Why?

I imagine the introduction of new ideas that propose to change the order of things as being like the Whac-A-Mole arcade game. The little mole pops up. Our reflex instinct is to bop it back down. Our default setting is that we like the predictable. Surprises create reaction. Reaction tends to be loudest in voices of dissent. The silent majority who are rooting for movement toward things that aspire and inspire are….silent. Natural momentum moves toward a lowest common denominator that ruffles the fewest feathers. The victim is our ability to reach higher aspiration.

I see this paradox most readily in community marketing and communications. Creative expression is an art form. Reaction is subjective. Consensus in anything is impossible; it’s least possible in very subjective spaces.

We are exposed to 5000 advertisement and brand exposures per day per person (1). How many of those 5000 messages make an impression that we engage with? 12. Among a sea of grass blades is your message – just hoping to be noticed.

We can all cite breakthroughs where stepping out from the crowd has generated handsome reward in terms of response in a marketplace. Yet our consensus-driven instinct to water down to de-ruffled feathers produces melba toast aerial pictures of communities and “Discover Us” slogans. It’s a safe bet, but it’s a bet on selling the future of your community that will fail.

To gut check, flip through a magazine or a tourism guide and ask yourself what you really notice. Or ask yourself what you really watch on YouTube. Chances are it’s cats playing with yarn not an eight minute interview with your CAO sitting behind a desk “selling” the community to the five locals who like the video and the zero who are motivated to take up the call to action to come to your community as a visitor, investor or new resident.

Think of what you say and how you say it as a return on investment. If you can resonate with a target audience the first time by daring to take a bit of risk in getting noticed, you avoid the 50 more times you may need to put your bland message out there trying to connect with people. That makes communications creativity a business necessity not a nice to have.

In 2007, Old Spice used a bit of humour to try to connect with a more youthful target audience. The tagline above the fine print on the back of a stick of deodorant was: “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it you wouldn’t exist.” Makes you interested in reading the fine print doesn’t it?

Understand the Shark and the Goldfish paradox and you open the door to a breakthrough in connecting with people when you communicate and market. The only way around this paradox is to understand it and to insert it into the negative reaction you will get when you are Machiavellian enough to grow your grey hair by trying to change the order of things.

If you are a voice of dissent, remind yourself of the higher purpose ends attached to creative exploration in marketing and communications. As long as the effort is dedicated to forging an ambitious, more prosperous future for your community, it’s simply a sign of the times to have to work to break through the clutter…to yell louder than other products and communities about why your community matters.

You’re selling your shiny bobbles. Lead with shine. Here’s a bit of direction on how to do that:

• Keep the overall effort simple. Our “lizard” brains love simple.
• Look hard for the compelling visual. It feels like finding a needle in a haystack…and it should.
• Think hard about a good lead-in hook at the top in as few words as possible.
• The lead hook and a compelling visual will open the door to have people look at your message. Use a classic storytelling technique: a plot/character, a pain point people have, and how what you offer resolve the pain point.
• Use the inverted pyramid approach in your communications (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pyramid) but toss the “professional” language and think story and how to connect with people at a deeper level. Your most important words are the first sentence – the lure that attracts the fish.
• Talk regularly to the community powers that be about how your creative expression relates to the broader strategic objectives you are working toward. People grant more latitude in strategic context.
• Get your community discussion out of the world of taglines on letterhead. Think like corporations do – about how to build a marketing and communications campaign that is aimed at achieving your strategic objective. People see campaigns at work all around them and give you more latitude when the effort isn’t the tagline on the tax bill.

Stand up and be noticed is a check box approach to bureaucratic work plan completion. Stand out and be noticed is a pathway to getting what you want – which is to have people you need to bring your community development strategy to life become motivated enough to help you make it happen.

(1) http://sjinsights.net/2014/09/29/new-research-sheds-light-on-daily-ad-exposures/