Jake Stigers

When Rocco & Roxie Supply Co.—purveyors of high-end cleaning, training and grooming products for dogs—bought competitor Bubba’s Rowdy Friends, they contacted me to rebrand Bubba’s with a voice and tone more befitting its low-end Bubba’s name.

Dad jokes. They basically paid me to write dad jokes. And poop jokes. This entire project was about dad jokes and poop jokes. I poop you not.

While lowering the bar on polite discourse and discretion, I also elevated the copy to be as benefit-oriented as it is borderline appalling. The new brand voice blends the recommendation of a trusted friend with the sense of humor your whole family has about the fact that dogs poop. Sometimes in the house. But it’s OK because Bubba’s Rowdy Friends has your back, loves your dog and wants your entire house to be happy.

The Nordstrom voice—a verbal continuum from seven-dollar adverbs to self-aware amusement that never loses its bona fides as the epitome of fashion authority—speaks across retail categories ranging from clothing to shoes to accessories to lifestyle housewares. It's a delightful persona and an endless learning experience as I flesh out my own authority on everything from mercerized cotton to d'Orsay pumps, and in the rarefied world of Nordstrom.com it takes on the additional challenges of search engine optimization and the attention-span urgencies of online marketing. It's a great writing gig that requires a universe of knowledge and the ability to fold it all neatly into a two-sentence gift box with an entrance-making bow.

When two Chicago friends decided to produce a Santa Speedo Run as a fundraiser, I jumped at the chance to help promote the event. I built a wireframe; developed web content; set up accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; and even wrote copy for the legal waiver.

And our success grew exponentially; we went from raising $1,500 in the first year to raising $10,000 in our third year. We even had to move the event to a bigger venue to accommodate all our ermine-clad runners.

Wilmington Trust is a small Delaware-based bank with a loyal following. So we leveraged that relationship when we built this investment microsite. To emphasize service personalized to your needs at any stage in life, we developed four distinct age brackets and positioned the investment products and services differently to appeal to each segment. I kept the copy simple and direct, which had the added benefit of bringing in investors already prepared with a top-line understanding of the products best suited for them.