Yank Speak or UK Speak

[topshaper]

Is there any difference in copy writing using Yank Speak (American English) or Limey Speak (UK English), in the past weeks I have been told that the Yank speak (American English) gains better response than the Limey Speak (UK English) ?
Could someone tell me if there is any viability in this premise? I am about to write some copy for both insertions into American and Canadian IM areas and also in European IM areas to launch a product?
Honestly I have never given this an ounce of thought before and wondered if anyone here, could throw any light on whether its a real problem area to consider or not?

Many thanks for any help passed back

Topshaper

[MontelloMarketing]

Absolutely "yank" speak.

No debate... no question... unless the product is something that shows a tremendous benefit if coming from a brit, then you go with american english every single time.

The short reason why is the rest of the world doesn't care if it's in american english or not... and american's DO care if it's not. So... in order to not alienate any segment of the audience, you do the math.

[Kay King]

Yank speak - hey, it's my only language.

But I recently wrote for a UK based site and changed my spellings, etc to make it veddy proper UK speak. You do what you gotta do...

[Mark McClure]

Unfortunately, those ex-colonialists have run roughshod over a once proud empire of language and so, as profit-driven marketers and copywriters, ya just gotta go where the money is :-)

However, if the copy's on a .co.uk domain, then it might be worth split-testing UK-ized copy versus the star-mangled version ;-)

One potential area of confusion with American English is that most of the non_US English speaking world under 40 has gone metric. Quarts, miles, stones, pounds, inches, yards, Fahrenheit etc - mostly a pain in the neck to convert "on the fly" for these folks. Fossils like me grew up in the UK with both.

Good luck with your copy, partner!
Lord, I need to watch 'True Grit' again - one of my fav J. Wayne westerns.

[ghyphena]

Man that's some big purple font.

And, yes, like everyone else has said:

Nobody cares about the differences except for the Americans. Americans care. And some of them will forcibly refuse to understand what you're saying if it's not in the American-style.

You know how you try to order Chicken Nuggets at McDonald's and the young gentleman gives you a blank stare... and simply has no bloody idea what you want... just because you didn't prefix it with the obligatory "Mc" (as in, McChicken McBloody McNuggets)...

It's kind of like that.

Go American.

[topshaper]

Many thanks for your input, answers and the sound advice. Most certainly, Yank Speak is the language of the Internet.

Now my next question is:
Being a died in the wood Brit!!!! Or should that be dead in the wood?

Where could I learn this new cultivated language, and how quickly would it take to convert an old horse like me to the NEW Yank Speak?

ghyphena Thank you for noticing my fopar on the text color, I did notice immediately that I was the only lunatic to color my words? "Cor blimey!"(Limey speak) "That was yank speak!" (color)

Jokes aside, I am so pleased to receive the advice given and I am equally pleased to have joined the Warriors Forum, you all certainly know your stuff, and I am here to learn.

Thanks,
Andrew

[ruch1v]

UK speak! it really annoys me when UK marketers quote dollars instead of pounds, come on, stay true to your roots!

[MontelloMarketing]

Originally Posted by ruch1v

UK speak! it really annoys me when UK marketers quote dollars instead of pounds, come on, stay true to your roots!

Take that advice if you want to "stay true" to making less money. Plain and simple.

I coach some of the best UK copywriters and they know the score. I have some of the best UK clients and they know the score.

And it's not just about quoting dollars instead of pounds. You need to americanize the actual language used... spelling used... etc.

[SouthamptonAngel]

I have to say that I stick with "proper" English, but I usually write for UK readers.

[TristanPerry]

Depends on the audience.

Having said that, if it's a general Worldwide audience then I'd go for mainly neutral language but with Americanized spelling

For this general audience, I wouldn't use American-specific phrases, nor would I use British-specific phrases.

[CDarklock]

For a UK audience, they like to know you're in the UK yourself.

Consequently, my UK clients frequently ask for British English the second they find out I can provide it (usually when I say "colour," "optimise," or "arse" in the course of casual conversation), and it only took me a couple wildly enthusiastic responses to start offering it up-front whenever a client was located in the UK.

Other clients always want US English. I recently had someone optimise an article for the UK spelling of a word, but using US English for the rest of the article. Rather a head-scratcher, but there it is.

[topshaper]

There seem to be many ways to ridicule the English language, and so often I find the misspells such as colour/color realise/realize etc, etc quite hard to follow. Perhaps there must be a software program outthere that will automatically change the content and the double meanings from either language requirement? Please God!

