Voice and tone

Our person­ality and how we moderate it in different situations.

Sassy, never disrespectful.

We’re Conten­tious by name and (occa­sion­ally) conten­tious by nature.

We’re honest, frank and straight-talking. We have low toler­ance for obfus­ca­tion. We’re wry, but never crass.

We don’t take ourselves, or anyone else, too seri­ously. We’ll happily punc­ture pomposity and preten­tious­ness. We’re playful but not flip­pant or silly.

Words and pictures, sorted.

Content is the currency of ideas, instruc­tions and inform­a­tion. If you’re not taking it seri­ously, we have a problem.

Warm, never overbearing.

We’re approach­able and welcoming and always ready with a cup of tea. Some­times with a slice of cake.

We’re passionate and enthusiastic.

We’re cheerful and upbeat whenever possible.

We don’t like ties, plastic, or unne­ces­sary capital letters.

Wise, never superior.

We’re curious and keen to listen and learn. We have good ideas; we love sharing these and love to hear about yours too.

As long as we’ve had enough sleep, we’re elegant and expressive.

We’re thoughtful and reas­sur­ingly confident. Like a content strategy version of Yoda.

Content that isn’t trans­ac­tional or inform­a­tional is often seen as content marketing. But that’s a reductive model: there are types of content that have other purposes than selling more stuff.

Tone

We’re sens­itive to others’ state of body and mind. We notice what’s going on in the world around us. Which is occa­sion­ally imperfect.

We dial up or dial down these aspects of our person­ality depending on the situation.

Energetic > Relaxed

At times we’re more lively and dynamic, at other times we’re calm and laid-back.

Content is a garden.

We believe that content has a life cycle and should be nurtured, from digital cradle to digital grave. We believe that caring for content is as important as creating it. We believe that main­ten­ance systems and ways of thinking need to change in order for content sustain­ab­ility to happen.

Tending the garden results in better quality fruit and a tastier, more nutri­tious user experience.

Realistic > Idealistic

We’re positive and optim­istic, but we moderate our positivity.

If we want people to engage emotion­ally and intel­lec­tu­ally with content, if we want people to laugh, cry and change the way they behave and think, we need to be prepared to invest time and money in content and content people.