How to Get Noticed

I sat across the head of marketing of a big computer company. He was complaining about the sameness of the majority of marketing and advertising messages from competitors in the computer tech industry. Of course the computer tech industry doesn’t have a monopoly on boring ads or obvious marketing messages. It’s difficult to get noticed in an age where, every day, most people are bombarded with 4,000 to 10,000 messages promoting a brand or service.

The marketing exec went on to say how static and lifeless most computer industry ads are: they predictable.

That’s because, like storytelling, change is fundamental to an advertising message. Marketers and advertisers can take a clue from something dramatists have grappling with for centuries. How do you get people to sit in the seat (and get involved in your story)?

Turn-of-the-Century Scottish playwright William Archer described Drama as anticipation mingled with uncertainty. It’s an insightful definition of drama. It’s also an effective approach brainstorming your next creative. People are designed to seek out and solve problems. It’s one of the things we do best. What will happen next? How will it conclude in the long term? Gently keep your audience…your prospects, your community of customers involved with solving the problem. It’s the absence of information that draws us in and compels us to deduce. Don’t give them “4.” Give them “2 plus 2.”

This dramatic approach of mingling anticipation with uncertainty works well for instructional designers too. If you’re putting together a learning program of any kind, implementing anticipation with uncertainty can create curiosity about what will happen next. Construct honest conflicts with truth that creates doubt about what the outcome might be? There’s a craft to it to be sure. Employ these techniques at the big picture stage. Your audience will be involved and they’ll love you for it.