Translating technical innovation into clear messaging for multiple audiences.
One Click License had built sophisticated technology for tracking, clearing, and licensing media rights; genuinely novel solutions that could transform how copyright works in a digital world. But their messaging was stuck in developer-speak.
As a startup introducing something new, they faced a classic translation problem: the people who built the technology understood it deeply, but that understanding wasn't reaching the audiences who needed to buy it. Rights holders, content platforms, investors, and potential partners each needed to grasp the value, and each needed it framed differently.
My role: Bridging technical complexity and audience understanding
I worked with the OCL team to extract the core value from their technical capabilities and translate it into a messaging framework that could flex across audiences and products.
What I delivered:
Technical-to-benefit translation: Worked with the team to understand what their technology actually did, then reframed it in terms of what it meant for different audiences, outcomes rather than features.
Brand voice framework: Defined how OCL should sound across all touchpoints, from investor communications to product marketing, creating consistency without losing flexibility.
Product messaging guidelines: With two distinct products (Origen and Portes) and more in development, I created a content style guide that established coherent positioning while allowing each product its own identity.
Foundational website copy: Applied the framework to write customer-facing copy that communicated complex functionality in accessible, benefit-led language.
The approach
- Deep technical understanding: Getting under the hood of what the technology could do.
- Audience mapping: Identifying what each audience (rights holders, platforms, investors, partners) needed to hear and how they'd encounter the messaging.
- Framework development: Building scalable guidelines that the team could apply as they launched new products and grew.
- Execution: Translating frameworks into actual copy that demonstrated the approach in action.
The impact
OCL gained a scalable messaging foundation they could build on as they launched new products and expanded their team, moving from fragmented, technical communications to a coherent voice that could speak to multiple audiences.
Key insight
Novel technology creates a translation gap. The people who build it are often too close to explain it simply, and the people who need it can't see past the jargon. Bridging that gap is where technical expertise meets strategic communications.