[Cherilyn Woodhouse]

Well, being Canadian I'm kind of lucky - we're like the step-sister of both countries. We understand the American's "English", proper UK English, and even Newfie and Australian English (which can be bloody hard sometimes, by God...)

We can say "McNuggets" as fluently as "arse" (although I will say, arse is more commonly used, but mainly just on eachother, or as in the phrase "can't be arsed.")

And I've even caught myself saying "umm" occasionally.

Here's a tip I use... Switch your spell checker to American English (if it even has a UK English option to begin with.) That's a good start, because then it'll underline half of your text in red, AND it will correct things that are gramatically incorrect in the US by underlining them in blue.

Next step, have an American (or even a Canadian who gets American cable stations) read it over and tell you where it doesn't make sense.

Basically, just use common sense, and do just as you would writing copy for the UK market - you have to dumb it down a little bit. No matter what country we're talking about, you're going to reach the widest audience if you appeal to the lowest of the average intelligence. Just dumb it down with US colloquialisms instead of dumbing it down with UK ones and such. (And try not to use the phrase "and such"...)

Just try to sound more "approachable" and less pretentious (as British & Canadian language has a tendency to sound apparently... We're too polite or something LOL) Americans will respond best to that, in my experience.

- Cherilyn

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

It's all about speaking in the conversational tone and not being ...boring as hell.

So, in this case, I believe that Yanks win...

Igor

[mrozlat]

OCKER ALL THE WAY

[Kay King]

I mean, how do you translate,
'Cor Blimey!' into it's Americanised
equivalent?

Just looking at it, I'd say it's about the same as "holy sh*t" though "crikey" does get used here (got it from the Aussie Steve on TV).

As a child I thought it was unfair that the UK got to have a Queen and we didn't.

I never eat at McDonalds - can't bring myself to say "mcchicken", or to eat the food come to think of it...

[glide21]

Frankly I can't see much difference (I am UK based). Certainly the language issues are minor, the mentality though is very different. For the UK crowd, mostly hyping up a product is a good reason not to buy it. Whereas, sell in the US and the more it promises to deliver immediately the better it will sell. Thus in the US say 'Make $1,000,000 by next week using my marketing system'. In the UK say 'It is possible to make $1,000,000 using this system, with a small investment and hours of work and dedication' . Both are baloney anyway, but said slightly differently.

[Cherilyn Woodhouse]

Agreed Glide - that's why a lot of UKers love my copy, I've found. It sells to the American market, without OVER selling (being all hypey.) It seems to work pretty well.

Hope you've found your answer here, Andrew!

[TracyNeedham]

I wouldn't say the issues are minor, but it depends on the copy and the audience. When in Rome...

A UK friend who writes killer copy sent me a link to a new sales letter he'd written and I was LOL when I saw the word "supper." I think my grandparents were the last people I knew who used the word supper, although it may still be used in parts of the deep south. Still--that's not your typical IM crowd.

I was teasing him about it and he asked me to point out other British-isms. Most of it involved just changing prepositions. But some of my favorites (I suppose that should be favourites!) were:

No quibble money
Discover how to kit out
Stumping up masses of cash
Angrily hitting out
So switched off to the...

And yeah, if it distracts the reader or disrupts the whole "know, like & trust building" it CAN be a big deal to readers--especially if they're on the fence. But I doubt these are things an American dictionary is going to catch.

I've actually thought it would be fun to offer an "Americanizing" (not ghetto talk, mind you--regular old American speak) service but didn't know if people would pay for something like that.

[MontelloMarketing]

Mark,

While I agree a non brit can't just jump into brit speak (just like most non americans can't jump into american speak) I think you're wrong about american english going down badly to a british crowd.

Sure... if it's a british company writing to a british audience it would be stupid to sound anything other than british...

Heck... even in america we like our british companies to sound british. pip pip cheerio and all that.

But in a situation where nondescript non-branded companies are writing to a global audience that includes brits, americans and everyone else. You best be writing in Ameri-glish. The brits won't mind a bit.

[CourtneyJames]

Man this thread made me laugh.

Being a Canadian copywriter who writes for a strictly American market, I never really thought about it.

Although, I try to avoid the obligatory "eh" or Canadian/British spelling when I write. Man, that's tough sometimes... colour... color. You do it subconsciously.

But I can see how it would be a problem in some markets.

[MontelloMarketing]

Mark,

You're making my point from way earlier but I think you're still missing my point.

