Get People to Hear Your Message With Their Eyes

To make your message clear and concise, simplify your language. To make your message cut through the clutter, forget the words and embrace the power of visuals!

It can be challenging to communicate the key points of an awareness campaign. In many cases, interest wanes once the source of the message begins to sound like an echo. Taglines become tired and calls to action lose their potency. This is a common and natural occurrence, though I don’t by any means want to endorse the maintenance of the status quo! Instead, once this starts happening, it’s a sign that innovation and creativity are needed.

I may be a big fan of words, but I can appreciate that they can only bring about so much change, even when well-crafted – much as it pains me to admit that. In this information age, we are constantly bombarded with messages: paid advertisements on every physical and digital surface, the 24-hour news cycle, online content marketing, and our numerous social media feeds all compete for our attention. It’s not that words aren’t heard, it’s that there are too many of them to listen to.

That’s why I was impressed last autumn to read about see an important message cut through the clutter with a clever visual strategy: Roni Frank, co-founder of Talkspace, chose a busy Manhattan intersection, set up two transparent, inflatable domes, filled each with cozy pieces of furniture, and invited passers-by to spend 15 minutes texting with licensed therapists. What is usually invisible – the large proportion of us who have mental health problems and seek treatment – became visible.

This is a great example of the two birds, one stone approach: on the one hand, people were challenged to reconsider whether the stigma around mental illness is justified when they saw all sorts of people taking turns to make use of a service they needed and wanted. On the other hand, this installation showed how accessible therapy can be now that it’s available via text message and video chat, which in this day and age may be a more comfortable interface for many of us.

What I love about this approach is that it shows how out-of-the-box thinking can breathe new life into a message that is often repeated but slow to be accepted. If people don’t listen when we say that treatment for mental health is nothing to be ashamed of, then let’s show it to them.

What do you think? Does this kind of installation change minds? Can you think of other examples of a verbal message translated into a visual, experiential one? Start the discussion in the comments below.

The Art of Corporate Dragon Slaying

With the recently concluded film trilogy of The Hobbit now in theatres, I thought I should use dragon slaying as an analogy for a marketing conundrum. Bear with me; this will soon make sense. When you want to steal a dragon’s treasure, do you slowly, carefully, and methodically steal a few gems at a time, or do you run into its cave, arrows flying and swords drawn, to wound it so critically that it can’t even defend its cache while you take gems away by the cartful?

Today my good friend Dee (whose book recommendations always hit the mark) forwarded a newsletter to me that she received from up-and-coming online invitation website Punchbowl. The first part of the newsletter looked like this:

So much for subtlety, right? Then again, what’s so great about subtlety? If your brand is twiddling its thumbs off in some remote corner of the industry, how will you get anyone to notice you? This is where the “go big or go home” approach taken by Punchbowl leaves its mark: potential customers start to pay attention. It’s hard to forget a memorable hashtag like #AdiosEvite, even if you don’t often use online invitation websites.

On the other hand, and this should go without saying, if you’re going to brag that your company X is better than that other company Y, then company X had better truly and objectively be better than company Y. Also, while trying to persuade potential customers that you have a lot to offer, you’re also reminding them of your competition. And let’s not forget that this type of branding can be seen as arrogant and pompous, rather than confident and proud.

It’s hard to say which is the better approach to take. That’s why this won’t be the last time we see one company loudly proclaim its superiority over its competitor. Besides the Pepsi Challenge, does any other David and Goliath marketing campaign stand out for you? Share in the comments below.

Fun Is a Great Motivator (For Now)

You don’t have to look too far to find examples of emotional appeals in advertising – especially when the message concerns health and lifestyle changes. “Feel good when you work out at the gym”… “be ashamed of your gambling addiction”… “take pride in your active lifestyle”… “feel guilty about verbally abusing your children”… and so on.

I remember being taught in Introduction to Psychology in my first year of university that aiming for a better outcome (achieving an A grade) yielded greater results than trying to evade a worse outcome (avoiding a D grade). No wonder I’m a bigger proponent of positive reinforcement than its alternatives!

The question is, why not use fun as a motivator? Watch this first video to see how to encourage people to climb the stairs rather than ride the escalator:

Now watch this second video to see how to persuade people to wait at an intersection instead of jaywalking:

What a great motivator! Fun is a unique reward that is effective with diverse audiences and offers significant results. I’d only caution against depending on campaigns and programs like these, expecting them to have lasting influence once the novelty wears off.

Still, fun might just be the missing piece when it comes to inspiring lifestyle changes – and it took these two auto makers to prove the point! How ironic!