Compound modifier
The humble hyphen.
It came to mind when reading a BBC report about the number of billion dollar disasters in 2020.
There had been, it said, 16 billion dollar disasters in a year.
So, 16-billion dollar disasters (16,000,000,000 lots of $1 catastrophes)?
Or 16 billion dollar-disasters? That's a lot of dollar-disasters.
Nope. 16 billion-dollar disasters. In other words, 16 disasters costing more than one billion.
The hyphen makes all the difference. It's known as a compound modifier.
One of my favourite examples is a nuclear power-plant supervisor who ordered 'ten foot long lengths' of material.
They wanted ten-foot lengths. But ended up with ten foot-long lengths. An expensive mistake.
See how you can combine words with a hyphen to make it easier for the reader. Combine as many as you like: it's an up-to-you-how-many decision.
Oh: found an interesting example when double-checking my facts for this Monday Max.
A woman eating chicken in a café. Not a 'woman-eating chicken'.
Onto the stuff that grabbed me last week ...
Funniest ad?
B&T Magazine reports a US ad-scoring firm has ranked the funniest (US) ads for 2020.
Number one?
Now, forgive me for being a cynic. But it feels like a 15-second joke that someone attached a logo/client to.
Funny? A bit. Product benefit? Zilch.
Much better, this one for Cheetos. Takes a negative (the orange residue on your fingers from eating Cheetos) and turns it into a positive.
Nice.
Video without a camera
Gee, this is a useful article from those wonderful people at Hello Social.
How to create video content, without a camera.
I know. Good title: got me.
Their suggestions:
1. Use stock footage.
2. Automated video content. Did you know Facebook has a video creation kit? I didn't. Use the Add Media button when creating an ad.
3. Time lapse or animations.
4. Screen capture.
Well done, team.
I'll add one more resource: kinda sits under point 2. A free video-creation site called Lumen5.
Email timing
Following on from the social media synchrographics of last week.
Email timing - the latest from Litmus. What time do most emails get opened, by country?
Australia and New Zealand: between 10am and 11am.
The US: people in the United States are the most likely to open in the early hours of the morning.
The UK: 9am, but fairly steady throughout the working day.
Canada: between 10am and 11am.
The article also includes Germany (9am to 10am) and Spain (9am to 10am).
So, now you know.
QotW
Quote of the week:
'Martin Luther King did not say, 'I have a mission statement'.' Simon Sinek
Next workshops
• Maximum Copy: in-house and online
• Copy Ninja: a masterclass via Zoom, Webex, Teams
• Writing for Digital: delivered via the web or in-person
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