Launching a new bank is a delicate business, especially an English bank in a country with some history (about 800 years worth).
Irish audiences are uniquely sensitive to lazy tropes and half-arsed copy coming from their bigger neighbours, so striking the right tone was essential.
MONZO BANK – IRELAND LAUNCH
How to make the English neobank sound authentically Irish?
I developed the Monzo tone of voice for Ireland, giving the Monzo personality an Irish accent that was more Daniel Day-Lewis than Gerard Butler.
I created the Irish toolkit for Monzo writers, with detailed instructions on the correct use of “craic” and “grand”, as well as brand dos and don’ts (like not mentioning Oliver Cromwell).
With those guidelines in place, I wrote the copy for the Irish launch, everything from headlines and webpage copy to CRM and card-carrier copy.
I was one of the writers for Year in Monzo 2025, contributing some of the huuundreds of end of year captions that used customer data to lovingly roast our users' spending habits ("Mainly, you fast-fooded" was not one of mine, btw).