Ideas to "Stick" With

One of the greatest truisms I know came from a minister at a church where I served on its communications committee. He said, "When it comes to advertising, everyone thinks they're an expert." Yes, indeed. Good marketing campaigns are hard to create, but easy to criticize. During my 20 years in the business, I've seen the best creative ideas watered down to boring, ineffective ads when the original designs were passed around to enough hands within the corporation. By the time the marketing team got them back, they were hardly recognizable. I've also had clients who refused to believe proven statistics on the effectiveness of certain types of advertising and continued to throw good money after bad (doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results) instead of trying something different. It's only on rare (but pleasant) occasions that I have a client who really understands marketing or PR enough to know what they want and appreciate what an experienced consulting and/or creative team can add in value.

In my business, most discussions with clients on how to do communications start with my firm's recommendations. This week, one of my truly marketing-savvy clients turned the tables on me and suggested that I use a specific formula for developing the content for their social media. At first, I was skeptical - after all, I have been making a living as a writer for over 20 years now - but I must say, this client (Greg Lorfing, president of Gittings Photography) nailed it...

His recommended approach comes from the best-selling business book Made to Stick, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. It's really a very simple, yet effective approach to communication. There are just six easy principles: Keep it...1) Simple, 2) Unexpected, 3) Concrete, 4) Credible, 5) Emotional, and 6) Centered around stories. The acronym is SUCCESs.

If anyone saw the Monster.com ad during the Superbowl, that was one of the most hilarious of the night and also one of the most effective. In reviewing it, it followed the Made to Stick formula. It was simple - contrast a great job to an awful job; it was unexpected - show the front of the mounted animal in one office and the back of it in another office; it was concrete - everyone could see (literally and figuratively) which job they'd rather have; it was credible - everyone who's ever had a really bad job could relate to the guy in the second office; it was emotional - hysterically funny; and it used music and visuals to tell a very clear story and drive the point home....

Anyone in marketing should be able to see how this formula can be applied to a variety of communications, from PR to advertising to sales collateral....and perhaps those of us in the consulting/agency business can use this as a blueprint to share with our not-so-marketing-savvy clients so that we can put out the type of creative that does produce SUCCESSful results!

For more information on how Linda Wise Public Relations and Marketing can help you achieve success with your communications programs, visit www.lindawisepr.com.