While at Ottawa’s McMillan agency, I helped establish a significantly new and informal brand voice for a company of highly educated financial experts. IPValue is small, specialized team that manages intellectual property portfolios. My contribution began with the positioning line “Great things happen when ideas prosper” and continued throughout the corporate web site, where the tone of voice had to balance the confidence of a trusted advisor with a casual, human feeling.

I was tickled and chuffed to be part of the home-grown marketing team that created the brochure and website to launch the British Square, a sleekly contemporary apartment complex soon to be nestled in the historic core of Aylmer (Gatineau), Quebec, my cherished neighbourhood since 2015. The messaging I developed had to blend modern with historic and balance premium with inclusive just as the structure itself will when complete in early 2022.

Working closely with Ottawa’s Extension Marketing, I enjoyed a rare opportunity to take on a comprehensive web site project that involved a good deal of brand voice development for worldwide logistics leader Gilmore Global. My task was to infuse a huge amount of copy across all sections of the site with a tone befitting a wise industry leader and a trusted advisor. Have a read to see if I hit the mark.

I’ve been working with the enterprising team at GRADWEAR for a few years now, developing a brand voice and applying it clear across the board, beginning with the company’s ever-evolving web site. The core challenge has been to “speak to” high school-aged readers conversationally yet with a professional tone that avoids any whiff of condescension. We’ve learned that there’s a fine line between being cool and trying to sound cool. Have we struck the balance?

Over the years I’ve collaborated with Darren Holmes at Blackmao video productions on an interesting range of educational animations. Here are few examples of work we did in 2019 for Satellite Canada on the need to connect rural and remote areas of the country via the Internet.

Most of my favorite advertising work happened in collaboration Donna Darby of Utopia Communications in the mid-2000s. Here are some examples.