel, Chief Experience Officer of Human Factors International, pointed out that Web sites often err in putting verbs first, pushing visitors to act before they can even choose the object of their visit. He says that users need to find a starting place. They’re looking for the product they want to buy, the topic they’re researching, or the person they want to learn about. But they have to find that before they can buy, research or learn.
Even before they reach a site, they’re usually thinking nouns when they search on Google or scan tags on del.icio.us [with a few verbs and adjectives thrown in too]. It's like the Dewey decimal system on steroids.
So what? It signals the way we’re categorizing the world. Whenever we choose search terms or tags, we try to make sense of our thoughts and the thought process of others. When we create site navigation or keywords, we succeed only when we make it easier and more intuitive to find our sites and our information. And getting into users’ heads, into the way they’re classifying and interacting with their world – usability – should be the foundation of every Web project.
Nadel claims that businesses don’t have to relinquish control of their brands – not if they understand their audience and craft social Web experiences that deliver unique value and build relationships. That’s how sites can truly engage visitors and deliver greater ROI.
The next time a user experience designer presses to interview more stakeholders or a copywriter questions a keyword, just consider it time well spent. And show a noun some appreciation.
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Social media isn't as modern as you think
Jun 22, 2008 :: Mindy Lance :: 1 CommentsHow can something as cutting edge as social media be considered old school? Because it goes to the heart of communicating. That’s the upshot of a couple of talks Darren Barefoot gave at a Web Content Conference [WC08] put on by Duo Consulting in Chicago. This totally engaging Canadian started his presentation quoting from Shakespeare’s Henry V and a drawing of the theater used in Elizabethan England – not exactly what you’d expect for a presentation on the many facets of social media. Barefoot pointed out that someone drew the theater after hearing about it, then copied it and published it. It underscored for me that social media isn’t suddenly working because of the power of Web 2.0 tools. These tools simply give people who are hungry to communicate an easier way to do it.
At his second talk, Barefoot used a decidedly low-tech approach – he hung 29 cards naming social media tools on a clothesline of sorts. Borrowing from Theatre Skam's 29 Plays in 59 Minutes concept, he asked the audience to call out a social media technology. He’d rip it off the line and riff for several minutes [of course, some kept falling off the line early, providing even more comic relief]. He covered everything from the ubiquitous Wikipedia to emerging surprises like Kyte.tv and Ustream. For the last two, he even admitted to the dreaded feeling of “Kids seem to like these but I don’t know why….” Made me feel a little better for not even knowing about them yet. 29 tools in an hour and a half. Not bad.
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From YouTube to the stage
Feb 18, 2008 :: Mindy Lance :: 2 CommentsIn a surreal twist, reality video inspires live entertainment. My youngest kid is in high school chorus. He brought home the sheet music to learn a song and dance number called Dance Evolution. He was ticking off some of the songs, I thought, Whoa, that sounds like that guy on YouTube who did the Evolution of Dance. We looked it up and sure enough, the high school production number matches Jud Laipply's performance song for song [well, a few were left out but the playlist is mostly intact]. When I went to the show this past weekend, and almost 100 kids were performing this medley, the audience went crazy. It was hard to tell: Were they remembering rockin’ out to Hammer Time and Mr. Roboto … or the first time they saw it on YouTube? Or both? It’s only a matter of time before the spring production will be “YouTube: The Musical.” -
Fear not the blog
Feb 14, 2008 :: Mindy Lance :: 2 Comments
Finally getting around to posting here. The idea of writing or reading a blog daily — or even weekly — had me flummoxed. There’s so much information coming at me from other directions, I can hardly keep up. Why would I want to punish myself even more with the burden of keeping up with multiple blogs?
But then I started thinking of blogs as the equivalent of magazines. I don’t feel compelled to read the vast array of publications out there. I pick and choose what interests me. Some I read regularly, some I just pick up to read one article. And I don’t feel guilty for not reading every magazine on the stand. So why should blogs intimidate me? I can just drop in for what interests me. (And try not to be sucked in for the rest of the day….)
Matter of fact, as a copywriter, I appreciate how blogs simply highlight the primacy of content. It’s the only explanation for an incredible volume of text, often with little formatting and egregious typos. (I love that word. Say it with me: egregious .) It’s the strength of the ideas shared in blogs that give them the power to catch and hold our attention. With the explosion of blogs, it’s clear that people are starved for content that’s authentic and relevant, that sounds like them. They’re not screaming for marketing speak. A cautionary reminder for every other form of communication.
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