Tone of voice
Tone of voice
iQ Student Accommodation, 2022
Embedded Files
Strategy
Copy
Brand development
Internal training
When I joined iQ, its copy was doing what a lot of brands do - playing it safe, keeping things clean and trying to say the sensible thing with all the caveats possible.
That kind of thing doesn't work for students. The language needed to evolve into something more grown up, and less grown up too.
from corporate to relatable
from corporate to relatable
iQ needed a new system for talking to students like students. Our values translated into a voice with something to say. No more grammar police, more of a vibe.
Before
Before
When I joined iQ, a style guide told you to never write "IQ". It never actually told you what iQ should be saying and how.
After
After
I built iQ's new voice from scratch, shifting its corporate tone into something students could relate to. To help answer the "why" to our voice, I anchored the guidelines to our company values, translating each into a clear picture of what to say and what not to.
Refurbs
Refurbs
When I joined, "refurbishments" felt cold and corporate, and nobody was getting excited reading the updates. So, I shifted the language to "glow ups", using language students already use themselves, to relate to their room. The same works suddenly became a transformation instead of maintenance.
Old
Old
New
New
What I did
What I did
Diagnosed the problem by seeing where copy felt flat and unrelatable.
Wrote the TOV guidelines and built strong foundations for experimenting.
Ran internal training to spread the voice across the business.
Upheld the standards so that this wasn't just a doc, but a blueprint.
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