The Story of Stuff is a great movie created to point out the missing pieces of our materials economy, and what it’s costing us, and how to go about fixing it.
It’s witty, engaging, funny, informative, with great production values. And it went totally viral, with 250,000 views in it’s first week.
I loved it. I think it’s a great thing. And, what lessons can you learn from this in marketing a transformational message?
Here’s a few that popped up for me:
- High production values don’t have to look slick.
We often think of big companies creating unholy slickness to pull the wool over our eyes. The truth is, that the company who helped do the technical animation/filming, Free Range Studios, did the whole thing with tremendously high production values- and helped it feel authentic and real to me.And that helps to carry the message much more strongly. - Create a unified concept for complicated ideas.
Transformational businesses often have complicated ideas that the general public isn’t really hep to yet. Let go of your attachment to jargon, and come up with simple graphics that create a context.This is not the same as ‘dumbing down’ your ideas. It’s about creating a simple broadstroke to hold the main points of the entire message, so that when you go into details, people don’t get lost in technical jargon.
- Have fun.
Us folks who are involved in transformation tend to get very serious… it’s easy to, when we’re staring grim realities in the face. And yet, don’t go there completely. Keep some lightness and hope.Not to whitewash anything, but simply to create space for hope to grow. And hope helps people feel empowered to engage.
Those are a few of the things that popped up for me. There’s plenty more to learn. Go watch the video and let me know what you learn for your own transformational business.
