Lingo (Abbott Pharmaceuticals)
Client
Industry
Healthcare
Services
Content Copywriting Tone of voice UX
www.hellolingo.com/
Launching a new product in the health/biotech space can be tricky. So translating metabolic health for Lingo was a challenge.
Lingo (part of Abbott) needed to balance a few things. They has to explain what Lingo does, excite the audience about its benefits, educate customers around metabolic coaching and stay on the right side of a very regulated industry. All in a tone of voice that sounded fresh and exciting.
What would happen if they got that wrong? They could fall foul of some very stringent medical and legal regulations. But also, they could see their bold new product launch falling flat with customers who were completely flummoxed about what Lingo was and what it could do for them.
These are just the kinds of copywriting challenges we love.
We needed to create absolutely everything for Lingo. From scratch. Quickly.
We started by building out the verbal identity document. This detailed process saw us dig into Lingo’s competitors, get underneath Lingo’s product and understand their space in the market.
It was key that Lingo was not positioned as a health device, but more as a lifestyle tool. We also wanted to keep it away from the more hardcore athlete end of the market. This was personalised metabolic coaching for everyone.
Our brand tone of voice document for Lingo developed a distinctive way of talking for the brand that managed to balance all of these aims. While also staying true to its own specific way of talking. We balanced the science with the need for lighter consumer-friendly language.
Explaining a new and potentially difficult-to-understand product like Lingo is a balancing act. If it’s not clear, customers can’t understand it. If it’s not engaging, none of them will care.
We worked painstakingly to understand what Lingo was, how it worked and why anyone should be interested. Once we had that information we crafted UX copy for the Lingo app, site copy for the main Lingo site and CRM copy for the sequence of emails new customers would receive. We even made sure all the copy in the packaging was informative, engaging and on brand.
A lot of our focus was on making sure the journey came together in the right way. There was a strong inclination from the client to explain everything as soon as possible. We helped them see that there was a way to let that story unfurl at a slower pace that the consumer could follow easily.
Our committed and experienced team did a great job of tying all these different threads together while moving at start-up-speed.
It was critical to carefully navigate the difficult Medical, Legal and Regulatory reviews. We had to balance staying compliant with staying interesting. The challenge is that it’s all too easy for these important functions to strip all the character out of the copywriting.
We were regularly on these calls advising where to edit the copywriting and where to leave it as it was. We also came up with alternatives at the drop of a hat to help the team get updated text in front of the right people to meet some very demanding deadlines and guidelines.
By creating a detailed glossary we kept track of all these decisions as we went. That way whenever we had something approved by any of the MLR functions, we logged how we were saying it verbatim and made sure we stayed consistent throughout.
Scaling up start-up speed
Lingo went from a trickle to a geyser almost overnight. Because of our experience and the way Craft Words is set up, we were able to flex the team to cope with this incredibly quick increase in workflow.
We put the people and processes in place to make sure we could respond to the demanding workload and tight deadlines. All the while making sure the high quality and accuracy of the work was looked after.
Lingo launched successfully in the UK with a clear proposition and consistent tone of voice.
“Craft were critical in getting Lingo off the ground in the UK.”
Caroline Errington, Director of Global Marketing, Lingo
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It was a pleasure to work with Paul. His great collaborative mindset and professionalism push the deliverable to the next level. He’s a great content strategist, writer and thinker who asks insightful questions to push the design. I’ve never worked with a writer who influences design so much. Seisho Manabe Director, Frog Design
Seisho Manabe
Director, Frog Design
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Hertje Brodersen
Head of Design ∙ Experience Strategist, Zalando
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Simon Croft
Founder and CD, Orangery
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Anna Murphy
Content Manager, PepsiCo
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Raul Balreira
Digital Project Manager, Tribal Worldwide London
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Liam Morgan
Cogs
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David Clarke
Executive Creative Director, Huge
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Arielle Diamond
Senior Communications Manager, Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)
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Alex Olmedo
Co-Founder, Fast-Track
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Ben Oliver
Vice President, Creative and Original Content at RFRSH Entertainment / Blast Pro Series / Astralis / Origen
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Jorge Cumbre
Unseen
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Andrew Penfold
Digital & Content Marketing Manager, Security & Safety Things
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Anita Stubenrauch
Author of Apple's Credo
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Senior Content Manager, Apple
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