Write Said WINNIE

Content Creator, Copywriter

[writesaidwinnie]

Dorsett - Your Rewards

Photo credit: Dorsett Hotel Wanchai/Agoda (Source)

Dorsett Hospitality International -- one of Asia's fastest-growing 4-star hotel groups with 54 hotels establishing a global presence in 27 countries and cities worldwide, and more properties in the development pipeline -- will soon be unveiling its new 'Dorsett -- Your Rewards' loyalty programme which will pilot in 15 hotels across Asia, Europe and Oceania under its Dorsett and d.Collection brands.

Members of the loyalty programme will be delighted by a range of thoughtfully tailored rewards, and enjoy the ultimate travel experience through the hotel group's partnerships, providing internationally-renowned services across industries such as transport, beauty and more.

Guests enrolled in the programme are invited to celebrate in style with special birthday offers. Other exclusive 'Dorsett -- Your Rewards' benefits include free room upgrades to suites, complimentary breakfast, and guaranteed late check-out times of up to 4 hours.

A defining feature of the 'Dorsett -- Your Rewards' loyalty programme is its unique 'part-cash, part-points' model which allows members to redeem rewards any time they wish, no matter how many points they've amassed.

"As a Hong Kong homegrown brand, we're proud to share the vibrant hospitality and forward-thinking service culture that embodies the Hong Kong spirit with the world. The 'Dorsett -- Your Rewards' loyalty programme is our way of saying 'thank you' to our guests for choosing to stay with us," says the hotel group's Senior Vice President of Brand Marketing, Anita Chan.

There are four tiers of membership -- Classic, Silver, Gold and Platinum -- under the loyalty programme and members will be automatically upgraded as they accrue more room nights stayed per year. To celebrate the programme's debut in November, guests who sign up between now and 31 December 2018 will receive a free membership upgrade to Silver and be able to access all the benefits exclusive to the tier on their next stay with Dorsett.

To learn more about 'Dorsett -- Your Rewards' or to sign up for the loyalty programme, please visit www.dorsett.com/en/loyalty-program.

[writesaidwinnie]

Marks and Spencer

While working with Marks and Spencer, one of the biggest copywriting challenges - which arose from the fact that we worked in Chinese to accommodate the local market but needed to translate it to English afterwards - was creating English captions that still made sense when put next to the visual.

“May the year go smooth and easy like one, two, tee!”

“May you be ever reddy, ever lucky!”

“May you have it all in the bag!”

“May your pants be tight, but not your budget!”

[writesaidwinnie]

HSBC Mobile Banking (An Exercise in Editing)

Digital copywriting is more important than ever - it helps us to ‘micro-size’ copy length and ‘super-size’ readability. I worked on this as a Digital Copywriter at HSBC, as an illustrative example for stakeholders to understand more fully the value of copywriting for mobile apps.

Before:

After:

To achieve the goal of shorter and more succinct copy, a lot of redundancy was cut out and as much as possible, we steered clear of anything that sounded like legal jargon. The result is friendlier to the eyes, especially on mobile, and easier-to-understand for all readers.

[writesaidwinnie]

PayMe from HSBC

One of the first things that I worked on for PayMe from HSBC as a Digital Copywriter at HSBC was a review and revamp of the website copy. The trick here was to strike the right balance between having a tone of voice that matches the global group standard and a personality that’s uniquely PayMe.

The result was something simple and snappy, with a little sass and pizzazz.

[writesaidwinnie]

ZAVVA Shots

The challenge with writing this copy for Hong Kong brand ZAVVA Shots was in combining tasteful and tasty descriptions so that the reader can almost taste the shot, just from reading about it, something that was vital in promoting the brand to the Singapore market during its launch in 2015.

Photo credit: Seth Lui (source)

ZAVVA Black Pearl The strong aroma of coffee softened by the comforting sweet notes of vanilla. Delight your palate with this smooth combination of coffee and vanilla.

ZAVVA Love Me Lychee The subtle tang of lychee perfectly married with the crisp taste of vodka. Satisfy your thirst with the delicate fusion of zesty lychee and triple-distilled vodka.

ZAVVA China White The richness of homemade butterscotch tempered by the airiness of a light cream. Indulge your senses with the sweetness of caramel and gentle hints of cream.

[writesaidwinnie]

PayMe from HSBC: terms and conditions are being updated

Photo credit: Kelvin Leung (Source)

Updates in T&Cs don’t have to be boring or full of legal jargon. While working with PayMe from HSBC as a Digital Copywriter, I created a non-marketable service email to notify customers of the three key updates to our terms and conditions.

My golden rule with these is to abide by the 3 Cs - clear, comprehensive, concise. Always think and review from a customer’s perspective, anticipate and address any concerns that they may have upon reading.

Dear PayMe Customer,

We will be updating our Terms & Conditions in late May 2018. This will let us launch exciting new features and continue to make improvements to PayMe such as giving you more control over your privacy settings. While we recommend that you visit and read through the full Terms & Conditions, here’s a short summary of the updates you’ll be agreeing to by continuing to use PayMe:

Controlling your privacy settings Your default privacy settings are set to ‘Friends’. However, you can always change this at any time for your future transactions - changing the default privacy settings will not affect transactions that have already been made. Depending on these settings or your choice of privacy on a payment message, your friends and the recipient’s friends may be able to see the payment message. However, the payment amount will always be kept private between you and the recipient. To learn more about how to control your privacy settings, please visit Security & Privacy in our FAQ section.

Paying merchants in PayMe You’ll be able to use PayMe to pay for purchases with authorised merchants in the future. For any disputes that may arise from such transactions, please contact the merchant directly to settle the matter as we’re only able to make a refund only upon a merchant’s instruction. That said, please feel free to approach us if you believe you’ve been a victim of fraud and we’ll look into the issue for you.

Using facial recognition If you’ve got a sibling, a doppelgänger or an evil twin, we would highly recommend that you use your PIN to authorise transactions instead of Face ID. Using your PIN is also a safer way of keeping your PayMe account secure if you share your mobile device with someone else who has their fingerprints registered in the mobile device.

If you disagree with the updated Terms & Conditions for any reason and would like to close your PayMe account, you can do so at any time by going to Settings in the app.

Thank you for your support as a PayMe customer.

[writesaidwinnie]

PayMe from HSBC (An Exercise in Humanizing Error Copies)

No one likes getting error messages, but they are a vital part of mobile apps. With the rising demand for a more authenticity, brands need to look at how to further humanise their user’s experience and express their voice.

Photo credit: Kelvin Leung (Source)

PayMe from HSBC - an app through which users can pay friends or request payment easily and instantly - was the perfect exercise for this. The below copies are a few examples taken from a proposed redesign that I worked on as Digital Copywriter at HSBC.

Scenario: Empty name value error “But how will we know what to call you?”

Scenario: System/server error “Sorry - it’s not you, it’s us. Please try again later.”

Scenario: Session timeout error “Please log on again - you haven’t logged on in 30 days, we missed you.”

Scenario: Long loading time error “This is taking a while - but we’re on it, so go ahead and enjoy your day!”

Scenario: No top-up source added error “Low balance, no balance? Add a bank account or credit card to start paying friends.”