Is there a twist in the plot of Moby Dick?
Does Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad, weave twists into the narrative?
Were there twists in the OJ trial?
Is there a twist in Beyoncé song, Drunk in Love?
How about the last two minutes of an Oakland Raiders’s game?
They’re famous for nail-biting twists by scoring seconds before the clock runs out to win.
Answer ‘Yes’ in all the above cases and you get 100%.
Is it fair say we warm to twists? Well, they do keep you interested; they involve you.
They inject a bit of excitement into our lives, a freshness.
You don’t need me to tell you twists are the opposite of boring and same-old same old.
The American mythologist Joseph Campbell worked to define what people want most in life.
He wrote that beyond everything … material goods, family, wealth, health and security, people just want to ‘feel alive’.
It’s that simple.
Twists in communications help reinforce that. They send a vital a force through us. They start a thought process.
It makes you wonder.
If we appreciate the enlivening effect of surprise and unexpected turns of events, why is it that many marketers aren’t taking note?
After all, coming off as ‘dull’ doesn’t make you the smartest choice in your category.
You could say it’s akin to self-sabotage.
But with reversals of thinking and unforeseen visuals you avoid turning off your customers and prospects.
You show respect for the mentality of your target audience as you repay their interest and consideration with something engaging and emotional.
Still, for you and your agency a twist isn’t always easy to find.
It takes skill and creative experience, which is why you outsource to get the best people working on your communications.
You hire talented individuals to do the work you can’t do yourself.
It puts us in mind of a t-shirt that brands memorably with just three words:
FIGHTING SOLVES EVERYTHING
In this case the creative team showcases an enduring truth as this is for a gym that trains prizefighters for title bouts.
It’s an old message done in a new way.
So is the Dizzy Gillespie jazz rendition, ‘Swing Low Sweet Cadillac’. http://bit.ly/1qhEUIw
Those lucky GM execs … their car was hyped in a surprisingly cool and memorable way. At no cost .
Then there’s Wonderworks, the Museum of Natural Phenomena.
In keeping with the ‘natural phenomena’ theme, the building is designed to look like a Bahamian courthouse picked up by a tornado and dropped upside down on a warehouse in downtown Orlando.
It’s an eye-grabber, http://bit.ly/1tX3Asw
We also have the Moby Dick graphic you see above.
If this isn’t a visual twist, what is?
It has power, dimension, veracity … all the appeal an 11th grade English teacher might find hard to verbalize when it comes to his or her class.
In a world where most marketing communications are okay-ish, this is more oh-my-gosh.
And with that there’s a thought for you.
The next time your agency presents new creative work let’s hope you can look at it and say oh-my-gosh.
Share with us. What do you and your agency do to fight boredom and engage your target audience? Leave your reply below. Thanks, Steve Ulin.
PS. If you’re anything like me you’ve mentally thanked David Ogilvy over and over for the kind of great advice he offers in his books. They’re a learning experience. With this post, I thank him once again as the ‘You can’t bore people …’ headline is a thought he pushed in a big way. How right he was.