Spelling It Out for Them

Lately on Minnesota Public Radio I've been hearing a sponsorship plug for a company called Plaudit Design. To paraphrase, they design websites and do internet marketing for small businesses; they've been doing so for over 10 years.

Plaudit, I thought. Now there's a word you don't hear every day. It has a formal, maybe even slightly archaic connotation. It makes them sound stodgy, definitely not like a cutting-edge web design firm.

I wonder what kinds of calls a business-to-business company gets from an MPR spot? Is that really the best way to bring in new work?

And to top it off, the plug ends with their web address (plauditdesign.com), including the announcer spelling out the word "plaudit."

If I were the writer, I might have used the challenge of recognizing and spelling that word as a way of prequalifying the leads generated by the spot. Because if the client can't spell plaudit, do you want to work with them on something as complex as building a website?