Good morning, beloved.
This past week I was in Las Vegas. It was 110 degrees at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
For some insane reason, I decided to walk the half-mile from my hotel to a Whole Foods. I wanted a salad—not a choice you'd think anyone would ever regret, would you...?
Except halfway there, I did regret it. The heat. The aggressive flame-broil of the sun.🔥
It was like walking inside a Weber Grill turned to High. And I was the rotisserie chicken—blistering on a spit, questioning my life choices. Like: Couldn't I have made do with the prepackaged salad from the lobby refrigerated case?
* * *
We're still at peak summer, in Vegas and elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere—an abundance of sun, flowers, and, yeah, hot. But already there's evidence it's ending a *little* too soon. The days growing shorter. The light lower in the sky.
I'm trying not to get down about it. But August makes me a little melancholy.
* * *
Fueling that melancholy for me this week (maybe for you, too?) was the news I heard—still in Vegas—that the great writer Toni Morrison had died. Her unflinching 1987 novel, Beloved, was an important read for me as a young adult. I still conjure up its scenes from time to time. It's stayed with me, and how many books can you say that about, really...?
What's also stayed with me is Morrison's less-is-more, no BS approach. Her word pairings that makes straightforward sentences powerfully evocative.
For a while back then, I tried to emulate her writing style, the way a lot of new artists will try on things for size.
At one point, my newspaper boss called me on it. After I turned in my coverage of a town meeting late one evening, he said: "I don't think you can say that the selectman spoke "with all the ferocity of his beliefs."
I know: LOL. Also: Embarrassing.
We're not novelists. We're marketers. But the way Toni Morrison thought about her reader has relevance for every one of us as communicators.
In a video
interview with the
NY Times Magazine, she said:
What I've learned to do and what I really feel proud about is being able to say more with less. Let the reader enter with his or her own imagination, and that makes us co-conspirators, as it were, together, the reader and me.
Speaking honestly to those you hope will share your view of the world. Changing minds. Helping to make sense of things. Trying to shed some light. Inviting our readers in.
That's what we do as marketers, isn't it?
Thanks for being here. Thanks for being a co-conspirator... as it were.
Here are ideas worth knowing this week.
* * *
1. Fed Up
"Our marketing is so boring. But I guess that's to be expected: We're a bank, after all."
That ☝️ is part of an actual conversation I had this week with an actual bank marketer. I couldn't disagree more if he'd suggested another flame-broiled walk to Whole Foods.
Banks sit on a nest of human stories. So do insurers, professional services, manufacturers, solution providers, aluminum manufacturers... almost any business, if you look hard enough.
No one knows that better than the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, which incubates human stories better than almost any other organization that has the word "Reserve" in its name. [h/t Doug Kessler]
On the Ground in Eastern Kentucky is one great example of what I mean. It's not new (it's from 2017), but it's as fresh as the day it was hatched, when Michelle Park Lazette and other Fed folks hopped in a van and drove more than 100 miles over 2 days, visiting rural communities to ask what it's like to do business there.
Let's review that last sentence: They asked what it's like to do business there. They made the customer the hero of their story.
The Fed didn't climb into the van to ask what rural businesses thought about the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. They didn't talk about themselves: Instead, they showed up to listen.
The multimedia piece feels like it has no agenda, aside from pure discovery. But of course it does: the bank underscores its role in promoting economic growth and stability throughout the region. "Data alone can't paint the complete picture."
Two takeaways for your marketing:
☝️ Every great story is a human story about a universal truth.
✌️ The best marketing happens when we forget we're marketers.
Go deeper ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
Joseph Campbell's classic "hero's journey" outlines a storytelling pattern that's obvious in a film like Star Wars, but is also found in almost every narrative everywhere... including, well, marketing case studies. Now you can binge for free 592 short lectures from Campbell covering story, philosophy, psychology, and more. When I say short...I mean, short: Some are only a minute or two long. Via Spotify. [h/t Jane Friedman]
2. Smarter Ways to Use LinkedIn
If LinkedIn were a DC Comics character, it would be Two-Face: part job-finding and part new-school biz-dev Rolodex. Or maybe Three-Face: It's part thought-leadership platform, too.
So:
What are we marketers getting wrong with LinkedIn? How can we all use LinkedIn more effectively, no matter which Face we are? LinkedIn asked me those questions, including how to avoid the "Constellation of Nope." Then it created a graphic that features me with my... pet bonsai (?)* 🌱
Reboot your LinkedIn.
* I do not have an actual pet bonsai.🌱
Related 👉 👉 👉 Why is LinkedIn not lumped in with other social platforms when we talk about the hazards of social media?
"LinkedIn is not, in the popular imagination, a force for radicalization, a threat to democracy, a haven for predators, an environment that encourages mob behavior, or even a meeting place for pot stirrers." —John Herrman, the NY Times
3. Falls of Fury
One-off posts and sponsored influencer content with no soul is so Q2 2019. So: What are progressive brands doing to take their influencer programs to new levels of success? And what can you steal from them?
4. Run-Hit Wonder
San Francisco runner Lenny Maughan makes beautiful works of art on his fitness tracker app while running.
Takeaway for marketing: It's only a matter of time before a big brand pays him to run its logo.
Story here.
