Brand Voice copywriting examples for ecomm & FMCG brands

Liquid Death

Liquid Death’s 🔥 opt-in copy

This is the first (but definitely not the last) bit of Liquid Death copy in the swipe file. And while lots of their other copy gets all the limelight, we're massive fans of this little bit of brand voice creeping in where other brands just have boilerplate.

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Minor Figures

Minor Figures’ banging pandemic email

Any email that opens with a Cheeky Girls reference immediately gets a spot in this swipe file for life. (Also acceptable: S Club 7, Ronan Keating or Ainsley Harriot references.) PS. The export went a bit wonky and doubled up some of their copy. Ignore that.

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Fix8

Fix8’s brand-building welcome email

Mid-pandemic, Jack toyed with the idea of packing up the copy life and starting a kombucha brand. Alas, that didn't end up happening. But we'd be lying if we said he doesn't still daydream about it at his desk from time to time. Anyway, we're big fans of Fix8's dedication to their brand message in this email. Really good stuff.

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Candy Kittens

Candy Kittens’ research-led OOH campaign

We'll be honest, we wrote Candy Kittens off at the beginning as just another celebrity brand flash in the pan. They've consistently proven that wrong, year after year.

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Bloom & Wild

Bloom & Wild’s thoughtful marketing copy

We loved B&W's first opt-out campaign. We love their new approach even more. Big, big fans of everything they do.

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A24

A24’s in-group language

A24 might be a film company, but with a hugely successful merch store, they're also a lifestyle brand. And this email they sent to promote The Lighthouse prop auction is a chock-a-block with lessons on how to create a brand that people feel seen by.

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Aesop

Aesop’s almost anti-copywriting tone of voice

This copy is about as far from Do Words Good-style copywriting as you can get. It's dense. It's hard to read. (Most copy targets a reading age of 11-ish. This is nearly 17.) And it makes no effort to meet the reader at their level. And yet, Aesop were acquired for $2.5 billion a few years ago. (Yeah, Billion, with a b.) So this copy is here as a reminder (to ourselves as much as anything) that there isn't just one way to write good copy.

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Sons

Sons’ empathetic AF copy

If you've ever seen Jack, we'll pay you £1000 if you've ever seen his head without a hat. How he found this copy is no mystery.

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Wildfarmed

Wildfarmed banging menu copy

This might be the only bit of menu copy we've ever added to our swipe file. But man, is it good.

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Surreal

Surreal’s banging, non-discount abandoned cart email

We're not sure if this is entry 3 or 300 in the swipe file for Surreal. They just know what they're doing. It's like if Oatly and innocent had a baby and that baby was also really into consumer psychology. All bangers. All the time.

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Reformation

Reformation’s no notes tagline

Sustainability copy is <em>really </em>hard to get right. It's even harder to do without it getting a bit stale or preachy or <em>duuuuull</em>. But you wouldn't know that by looking at Reformation's copy. It's so good.

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Living Things

Living Thing’s two-word banger

Jack is a big fan of fermenting stuff. And buying fermented stuff. (He usually has at least one weird experiment fizzing and bubbling away.) And while this ad might not be set the world on fire, we absolutely <em>love</em> that phrase "belly-loving". It's so deceptively clever. No notes.

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innocent

A classic example of the innocent TOV

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">We ummed and erred about including this one, if we're honest.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Because we're huge fans of what innocent did for brand voice.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">And this post has some genuinely brilliant copy in it. We love "the innocent department of seasonal straw-clutching".</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">But the innocent-ification of brand copy is something that has us conflicted. Wackaging was the bane of the copy game for a good decade, and innocent is where it started.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">So. Buckle up for a nuanced take.</p>

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Pact

Pact’s *chef’s kiss* packaging copy

DWG would be nowhere without copious amounts of caffeine. Plus, we're <em>huge </em>fans of everything Pact do. And this tiny bit of copy on the back of their packet is so simple, but so good. No notes.

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Headspace

Headspace’s really handy brand voice guidelines

We've seen <em>a lot </em>of brand voice guidelines. Most of them are closer to style guides than brand voice guidelines. Don't use passive voice. Use contractions. Avoid jargon. Be friendly. Be chatty. <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">But they don't show you what the voice feels like.</p> Headspace's does. And we love it for that.

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Fussy

Fussy’s super clever TOV shifts

Product descriptions are one of those bits of copy that doesn't get enough love. But Fussy absolutely nail them in literally like 30 words or so. Straight in the swipe file. PS. Excuse our super shoddy graphic design skills putting these together. We're copywriters, not graphic designers, alright?

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Lucy & Yak

Lucy & Yak’s quietly rebellious copy

We've noticed a theme in the swipe file while we've been uploading it: we 💛 it when brands find a way to stand out and say something new or exciting. And while Lucy & Yak got a lot of praise for their colour and their sustainability, their language has always been about quietly rejecting almost everything about the fashion industry. And this banger is no different.

