The currency of any great experience and story is the idea. We all come across that spark of an idea at some point in our lives (and probably more than once) where we think to ourselves “A-ha, that’s what I’m talking about”. I’ve spent the last few years surrounding myself with books and materials about advertising and the literature – and what it always comes down to is having “the idea” and coming up with a way to execute it. With Teressa Iezzi’s, “The Idea Writers: Copywriting in a new media and marketing era”, this is the first book I’ve read which explicitly talks about “the idea”, why it’s important, and how it’s the responsibility of copywriters to be able to articulate the idea and find the most appropriate way to communicate it. While the book focuses specifically on how the copywriter and ideas fit into the advertising and marketing industry, the book has an underlying tone around the changing way we need to reach out to audiences, making creativity work for communication, and telling stories for a new age.
The growth and influence of the internet technology in our lives and digital channels for communication has revolutionized the way to reach out to audiences. As Iezzi writes, “the internet has completely and irreversibly transformed the media landscape and the way people experience and interact with brands and brand communication.” This has really put traditional industries, such as advertising and journalism, in a bind – think about where you see advertising these days, or where you find your news. The ability to control what we see, how we engage and share, and who can communicate to us is more and more in the hands of the people (i.e. us). Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the book on this issue:
“More people can communicate more things to more people than has ever been possible in the past, and the size and speed of this increase, from under one million participants to over one billion in a generation, makes the change unprecedented even considered against the background of previous revolutions in communication tools.” – Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The power of organizing without organizations.
The Consumer Control Era has meant that creatives must make things that people want, that they seek out and share with their circle, or with the world. It has meant that the marketing end game has transcended reach, just grabbing eyeballs, and it has become a matter of engagement, of inviting a conversation and making a meaningful, ongoing connection.
“Marketing isn’t an expense; it’s an investment in how the world sees a company”
For the last quote, it’s interesting to also note that Iezzi talks about how ideas and advertising should be moving towards doing something good for society. While the first thing that came to mind was the concept of “Green-washing“, she does do a good job is using examples of where companies have shifted to be more socially responsible where “good service, social responsibility and sustainable practices are a collective economic imperative for every kind of company.” Yet, I still wonder if marketers have the power to actually change the way the business looks at how it conducts business or should social responsiblity be a core business objective in the first place?
Creativity in communication shouldn’t be the end game – it should actually work towards something. Coming up with ideas in corporate or commercial communication should eventually benefit or have an affect on your audience, consumer, or user. Otherwise what’s the point? She uses the example of Amazon and what the company saw digital age doing to book publishing, and what it’s done to music and journalism. So what did the company do when more and more people were shifting from buying book to reading digital things? It didn’t create a campaign to persuade people to keep buying books. It created the Kindle.
And a key assumption should be, as Iezzi says, that those people are not morons.” Here are some of my favorite quotes on this issue:
According to many creatives, advertising, and the ad process, has to start with the consumer, not with the list of benefits the brand wants to convey.
There is no more powerful marketing tool than a happy customer
Consumers are in control of what media they consume and when and, more and more, they are in control of what other consumers think about brands. Brand messaging is no longer one-way, and there are many, many more options for consumers than simply listen, don’t listen, buy or don’t buy.
Finally, telling stories has always been a part of culture and socialization. It is a way to transfer information in a way that can resonate with and touch a person (to change their way the think and act?). This transfer of information can come in various forms, from something written on paper for people to read, a presentation, a speech, graphic/visual designs, interactive platforms, etc. Ultimately, in this day and age, the story needs to be told in a way, textual, audio, or visual, that reaches and engages it’s intended audience. Again, otherwise, what’s the point?
For copywriters, storytellling – in whatever format or media – is key to creating a meaningful (and, here I would add memorable) brand identity.
Unlike traditional storytelling where you complete the thing and you put it out there, it’s a living thing that requires ongoing curation and involvement on the part of storytellers and participants.
If the idea is to be viral it should help the audience express something to their own audience (their friends and family). If we can make a work which one person can send to another and it helps them articulate love, loss, fear, hope, etc. then we have something which has viral potential.
In between the lines is as important as what’s in the lines.
The first step was socializing the brands and getting the brands to quickly move away from destination sites and start creating experience.
Speaking of storytelling, here’s a great four-part interview of Ira Glass, the host of “This American Life” on public radio with stories that range from heart-warming to bizarre, on trials and tribulations on being a better storyteller.