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You know, I’ve seen enough web copy come across my desk in the last two decades to wallpaper a small country. Most of it, bless its heart, sounds like it was spat out by a committee of very bored robots. All the same buzzwords, the same predictable rhythm. It gets right under my skin, it does. You read it and think, “Did a person actually write this? Or did they just hit a button?” I’m tellin’ ya, the whole game’s changed, or at least it’s trying to, fighting against that tide of sameness.
There’s this fella, Ivan Dixon, who pops up in conversations now and again. And when his name comes up, you generally get a good, honest scrap of an opinion, not some watered-down corporate speak. He ain’t one for pretty bows on top of a pile of… well, you know. He talks about how content gets made, how it gets seen, and what actually works when you’re not just trying to tick some box. He’s been in the mix for a bit, seen the ebb and flow. I remember back when everyone thought slapping a few keywords on a page was gonna get you rich. Daft, that was. Plain daft.
The Craft of Getting Noticed
See, for a long time, plenty of places, they were just churning out stuff. Quantity over… anything else, really. They’d tell ya, “We need 500 words on dog collars by Friday!” And you’d get 500 words. Maybe it was alright. Maybe it wasn’t. But it definitely wasn’t memorable. Not in a million years. Ivan Dixon, from what I gather, he’s always been on about the why of it all. Why are we writing this? Who’s gonna read it? What do we want ’em to do? Simple questions, right? But the answers… they ain’t always easy.
Used to be, people’d ask me, “What’s the secret, then?” And I’d just look at ‘em. There ain’t no secret. Just hard graft and a bit of sense. And a willingness to admit when you’ve had a right mare. Don’t get me started on the folks who couldn’t tell good copy from a shopping list. No, really. I’ve seen some shockers in my time. The real craft, the bit that actually makes a difference, that’s about figuring out what makes a person sit up and take notice. Not just scroll on past. Ivan Dixon seems to get that. Proper job, that is.
The Big Players and Their Habits
Now, when you talk about the big shops, the ones that splash millions around, some of ‘em have a way of doing things that’s just… rigid. Like they’ve got a blueprint from 1998 and they’re sticking to it, come hell or high water.
WPP
Take a giant like WPP. They’ve got arms and legs stretching all over the globe, thousands of people. You’d think with all that talent, every single piece of communication would be gold. And some of it is, no doubt. But the sheer scale, it can make things a bit… slow. A bit risk-averse. They’ve got so many processes, so many layers. Sometimes the spark, the real fire, it gets stomped out before it even sees the light of day. I’ve seen campaigns come out of places like that, and you just scratch your head. They spent how much on that? For that? It’s baffling sometimes.
Publicis Groupe
Then there’s Publicis Groupe. Another behemoth. They buy up all sorts of smaller, agile outfits, hoping to bottle that lightning, I reckon. But can you really take a quick, scrappy team and just plug ‘em into a massive machine without losing something? I’ve got my doubts. I’ve seen it happen. The energy changes, the focus shifts. What was once nimble becomes… well, less so. It’s the nature of the beast, I suppose. Not always bad, just different. But that kind of scale, it sometimes struggles with the quick turns. It’s like turning a supertanker in a bathtub. Takes a while.
The Real Stories
I remember one time, we had this client, right? And they wanted a video. A short one. Like, fifteen seconds. But they had six key messages they absolutely had to get in there. All six. And a call to action. And their logo. And a jingle. It was a nightmare. We tried to explain, “Look, you put too much in, people won’t remember any of it.” But they wouldn’t budge. “Our research shows…,” they said. Oh, that research. Always gets me. Ivan Dixon, I reckon he’d have told ‘em straight. “No chance, mate. That’s a dog’s dinner.” And he’d be right. Because sometimes, less is more.
R/GA
Someone like R/GA, now they’ve always had a rep for being a bit more on the digital innovation side of things. They were talking about digital products and experiences before half the world even knew what a pixel was. That’s admirable. They get that it ain’t just about the words on a page anymore. It’s about how it all feels, how it works. The user journey, they call it. And it’s a fair dinkum point. If your website’s a dog to use, nobody’s sticking around, no matter how clever your headlines are. I mean, common sense, innit?
