THE PROJECT

You may not recognize the name, but I can guarantee you’ve used the products. In 1906, Luther Haws invented the drinking fountain and the company has spent the ensuing decades perfecting them. They’ve also expanded the manufacturing line to include drench showers and safety eyewashes, and partnered with names like Brita® for innovative new products.

I began working for Haws in May of 2012, collaborating with the fabulous Katy Hess, marketing manager for safety & hydration, on a number of writing projects. During their brand launch for the Brita® Hydration Station®, I brainstormed, wrote and edited advertising materials. Other projects including compositing and editing a variety of case studies and white papers, plus a stint on their Ban the Bottle blog.

THE APPROACH

With industry standards and specifications to reference, writing for Haws is fairly technical, so the challenge becomes keeping things interesting. The target audience, which varies from the mining, oil, gas and power industries to operations such as hotels, restaurants and even universities in need of safety and/or hydration equipment, drives the tone of each piece. To date, we’ve been very successful in hitting the sweet spot between anecdotal commentary and hard fact.

THE UPSHOT

Five years on, and I continue working with Haws on a project-by-project basis. “I have had the pleasure to work with Jessica for several years on numerous wide-ranging writing projects,” says Katy. “From support material for a full-scale brand launch to ongoing case studies, Jessica’s contributions to our marketing content creation have been very valuable. In all our interactions, she is extremely responsive to requests, detailed in her writing and editing, easy to work with, and thorough in her subject understanding, yet is very self-sufficient (a great quality that our busy marketing team appreciates!). All this, plus she is a talented writer.”