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Beachbum

Beachbum’s smart positioning statement

Full disclosure: this is our work. We know it's a bit self-indulgent to include stuff we've worked on. But we're really proud of this one <em>and </em>it's doing something really handy that you can pinch, so we're holding our noses and including it.

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KFC

KFC’s all-timer of an apology

The GOAT corporate apology statement? We think so. (We know this is in every copywriting swipe file known to man. Sorry. But a banger is a banger.)

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Naked Paper

Naked Paper’s properly clever tagline

We're absolute suckers for a bit of wordplay that serves a purpose. (We're just suckers for wordplay in general, really.) And this new tagline-slash-positioning statement from when Naked Paper rebranded from Naked Sprout is an absolute banger. It's a positioning statement, a joke, a catchy line and a flag in the ground, all in 5 words. Too good. PS. How good is this little snippet from their rebranding announcement? <em>Naked Sprout made sense to us at the time. As a fledgling business our name was fresh, natural, and gave a nod to the fast-growing bamboo in our tissue.</em> <em>B</em><em>ut it turns out not everyone hears “sprout” and thinks “bamboo”. Five years on, and hundreds of questions about brussel sprouts later, we’ve grown as a team and as a business. </em>

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Tony's Chocolonely

Tony’s Chocolonely’s banger of an activation

We're big, <em>big </em>fans of this Tony's activation in 2021. They set up a billboard in a shopping centre that was stacked with free full-size chocolate bars. Naturally, people helped themselves. And as the bars disappeared, it revealed a message that said: <em>"There's no such thing as free chocolate. Somebody always pays the price."</em> They got their product into people's hands <em>and </em>drove home their key message about exploitation in the industry <em>and </em>got a load of free press. Properly clever stuff. No notes.

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Chubbies

Chubbies’ on-brand product descriptions

You hear about Innocent and Oatly all the time, but Chubbies have been one of the unsung heroes of the brand voice game for a while. (Maybe not in the US, but in the UK, they're not even in the conversation. Which is a shame. So we're including them here to give them their flowers.)

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Huel

Huel’s smart community naming convention

<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Cards on the table: we're not the biggest fans of the term Hueligan.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">But when a brand has people wearing their merch in public, you can't really argue with the results.</p> <p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">From the unboxing experience to their welcome email to the Idris Elba press release to their Reddit community, absolutely everywhere you go in Huel's world, you find an invitation to become a Hueligan.</p> And that's because they're not <em>really </em>selling meal replacements at all. They're selling an identity that you can opt into and say "this is who I am" to the world. Really clever stuff.

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Bold Bean Co

Bold Bean Co’s distinctive brand language

We make absolutely <em>zero </em>effort to hide how much we love Bold Bean Co. (And not just because they sent us some beans once and they were <em>t</em><em>he shit</em>.) To take an ingredient that was almost looked down on as a cupboard staple and change the conversation around them so they're now seen as this boujee, gourmet, Nigella-ish ingredient <em>just through their words</em> is unreal. Too good.

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Overherd

Overherd’s pastiche challenger tone

OK, before we get into this one, we should say that we weren’t 100% sold on this bit of copy when we saw it. (And, to be honest, we’re still not completely, 100% sure now.) But it did catch our attention and spark a 15-minute back-and-forth between us, so we’re including it anyway. We mean, it's an entirely language-led ad. 4 thumbs up there. And it's a really good example of a post-modern, anti-marketing voice. Love that too. And it uses the Effort Heuristic to make the product seem more valuable. Super smart. So far, all good things. Smashing it. <em>Exceeeept…</em> <strong>The copy feels </strong><em><strong>very, very, very, very </strong></em><strong>Oatly-coded. And that's the thing our wheels got stuck on.</strong>

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Wild Dose

Wild Dose’s on-brand retargeting ad

We're big fans of Wild Dose's brand voice. It's funny. It's self-aware. It's empowering. It's like if the Spice Girls, Fleabag and your mates' WhatsApp group chat were all mushed together to help support you through bloating and IBS. It's just so good. So when we got hit with this retargeting ad, it went straight in our swipe file. Maybe more brands are doing this and we're not seeing them, but this is one of the few ads we've seen that openly acknowledges that they're retargeting you <em>and somehow</em> manages to not feel creepy. Love it. No notes.

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Riddim Snacks

Riddim’s 10/10 use of patois

It’s <em>very </em>rare when we see a brand voice that feels<em> </em>original and immediately distinctive from the moment they pop up. But from the moment their ad that popped up on our feed, we knew they were going straight in the swipe file. A really, really well done brand voice that stands out, is authentic, is fun, is memorable... absolutely no notes.

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Surreal

Surreal’s cheeky “famous people” ads

In 2023,  Joe messaged Jack this message: "Mate, check out this cereal brand's copy. It's so good." We've been massive fans ever since.

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