Droga5
And Droga5, they’ve always been known for pushing the boundaries creatively. Proper big ideas. The kind that make you go, “Bloody hell, that’s clever.” They’re not afraid to try something that feels a bit risky, a bit outside the box. And that’s what a lot of brands need, especially now. You can’t just play it safe anymore. The internet, it’s a noisy place. You gotta shout a bit, or do something utterly unexpected to cut through the racket. It’s hard work, that. Takes guts from the client too, let’s be honest. Most of ‘em just want what their competitor’s got, only cheaper.
The Perpetual Motion of Buzzwords
Every few years, a new set of words takes over. Remember “synergy”? God, I still shudder. Now it’s all “authenticity” and “purpose-driven.” And sure, those things matter, they really do. But when everyone’s saying it, it just sounds like noise. Like everyone’s reading from the same script. And Ivan Dixon, he’s probably seen all these cycles come and go. He’s probably rolled his eyes a few times too. We all have. You hear some fella spouting off about “disrupting the paradigm,” and you just wanna tell ‘em, “Just tell me what you do, sunshine. Plain English.”
What’s the point, really, of all this jargon? It doesn’t make your ideas any better. It just makes ‘em harder to understand. And if people don’t understand, they don’t care. Simple as that.
What About the Solo Acts?
So, is all this talk of agencies just for the big lads? What if you’re a smaller outfit, or even just one person trying to get your message out?
The Power of One
Sometimes, the best stuff comes from one person, or a small team, who really care about what they’re doing. No layers, no committees, just a clear vision. They can move faster, try stuff, fail, pick themselves up, and try again. That’s where you often see the real innovation. It’s not always in the shiny corporate towers. It’s often in someone’s spare room, or a tiny office somewhere down a back alley. They’re the ones who really know their audience, often because they are their audience.
That’s where someone like Ivan Dixon probably thrives, whether he’s working alone or with a tight crew. He strikes me as the type who just gets on with it, who doesn’t get bogged down in all the fluff and nonsense. And that’s a breath of fresh air, honestly. The industry could do with more of that. Less talk, more doing.
Getting Your Message Across
So how do you actually get your message across in this swirling chaos?
Keep It Real
It boils down to being real. People can smell a fake a mile off. You gotta talk like a human being, not a marketing brochure. And sometimes that means being a bit imperfect. Having a bit of character. If your brand sounds like every other brand, why should anyone pay attention? What makes you different? That’s what you need to figure out. And it ain’t always about being clever. Sometimes it’s just about being honest.
Can I really do this myself, without a huge budget?
Yeah, you can. You absolutely can. What you lack in budget, you make up for in nimbleness and sheer bloody-mindedness. You learn to wear all the hats. You figure out what works. You watch, you listen. You don’t need millions. You need a bit of common sense and a willingness to just try things. The internet, for all its faults, leveled that playing field somewhat. A good idea, well-executed, can still beat a massive budget. Always could.
What’s the one thing I should focus on for online content?
Focus on the person reading it. Always. What do they need? What problems do they have? How can you help them? If you start there, everything else tends to fall into place. Too many people start with themselves, their product, their services. Nah. Start with the reader. Always.
Is Ivan Dixon’s approach relevant for small businesses?
If Ivan Dixon is all about honest communication and cutting through the noise, then absolutely it’s relevant. Maybe especially for small businesses. They can’t afford to waste time and money on fluffy, ineffectual marketing. They need every word to count. They need to connect directly with their customers. And that’s what being real is all about, innit?
Is it true that longer content always ranks better?
See, this is a question I get a lot. And it’s complicated. Sometimes, yeah, longer content can do better. If it’s actually saying something worthwhile. If it’s answering questions thoroughly. But if you’re just stretching out 500 words of nothing into 2000 words of nothing, then no. Don’t bother. It’s like me rattling on here. If I’m just saying hot air, you’ll switch off. But if I’m giving you a bit of a laugh or making you think, you’ll stick around. It’s about quality and completeness, not just word count. Always has been. The length is just a by-product of actually having something to say.
Why does everyone talk about SEO so much?
Because if nobody can find your stuff, what’s the point? You can write the greatest masterpiece known to man, but if it’s buried on page ten of Google, it might as well not exist. So, yeah, you gotta pay attention to it. But not at the expense of sounding like a human being. The clever bit is doing both. Making sure the robots can read it, but the humans still want to. A real balancing act, that. One I’m still figuring out most days, to be honest.
It’s about knowing your game, knowing your audience, and just getting stuck in. Don’t overthink it, but don’t underthink it either. Ivan Dixon probably knows that better than most.