Of course brits, yanks or anyone else speaking strictly brit, then absolutely "when in rome."

But you have to get off this "top companies" stuff. I was never speaking of IBM... Never speaking of big, branded major corps. I was talking about Joe Ebook.

And... as I said earlier if writing SOLEY to a brit crowd, even Joe Ebook is probably going to want to write in Britspeak. But... when speaking globally. When the brits reading it know it's going out to the world and not just to them, writing in American english will not hurt your numbers (not even among the brits).

And the pip pip cheerio crap was a joke. It's taken from 1930's movies.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by MarkAndrews IMCopywriting

how do you translate, 'Cor Blimey!' into it's Americanised equivalent? Do they even even know who Gordon Bennet is?

Presumably ... he was American, after all.

But they spell it "Americanized" (and actually Bennett, too, to be pedantic about it!).

[David Raybould]

Originally Posted by MontelloMarketing

Mark,

While I agree a non brit can't just jump into brit speak (just like most non americans can't jump into american speak) I think you're wrong about american english going down badly to a british crowd.

Sure... if it's a british company writing to a british audience it would be stupid to sound anything other than british...

Heck... even in america we like our british companies to sound british. pip pip cheerio and all that.

But in a situation where nondescript non-branded companies are writing to a global audience that includes brits, americans and everyone else. You best be writing in Ameri-glish. The brits won't mind a bit.

Vin-

You're dead right there hombre.

British media (and I'd hazard a guess at other
European countries too) gets a little more
Americanized every day. Including advertising.

Sorry Mark.

Just because they don't overtly use US slang and
go for American spellings etc doesn't mean it isn't
happening.

And also, let's not forget that the point is largely
academic anyway. There's a bigger picture.

Any clients willing to pay big money to hire a pro
are most likely aiming for a worldwide audience,
and "British" writing there just won't convert.

And that will mean no rehiring, no word of mouth
referrals, and a bookings calendar that's emptier
than Kirsty Alley's fridge.

So as a copywriter, if you've any aspirations at all
of success, writing in US English is essential.

Anyway, that's my 3 cents. Now wouldn't it be
great if this subject never, ever comes up again?

-David Raybould

[TruWebPro]

Eh, wat all dis kine talk 'bout de English anyway? Why no tink about da Hawai'ian pidgen 'stead? We no worry 'bout all da kine tings you talk about make da head hurt eh? Mo' bettah jis say wat you tinking, 'den know we can trus' you, okay?

...with much aloha an' respect to my Hawai'ian 'ohana...

Point being, I think this is the kind of tangent we sometimes go off on that causes us to lose our focus. I was surprised it hasn't been mentioned here (did I miss it?) that US advertisers on television and radio often hire UK spokespeople specifically because they carry the kingdom's accent. Americans seem to respond to it quite well, actually.

Regardless, if you write good copy and are effective in making your point, I think it matters much less which side of the pond your prose comes from. I know we are all always trying to get that little edge, but there are many more important things to worry about before we get to this. It certainly makes sense to appeal to the more common elements of the language, rather than regional idiosyncrasies, wherever possible. But beyond that, as long as your copy is written intelligently, most everyone will understand. Whether they respond positively will depend on whether or not they are interested in what you have to say, not where they think you might be saying it from.

Just my two pence.

Cheers,
Neil

[stu_carver]

Originally Posted by TruWebPro

Eh, wat all dis kine talk 'bout de English anyway? Why no tink about da Hawai'ian pidgen 'stead? We no worry 'bout all da kine tings you talk about make da head hurt eh? Mo' bettah jis say wat you tinking, 'den know we can trus' you, okay?

...with much aloha an' respect to my Hawai'ian 'ohana...

Neil

Even better, how about a bit of native Welsh - could be a nice little niche for someone that....and they'd be welcome to it!

[nota-bene]

Funniest thread on WF! I wanted to 'thank' & quote every single contibution on here. Made my unproductive morning a highly entertaining one!

[David Raybould]

Originally Posted by MarkAndrews IMCopywriting

Well David, correct me if I'm wrong since
you brought it up again but wasn't that
point already established by all parties
ages ago, way up in this thread?

Absolutely.

But you were still disagreeing with Vin, and
his arguments are totally valid.

So yes, it sure seemed like the points were
established, but I guess you're not listening.

Whatever. Your prerogative.

I'm done with this thread.

I'm too busy actually writing for clients to
spend time posting here in the middle of the
day.

-David Raybould