When saying sorry, simplicity says it best

No, it’s not deja vu. I’ve written about brand apologies before. If you were a brand with a sorry to say, I advised you to come up with a solid structure, stick to your brand’s tone of voice and think about how you’re going to deliver it. 

This week, I’ve been thinking about two quite different brand apologies, and I think there’s something essential that deserves to be added to my list: simplicity. 

Check out this email from Travel FX, who recently committed the worst sin of all by, checks notes, sending an email before it was ready. 

“Well, this is awkward... 

It seems like we got a little too excited yesterday and accidentally hit the send button way before we were ready! In our rush to remind you about the British Travel Awards closing, we got ahead of ourselves.

Hey, can you blame us? We just want to make sure you're in with a chance of winning a holiday! 🏝️

But don’t worry—our eager fingers may have slipped, but we’re back on track and here to set things right!

The good news? There’s still time to cast your vote in this year’s British Travel Awards. Not only will you be supporting us and your favourite travel brands, but you’ll also be entered for a chance to win a dream holiday. Win-win, right?

VOTE NOW!

We’ve learned our lesson, and we promise no more premature emails. But, just to be sure, we’re hiding the send button from that one team member... you know who you are, Dave. 😉

Thanks for your understanding (and your votes!). We hope you’ll take a moment to have your say and be in with a shot at that holiday prize.

Happy voting, and may the odds be ever in your favour! 🍀

Kind regards

Lucy

Travel FX Marketing Team

P.S. We’re double-checking everything before hitting send this time—promise!”

Let’s count the number of times they mention or try to explain their slip-up. Seven. Seven times in a 200-word email. Anyone would think they’d killed someone.  

To me, that feels like overdoing it a bit. By the third or fourth time, their apology starts to feel less genuine. It’s all just too much – the ‘accidentally’ in italics, pinning it on a made-up colleague called Dave. When they start trying to blame it on wanting to “make sure you’re in with a chance of winning a holiday” they lose me completely. That’s obviously not the reason, don’t mess with me. 

A simple mistake deserves a simple apology. I didn’t even see or receive the mistake email, so reading this I felt completely bamboozled and truthfully ended up thinking less of them than if they’d kept it short and sweet. I’m thinking something like this: 

Well, this is awkward... 

It seems like we got a bit carried away yesterday and hit the send button way before we were ready! We know how jammed up inboxes can get these days, so we apologise.

So, where were we? There’s still time to cast your vote in this year’s British Travel Awards. Not only will you be supporting us and your favourite travel brands, but you’ll also be entered for a chance to win a dream holiday. Win-win, right?

VOTE NOW!

We hope you’ll take a moment to have your say and be in with a shot at that holiday prize.

Happy voting, and may the odds be ever in your favour! 🍀

Lucy

Travel FX Marketing Team

We acknowledge our mistake. We recognise how we might have impacted our customer’s life (“we know how jammed up inboxes can get”). Then we move on. Simple. 

Now, I want to compare that to an apology by Laura Kuenssberg. In the run-up to a prime-time TV interview with Boris Johnson, the presenter accidentally emailed her briefing notes directly to the former PM. 

Her X post was a masterclass in simple, elegant apology:

“While prepping to interview Boris Johnson tomorrow, by mistake I sent our briefing notes to him in a message meant for my team. That obviously means it’s not right for the interview to go ahead. It’s very frustrating, and there’s no point pretending it’s anything other than embarrassing and disappointing, as there are plenty of important questions to be asked. But red faces aside, honesty is the best policy. See you on Sunday.”

We’ve all made booboos like this at work. Hitting reply all when you meant to send something only to your business bestie. Texting your big boss a picture of you trying on silly sunnies at 3am on Saturday night. (If that sounds weirdly specific, that’s because it happened. To me.) Laura shows us how owning up and owning it without getting grovelly (like Travel FX) is the classiest road to take.

And before I go, I want to shout out Charlotte Tilbury who turned a so-called internal error into a marketing ploy. Back in June 2024, they sent an email out to their subscribers that looked like it was meant to go to their internal team only, announcing clinical trial results for a new product. From the look of the subject line ([INTERNAL]:re:UNREAL SKIN LAUNCH), it seemed to be a huge own goal for the brand. But it got people clicking. Then, savvy readers started to notice that everything within the email was linked and there was even a ‘secret’ waiting list for fans to sign up to. They even followed up with a ‘recall’ email to apologise.

Knowing the brand and their fun and friendly approach to marketing, I’d bet the whole thing was done on purpose to stir up conversation about their big launch.

It’s a tactic to use with extreme caution, as it might harm your brand’s trust and credibility. But it looks like Charlotte and the team more than got away with it this time. No apology needed. 

If you’d like to chat more about writing for your business, I’d love to hear from you.