What do the Maltese Falcon, the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, and the One Ring in Lord of the Rings have in common? They are all examples of a storytelling plot device known as a MacGuffin. A MacGuffin can literally be anything—a book, a mysterious briefcase (as mentioned above) but its only purpose is to set the story in motion. Once that’s accomplished, the MacGuffin usually…
Think about the last 3 pieces of content you created. Did they have a common theme, or advance a common story? Or were they distinct “one-offs”, unrelated to each other? Maybe they were the result of a looming content calendar that just needed to be filled… When it comes to content, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its…
Groucho Marx once famously quipped, “If you’ve heard this story before, don’t stop me, because I’d like to hear it again.” Unfortunately, many story-obsessed brands seem to agree that telling the same story over and over again, with only the names changed, will surely result in a good ending. In fact, if a brand repeatedly tells the same story, audiences may…
We’re hearing a lot about AI these days and increasingly it’s being incorporated into various marketing technology platforms as well. This week, I had the good fortune of receiving a demo from an up-and-coming social media management platform that incorporated a subtle, yet very effective AI application in its offerings. In a nutshell, the demonstrator selected a long-form article from the company…
Maybe this scenario has happened to you. You get a report of a spike in clicks for your widgets—and a chain reaction of events kicks in to capitalize on the momentum. Your blog post just got 100,000 views, so you commission a bunch more posts on the same topic. Or perhaps your newsletter sales pitch generated more clicks than ever….
If you ever have occasion to work or present at Amazon, you’d better leave your PowerPoint slides at home. According to a directive from Jeff Bezos, PowerPoint is now a thing of the past at Amazon. Why? Well, for the world’s richest man, time really is money ($4 million an hour at last count!). And Bezos is convinced that meetings…
When was the last time you perused an article, read a book, watched a movie, or caught an episode of your favorite TV show? Chances are, you do one or more of those things every day. Although some may be dramatically better than others, they all tell a story. In fact, stories—in one form or another—are all around us, at…
About a month ago, a trusted advisor recommended that when we conduct online meetings—whether it’s with internal staff, clients, partners or prospects—that the medium should include a video link so that everyone can see everyone else on the call. We tested this out and found that once everyone gets over their initial (and natural) hesitation of being on-camera, the net…
We all love a great story, right? Well, as it turns out, customers and prospects love great brand stories too! A recently completed research study of over 1000 marketers concluded that among the highest performing content marketers, storytelling has become a “state of mind,” with 83% reporting that a “storytelling ethos permeates their entire organization” as a result. But make…
Are we about to enter a “content crash?” Or have the rumors of content’s demise been greatly exaggerated? The debate is certainly alive and well, as you can see from this recent Twitter exchange between some well-known marketers and their respective content tribes. The actual numbers are daunting. Content output from brands has increased by 35% in the past year,…