Lesson 7 of 10 · Module 3: Writing to Picture
Brand Voice on the Page
Given two contrasting brand-voice descriptors for the same product, rewrite your Lesson 1 15-second passage twice, once per voice, without changing the message, then have a listener blind-identify which recording matches which voice.
Old Spice, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like
2015 Commercial, #RealStrength Ad, Dove Men+Care
Objective
Why This Matters
Brand voice lives in word choice and rhythm, not in a logo or a color palette printed at the top of the script. If a script sounds identical no matter which voice guide you’re supposedly following, the voice work is decorative, not functional, it exists on the brand deck and nowhere else. This lesson forces the voice to actually show up in the writing, and it’s testable the only honest way: by ear, not by eye.
The Technique
Pick two real, contrasting descriptors for the same product, for example “confident, plainspoken” against “playful, high-energy.” Contrast matters, two similar voices won’t produce a usable test.
Change sentence length, word choice, and punctuation rhythm. Do not change the underlying facts or the message.
Confident and plainspoken tends toward short declaratives and few adjectives. Playful and high-energy tends toward quicker rhythm, more direct second-person address, and the occasional sentence fragment for punch.
Read both versions aloud. If they’re doing their job, they should sound like two different people talking, not one person reading the same script in two different fonts.
Watch For This
Good
- The message is identical in both versions.
- The voice difference is unmistakable when heard, not just when read.
Classic Failure
- Only the adjectives changed, the underlying sentence rhythm and structure stayed the same.
- The voice difference only shows up on the page, bolded words or exclamation points, and disappears the moment it’s read aloud.
- The message quietly drifted between the two versions.
Your Drill
Take your Lesson 1 15-second passage. Choose or set two contrasting brand voice descriptors. Write both versions. Read both aloud to one other person, or record yourself reading both and play them back a day later, without labeling which is which, alongside the two descriptors. Log whether the listener matched correctly.
Done? Paste what you made into the AI coach below for notes against this lesson's pass checklist.
Pass Checklist
Lesson complete
Criterion met: A listener who has only been given the two voice descriptors correctly matches each read-aloud version to its voice on the first try.
Next: Lesson 8: Cutting a Script to Time, the 25% Trim DrillHow solid did that feel?
Noted.
Coach Note
If the only way anyone can tell your brand voice apart is by reading it silently, the voice isn’t real yet, it’s a font choice. It has to survive being spoken by a stranger before it counts as a voice.
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