Are you drowning in the sea of sameness? Shower thoughts from a battle-hardened copywriter
I was in the shower the other morning belting out "Under Pressure" by Queen (if you must know), and somewhere around the bit where Freddie really lets rip, it hit me that a lot of the marketing I read these days sounds like karaoke. The words are all there and the tune is close enough, but nobody's paying to hear it and nobody can remember who was holding the mic.
That's how a lot of businesses sound right now, and I think I know why. More and more of us are writing our websites, emails and social posts with the same handful of AI tools, and those tools are brilliant at giving you the average of everything they've ever read. Ask one for a homepage for a plumber and you'll get a perfectly decent homepage for every plumber in the country.
For the record, I'm all for AI
Before anyone sends me a grumpy email, I use AI every single day, Mint is very progressive with it, and I stand to do pretty well out of it personally, so I've got no issue with the tools themselves. What bothers me is how they're being used. When you give AI nothing of your own to work from, it hands you everyone's voice, and if your competitors are doing exactly the same thing, you all end up sounding like the same business.
Are you using these stock phrases?
Every industry has its stock phrases, like "trusted local experts", "quality service you can count on", "tailored solutions for your business" and the old favourite, "your one-stop shop". You've read them so many times that your eyes slide straight off them, and AI has read them millions of times too, which is exactly why it keeps serving them back to you.
Here's what that sounds like in the real world. I wrote this pizza promo to sound like generic AI copy, and no real pizza shop was harmed in the making of it:
Craving something delicious? Our pizzas are made with the finest quality ingredients and crafted with care by our dedicated team. Whether it's a family dinner or a night in with friends, we've got the perfect pizza for every occasion. Order online today!
Nothing in there is wrong, and that's the trouble, because you could put any pizza shop's logo on top of it and it would still work. Now hold that thought, my dear reader…
Hell Pizza: We all know it, even with the logo covered
Hell has stood out from the other pizza chains in New Zealand for years, and it's done it almost entirely with attitude. The voice is cheeky, sometimes radical and completely sure of itself, so you'd recognise one of its ads well before you saw the name. See what I mean?
Hell's tone of voice really takes it to the limit sometimes
Hell does take things further than most of us would be comfortable with. An analysis by Dan Fastnedge and Melissa Gould, published by The Conversation and 1News in 2024, counted 79 Advertising Standards Authority rulings about Hell between 2005 and 2021. Only 8 of them were upheld. And who's counting? I personally don't have the wiring for that much risk but I tip my hat to this lot - they're bloody committed to their brand. And I think the thing that is well worth copying from Hell is the commitment. It picked a voice a long time ago and has never watered it down… except that time that they used Adolph Hitler on a billboard. (Yeah they cleaned that up pretty quick and it's hard to find photos of the billboard online. Oh, righto, you twisted my arm…)
Pak'nSave Stickman: proof you don't need a big budget
Stickman couldn't be more different from Hell. He's wholesome, funny and relatable, which suits a supermarket that's built its whole brand around low prices for everyday Kiwis and he's still going strong after 10+ years.
The best part is that Stickman started out as a budget ad. Ex Foodstuffs' Steve Bayliss once called him "the most recognised and recalled voice in grocery", and pointed out that Pak'nSave was doing it with only about 15% of the category's advertising spend. In other words, a stick figure drawn on a tight budget has been out-talking supermarkets that spend a lot more. That is peak marketing - the ultimate advertising flex!
So if you've been thinking a strong tone of voice is something only big brands can afford, know that a good voice mostly costs you thinking time and commitment, and you can do that thinking on a modest budget.
But, not everyone has a Hell Pizza or Pak'nSave budget
Now I know what you're thinking, not everyone has the same budget for developing a tone of voice like Hell Pizza and Pak'nSave. Fair enough. The good news is that a distinctive voice comes mostly from clear thinking and the confidence to stick with it, which you can do at any size. Some of my favourite examples are local brands, and one I get to see up close is a client of ours, Christchurch Casino.
The first thing you'll notice on their social media feeds is that it calls itself "The Cas", which is exactly what its locals call it, so straight away it sounds like a friend with an affectionate nickname. The second is that the word "play" turns up everywhere, from "Bring your tastebuds out to play" on the restaurant ads to "Come & play" and "One destination. Countless ways to play".
Picking one word and using it so consistently is a small decision, but it's the kind most businesses never make, and it's why The Cas sounds like itself whether you're reading a menu or a billboard.
What I love about this is the degree of creative difficulty they face as a brand. Casinos are one of the most tightly regulated categories in New Zealand, so every playful line has to get past rules that most businesses never have to think about. If The Cas can find a distinctive voice inside those limits, then the rest of us are running a bit short on excuses.
Why this matters for your margin
We wrote about the commercial case for brand back in August in Brands that create desire, so I won't repeat all of it here. The short version is that when you sound like everyone else, buyers have nothing left to compare you on except price, and you end up sharpening quotes and throwing in extras to win work you should have won on reputation.
It also costs more just to get noticed. System1's report The Extraordinary Cost of Dull estimates that dull, emotionless advertising costs brands an extra $189 billion in media to get the same result as work people actually feel something about. That's an awful lot of money spent on being forgettable.
If your brand were a celebrity, who would it be?
This is an exercise that I love to do when I run tone of voice strategy sessions with clients. You can try it with your team. Pick the famous person your brand would be if it walked into a room, then use them to work out how you should sound. Here are some examples:
- Tom Hanks: warm and trustworthy, the everyman you'd happily hand your house keys to.
- David Attenborough: calm authority with a real sense of wonder about the subject.
- The Rock: big energy, motivating, and works harder than anyone else in the room.
- Richie McCaw: quiet, dependable strength. The personification of humble!
- Usain Bolt and Serena Williams: the best in the world, and the standard everyone else gets measured against.
- Adam Sandler: goofy, loyal, and never takes himself too seriously.
- Freddie Mercury: a bold showman you can't take your eyes off.
- Dolly Parton: warm, generous and big-hearted, with a cheeky wink.
If you struggle to pick one for your own brand, that's usually a sign your voice hasn't been decided yet, and the AI tools are deciding it for you.
Five things you can do this quarter
It would be rather rude of me to write all of this up and not give you some pointers, now wouldn't it? If you want to give your brand more of a unique voice so that you can stand out from your competitors, here's a to-do list.
- Write down the stock phrases everyone in your industry uses, then ban them from your own website, emails and proposals. Replace them with something more tangible and unique.
- Find your celebrity persona. Turn your celebrity into three words for how you sound, plus a few words for how you never sound.
- Rewrite your most-visited pages on your website with your new tone of voice (if you're b2b, it will likely be the homepage or the about page).
- Give your AI tools that voice guide along with a few real examples of your best writing, so what comes back starts from you instead of from the average of the internet.
- Read your copy out loud, and if it could be any business in your industry saying it, keep going.
Back to the shower
Anyone can sing "Under Pressure" in the shower, and plenty of people can get through it at karaoke, but there was only ever one Freddie, and that's who people still pay to hear. Your brand works the same way, so find the voice that's actually yours and use it everywhere.
If you'd like a hand working out what yours sounds like, book a brand and tone of voice session with us at Mint.