Made to Stick

I originally promised great sweeps ideas today. Well, I struggled with that and decided to give you something you could actually use.

Today’s blog is on a book that every promo person should own.

This book will inspire you. This book will make you a better writer/producer. This book will make you waffles on a Saturday morning when you and the book decide to just stay in and make love all day.

The book? Made to Stick. (www.madetostick.com)

Here’s an excerpt from their webpage:

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that “stick” and explain sure-fire methods for making ideas stickier, such as violating schemas, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating “curiosity gaps.”

There are stories in here that just make you think. Why do we continue to do the same, lame promos that we’ve seen everywhere a million times?

My favorite is how the Jared/Subway spots came about. It may not surprise you that Subway was working on a rather bland campaign to tell us how good their sandwiches were… how healthy… less fat, blah, blah, blah.

Then someone chanced upon Jared and had to convince the agency that selling the idea of quality, low-fat foods with this “character” would help people make a connection.

Duh.

It was memorable. Facts and figures do not make a connection. A loveable fatso that lost a ton of weight does. (Subway’s sales were up 18% in a year thanks to Jared)

They break it down into 6 principles: Simplicity. Unexpectedness. Concreteness. Credibility. Emotions. Stories.

It spells SUCCESs… which even they admit is corny… but it works.

How can you make your spots stand out? How can you get your ideas to resonate?

Read this book. And let me know what you think.