Selling Nebraska

New from the Nebraska Tourism Commission, it's actually a marketing campaign we can all learn from...

What's that feeling it gives you? Maybe a bit of a smile, maybe a pause ("This is different..."), maybe even an almost imperceptible sigh of relief. Relief? Sure. Relief because someone's about to tell you the truth, NOT the try-to-convince-you tact that Nebraska has more this than Colorado or that than Oregon...or some other unbelievable claim. 

This stuff is real. You can get people's attention (and more) by leveling with them. And it's not just me. You fans of syllogistic logic will recall Aristotle was yacking about the whole truth thing 2,300 years ago. Simply put, start where people are, or with what they believe, or you'll be starting a logical argument in their mind...

Compare starting people at "Hey, Nebraska isn't amazing, but it does offer some pretty cool things...", that is, with a statement they can believe, with "Nebraska...some claim that isn't believable." These feel different because they are. You relax with the first one. Everything you see after the first statement you see from a position of comfort and openness. The second one gets your guard up and everything that comes after is seen with distrust. Or more to the point, it probably isn't seen at all. 

So, forget about Aristotle and Nebraska for that matter; what about how you approach getting people's attention? And not just that, how are you setting up how people see everything after you have their attention? Are they comfortable, open, interested? Or are they looking with folded arms, or not looking at all?