"Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called 'The Pledge'. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called 'The Turn'. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call 'The Prestige'."
--Michael Caine as Cutter in the 2006 movie The Prestige
What a great movie! Two men obsessed with beating each other, striving to up the stakes and out do the other in amazing audiences with jaw dropping, amazing feats of illusion and prestidigitation. The resulting life long struggle ended up destroying them both, as well as the lives of many people unfortunate enough to come into contact with them. This however is not a movie review, so I'll stop now before engaging in full on Roger Ebert mode.
The quote above illustrates the basic essentials to creating a fantastic, intriguing magic trick that people think about long after the theater lights have come up and the magician has left the stage. To show someone something very mundane, or simple, get them to view it in an extraordinary way, one that makes them say "What's the secret!!" and then you amaze them with the final act, the big reveal and they leave with questions, interest and theories that stay with them for days.
Some of the best marketing campaigns that I have ever seen follow that same magical formula.
There are some industries that thrive using a straight forward, constant barrage of ads and spots, but after a while we as consumers or business owners get immune to the same message over and over and over again. We have become desensitized to junk mail, spam emails, shotgun messages sent out enmasse from companies we did not request information from, and the classic "Don't wait, there's more...!" and "The price goes up tomorrow!" are really just bad marketing punchlines. Sometimes what is needed is a good "pattern interrupt", a campaign, a message, a intriguing mystery that makes people stop short because it forces them out of their typical response patterns to the mundane.
If you can take something that creates an air of mystery, and make people say, "What is that?!", create a buzz and leave people wanting more, give them something to think about long after the big reveal takes place you can really make a name for your product or service. How great would it be if everywhere you went, when you handed out a business card, the first thing people said, with the light of recognition in their eyes and a smile on their face, "I know your company! You were the guys that did that....!".
Could you do something gutsy, out of the box and buzz worthy? Make people think differently about who you are, what you do and why they should choose you?
Here's a couple of great, out of the box examples:
A couple of years ago, near the end of 2008 Burger King ran a campaign where they dropped 5000 wallets all around high traffic and landmark areas of Chicago, IL. Inside was a sticker that told the potential good samaritan that The King wanted them to have the contents of his wallet, so to not worry about trying to return it. Exploring further the lucky person found a BK gift card loaded with anywhere from $ 5.00 to $ 20.00 and actual currency of anywhere from $ 1.00 to $ 100.00, along with a map to all of the Burger Kings in the metro area, The King's drivers license and even some funny ficticious receipts. What a GREAT pattern interrupt! If you see a wallet on the ground walking down the street, you are likely to pick it up, naturally to return it to whoever lost it I'm sure (THE PLEDGE), you open it and inspect it (THE TURN) and POW what an awesome surprise, you just got a $ 100.00 courtesy of The King and a gift card to boot (THE PRESTIGE)! Guess where you went to lunch probably not long after you found the wallet? Can you say, "I'll have a Whopper, please!"?
Another great story, even closer to home here in Central IL.
Several years ago a series of billboards starting appearing around Peoria, IL that looked like nothing more than just a long slightly wavy line on a pitch black background. No words, no logos, no names, just that line. People immediately started trying to guess, what is it? What was it supposed to look like? Was it a mistake? For weeks these billboards sat there, to the point where local TV channels started covering the mystery, asking questions, running segments on getting to the bottom of it! Suddenly there appeared another line on all of the boards, adding a little more definition to the obviously heavily stylized object, but still not enough to garner a firm consensus of what it was. More guessing ensued, more digging, more buzz. Long story short, the ads were for the impending Car Show that was coming up at the civic center, but that wasn't finally revealed until the VERY end, the last board in the series. By that time people were so energized about the guessing game that it was literally on everbody's lips when the answers finally came. It was just a line in the beginning (THE PLEDGE), that slowly started to define itself as an abstract car illustration (THE TURN) and then the actual reveal with dates and offers (THE PRESTIGE). Do you think attendance was up that year?
So here's the challenge: what kind of campaign could you run that would generate that kind of buzz? Can you think outside the box? Do you have the guts to try something that pushes the envelope? Can you interrupt the ingrained response pattern of your target market segments to the standard pitch of your industry, and your competitors? It may be an immediate splash like the wallets, or a slow boil like the billboard campaigns, but the big reveal can be worth it in ROI in a big way!
Maybe you need a nudge outside your comfort zone of how you have always marketed yourself, take this blog as that gentle push. In the words of Spock from the movie "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" maybe all that is required to generate huge business is a feat of "linguistic legerdemain and a degree of intrepidity". (How's that for mixing movie metaphors? Yes, I am a movie geek!)
The big reveal can mean big ROI, give it a try this year. As always, we here at Xapsis would be more than happy to assist you in coming up with that BIG idea, give us a call today!
From where you are to where you want to be,
Doug
