March 6, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
Do you know what HTML is? If you’re a little unclear, don’t feel bad: a recent study found that 1 in 10 Americans don’t get what the term means. In fact, they thought the coding language was a sexually transmitted disease.
Don’t let HMTL happen to you.
This study makes an important point: using tech terms your audience doesn’t understand is bad news. But this goes beyond tech. Jargon—business words that sound like gibberish to everyone else in the world—pop up in every industry. You should never assume that your audience gets your jargon, whether you’re selling microrobot spy cameras or donuts. (more…)
Tags: communication, jargon
March 4, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
Humans love stories. And most of all, we love stories about ourselves. Who we are, where we’re from, where we’re going. And if you were me as a child, stories about you walking down the street with a dolphin. (Thanks, Mom, for putting up with telling that one over and over and over.)
More and more brands are recognizing the importance of storytelling in communicating with their customers. But now there’s a brand that taps into our love of the story of us.
It’s called Timehop, and every day, it shows you what you posted on a social network on that day in the past. (more…)
Tags: communication, storytelling
February 28, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
Everyone has an enemy. A person or thing that makes you get irrationally angry, that you can never seem to get rid of. That deflates your confidence like a balloon that got too familiar with a porcupine.
Meet my arch nemesis: the time zone.
What’s so bad about a time zone, you say? They make it so we can conveniently be on the same schedule as our neighbors, right? (more…)
Tags: communication, time zones
February 25, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Behind the Scenes
For centuries, mankind has settled its conflicts with games of foosball. Disagreements over who has to pay the tab? Decided by foosball. Arguments over sitting shotgun? Foosball. The Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War? Sealed with a sporting game of foosball. (All the foos men had wigs, which was the custom at the time.)
Last week, Jellyvision joined the proud tradition of foosball conflict resolution with the most meta of foosball battles: a foosball tournament to decide who gets the foosball table.
We’re doing some office space reorganizing, you see, and Jellyvision and Jackbox Games will no longer be able to share a foosball table. So we foosed for it. (more…)
Tags: foosball, office life
February 21, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
Things you automatically think of The Onion as being good for: irreverent humor, acerbic takes on current events.
Things you don’t automatically think of The Onion as being good for: getting people to seriously consider serious issues, convincing people to make potentially life-altering purchases.
That’s why it’s so delightfully unexpected (and brilliant) that Get Covered Illinois, the state’s health care exchange, decided to partner with The Onion to get more young people to sign up for new health care plans.
(more…)
Tags: advertising, communication, health care
February 18, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
If your Facebook News Feed is anything like mine, the breakdown of updates looks something like this:
BuzzFeed quizzes are everywhere right now. You’ve probably taken a few, and have learned what city you should live in, what career you should actually have, and even which Al Roker you are. (I am Al Roker lifted by Ryan Gosling, in case you’re wondering.)
Yes, these quizzes are pretty silly. But they also are Damn Good Communication that we professional communication people can take a few pointers from. In fact, here are four things marketers can learn from BuzzFeed quizzes: (more…)
Tags: Al Roker, communication, marketing
February 13, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been glued to your couch for the past week, watching the Winter Olympics. Slalom, slopestyle, ice dancing, moguls, the one where you ski around with a gun: I am a new die-hard fan of all these sports (at least for the next week).
Only problem is, as a new die-hard fan, I do not 100% understand the rules of these sports. For example, here is my interpretation of how athletes are scored in the moguls event:
- Points for going down the hill really fast.
- Points for flipping around in the air.
- Points for not falling down while bouncing off of mean little snow hills.
- Add those points together somehow, weighted in some way.
- You win!
This gentleman is going to get eleventy points for air flipping. (more…)
Tags: communication, plain english
February 11, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Communication Makeover
You’re going to the gym at your hotel. You’ve had your flaxseed smoothie. Your headphones are blasting your power song (Celine Dion’s “Because You Loved Me,” obviously). You’re pumped up.
You hit the elevator button for the gym. The doors open, and…
Well, I’m sure the gym must be right around the corner. (more…)
Tags: bad photoshop, communication, communication makeover, signage
February 4, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
“Yay, an invoice!” said no one ever.
Until they got this invoice from Photojojo.
Let’s break down why this is so incredibly awesome: (more…)
Tags: boring forms, communication, invoices
January 30, 2014 | Melanie Davis | Damn Good Communication
The experience of parenting is something that’s hard to put into words. Maybe because parents are too tired to use words and are forced to express themselves with a combination of grunts and frazzled hair tugs.
In any case, this Coke commercial does a great job of communicating what it’s like to be a new parent without any dialogue. (more…)
Tags: commercials, communication