Television dramas command a huge TV viewership. Every week, over 300 million hours of TV dramas are watched by the American public. Why are dramas so compelling?
First of all, there's the good guys and the bad guys. Someone is wrong and the good guys are trying to make it right. You feel sympathetic to the heros. There's a certain amount of pain and suffering (murder, cancer, back-stabbing). And you can always expect some conflict, mystery and suspense in the process.
And, of course, it's all resolved in under an hour.
Marketing your business is really just telling a story. And if you add drama to your story, you make it a whole lot more interesting. More people will tune in. Your ratings will go up. And yes, the sponsors (clients) will pay you more.
Complete More Clients eZine: Marketing is a TV Drama
This week, please share the following with us:
What are some specific ways you can inject drama into your marketing?
Robert, thankyou for your newsletter, which seems to always arrive with answers just when I'm stumped with something. It's always loaded with wonderful thoughts and ideas.
Your TV drama analogy is super. I think perhaps people overlook the fact that they could take the fantasy and turn it into reality in different positive ways.
I came to realize long ago, that all the physical energy I have, amounts to little if I don't maintain my positive mental & spiritual energy to keep moving forward.
Thanks to your reminder, I'm going to focus on putting more drama into my marketing, to continue fanning the flames of my business.
Peace and Laughter
Hazel Palache
Posted by: Hazel Palache | January 20, 2006 at 03:01 PM
A programs ability to create emotional responses in the viewer (curiosity, empathy, horror, morbid fascination, etc) is balanced by the observer’s knowledge that there will be a resolution in an hour. This is not often the case in real life.
The challenge of advertising is to grab the imagination, create angst and hope all in a very short period. The rule of thumb in art museums is the average time spent in front of any work of art is less than 7 seconds, on the internet its less than 3 seconds and it's getting shorter all the time. Therefore I believe that it is hard to rely on only text to grab your target; If you must rely on text only, the use of bold face type and/or color on the emotional words, words that make the readers pause and react, work to create a visual element to your text; You can pick out key words to highlight in a body of text that will tell most of the message, get the reader to react quickly and than entice them to read the complete text. Careful editing so that the bold words flow visually helps catch the reader’s eye.
People seem to respond to words and ideas that create a little bit of worry. A good example of this is the growing use of negative political advertising. We all hate it but it still makes people consider the message if only on a subliminal level; I don't advocate using negative advertising but using words that call up a particularly vexing problem juxtaposed with words that offer hope or resolution seem to be a viable formula. The emotional value of the words help you decide which ones to highlight.
If you can afford the use of a good ad agency that really understands design and color it will help create documents with strong visual impact. The next time you watch one of those TV dramas consciously look at the colors that are used. They are very saturated and seldom are what you would think of as being "normal". As the show progresses the color schemes also change from bold to more passive, soothing colors.
Another element that the dramas can utilize to their advantage is sound and music. All of these things go into the development of the story and its effect on the viewer. This is the world that all of our markets experiences everyday. 60 years ago Walt Disney postulated the idea that the artist had to engage as many of the viewers senses as possible to get their attention. I believe that idea has never been truer than it is today.
Jon M Swenson
www.unitedoperations.com
Posted by: Jon M Swenson | January 17, 2006 at 08:37 AM
Loved your tv drama analogy because it's very interesting and makes total sense to me. Thanks for your creativity in helping us "get" the idea that marketing has to grab attention and then keep it going right through to the logical conclusion.
Great job!
Dorothy
Posted by: Dorothy Lynn | January 17, 2006 at 06:26 AM
The drama of marketing... Hmm!
I think the key in what you said was the notion of pull. Drama attracts, except for those who are repelled -- but you don't want them anyway.
Capture their attention. Draw them in. Pull them in. And, they hang around.
Better yet, create a group of like minded drama kings and queens and your the star!
Lyle
Posted by: Lyle | January 17, 2006 at 04:13 AM