“Nokia are stronger than ever – but with their old-school associations, the world doesn’t necessarily know this.”
I was the HMD/Nokia copywriter for 1.5 years. It was an adrenaline rush of a project, fast-paced and covert, all strict code names and passwords. I ideated, wrote and, together with the talented editors at Mirum Studio, produced a myriad of cutting-edge product films. The key challenge wasn’t just elevating Nokia’s Brick-xclusive image to something a little more hip, current, state-of-the-art. But also to make products with serially overlapping KSPs stand out each time. From tagline to script, every word had to count – and I relished the difficulty.
Now I’d quite confidently disagree with the latter part of my first ever brand insight, quoted above. Not only is the world clued up on Nokia’s latest and greatest releases, but the Brick is back and legendary as ever.
Non-profit ‘Killed Women’ taught us that:
- 125 female victims were murdered at the hands of men in 2022 alone
- The list just keeps on growing – a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK
- It’s very hard to find a consolidated list of all the killed women’s names
So, in collaboration with an Art Director, I came up with a way to turn those 3 truths into a punchy vinyl display ad. There are so many names from 2022 that it literally bleeds off the frame. Every 3 days, we add the name of a victim from 2023.
The Elizabeth Line was to become TFL’s ‘purple one’. Who better to herald its arrival than the Quality Street OG?
This lightning bolt brief came in one afternoon looking for urgent responses. An Art Director and I got together, embraced a weakness for sweet, sweet puns, and created a simple ‘travelling’ social post addressed to one Purple One from another.
The idea got from A to B at a commuter-enviable pace – Quality Street bought and produced the concept that very same day, then posted it the next.
Spiders can’t catch a break. They spend hours building a beautiful home – only for the world to destroy it without a second thought. So I wrote a script following an adorable, persistent spider in serious need of a break.
I worked with a Designer-Art Director to come up with an out-of-the-box asset exploring this concept. We made the advertising world our oyster and ended up with a Zimmer-scored script and unique, AI-generated main character.
The RHS understands plants and gardening so well, it’s almost as though they speak the language. So in a TVC following the woes of handmade plant puppets, first-rate CD Clare Wilson literally gave vegetation a voice – understandable to even the least green-fingered of us.
Several months after launch, I was asked to extend the hero asset with a couple of social films. One to convey the educational benefits of the RHS, the other to inspire faith in their breadth of knowledge. I wrote several scripts portraying relieved flora post-RHS-fix, then painstakingly paired them with the perfect stock footage plant protagonists. My next tasks were to find voice artists that matched my characters, and direct the VO records. The beautiful end products (below) are promoted across the RHS site and socials.
More and more people are being murdered in cold blood for protesting peacefully. And other than a slight social media stir, no one’s doing anything about it. *Edit* This line was initially written months ago, and it’s utterly tragic that there’s no need for a tweak.
My work-wife and I ‘concepted’ the beginnings of this idea for another, quite similar brief. A CD spotted it in the deck and asked if he could use it for CfHRiI. We tailored accordingly, and created this stunt.
To highlight both the cold-blooded execution and the landslide impact of inaction, we place a red ice sculpture of a woman outside the Iranian Embassy. As it melts, it spills over its acrylic plinth to form an ominous red pool. The gradual deterioration demonstrates a powerful parallel to the future of Iran if no one acts.
Over the past 6+ months at Wunderman Thompson, I’ve owned copy for all Virgin Red comms. From Virgin Wines to Virgin Trains Ticketing (and a whole bunch in between), it’s been a lot of fun pushing boundaries and pun tolerance to establish a brand tone that pops.
It’s a stimulating challenge – I’m often having to craft countless distinctively clever lines on the same offers or themes. I’ve loved being the consistent voice of the brand, and loosening the reigns on my natural cheekiness a little (sometimes a lot).
The bonus bits I’m proud of – often to do with being Creative Lead in the company Culture Club. We brainstormed and organised internal- and external-facing events. I then handled executions and output.
Take ‘Woo Week’, for example. The ask? To concept and create a full week of fun, inclusive Valentine’s Day celebrations + company comms. The answer? Going to town to make the Saint proud – from giving all the meeting room names a little extra love, to grabbing meet-cute opportunities by the candy.
The Easter week celebration was another fun project. The ask? To come up with and communicate the company’s seasonal activities. The answer? We took the classics and made them more classic (once again taking full advantage of the freedom to go porangi with puns).
You’re looking at the dedicated agency newsletter authoress. This amalgamation of company and industry news was crafted and sent out every month, and allowed me to shape the agency’s tone of voice from the inside out. At one point, I was asked to embody both interviewer and interviewee. An interesting experience.
Moonlighting as a WT showreel voiceover artist, becoming a staple Duracell TikTok protagonist, womanning in-office crèches, donating my handwriting to event posters, channelling my inner Easter bunny – welcome to just a few examples of the (even more) fun bits.
VICTORIA TEESDALE-IVES | COPY 