“We're told best practices are the best for others. But what works for us?”. A quote from Google's former digital media strategist and keynote speaker Jay Acunzo . He believes that marketers are drowning in 'best practices' these days. And I think that's exactly what Cor means with his 'content shit'. Because if we all followed those 5 tips or 7 methods, we'd all keep fishing in the same pond, which would always lead to an average result.
Exactly what we don't want. After all, we want to be distinctive from the rest. Become an authority in the field. Add value for the customer. While in reality, that same customer often reads nothing new at all.
But how should it be done? How do you, as an organization, get the attention of the public? My kitchen table intro already gives it away: start by telling a story.
“A long, long time ago, somewhere far away…”
A good story brings people together, strengthens relationships and binds people to your brand for the long term. The Fairy Tale Book is a perfect example: read a story to your kids before going to bed, and they will hang on your every word. A real story is much more effective – and I'm not making that up. Research shows that a boring presentation, with slides filled with bullets and text, only activates a small part of the brain . Words are converted into meanings. That's it .
When a story is told – many a TEDxTalk is an example of this – many more areas in your brain become active. Not only the part where language is processed, but also the areas that we would use russian phone number list if we were experiencing the story ourselves, become active. We suddenly start to imagine what we hear. Situations become recognizable.
Are you talking about the steaming smell of an apple pie cooling on the table? There’s a good chance I can already smell the apple pie. Are you talking about a schoolboy scratching his long nails across the blackboard? Goosebumps immediately appear on my arms. It’s actually a fantastic phenomenon, because your entire brain is put to work by a story.
Research shows that a boring presentation, with slides filled with bullets and text, only activates a small part of the brain.
At Coosto we try to teach our readers to put a unique brand story on paper . That starts with the DNA of the company. What does your company stand for? Why was it founded? What do you want to convey to the outside world? And which brand values go with that? Many marketers often end there. The brand story is on paper, but then no translation is made into the creative stories that should flow from it.