Have you ever heard Bruce Lee’s quote?
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”.
I can’t say if the exact story is as it goes on the internet but let’s roll with it. There’s a lesson of mastery that goes with it.
Legend has it that Picasso was at Paris Market, in a restaurant. An admirer of his art recognised him and asked if he could draw her something on a napkin and she would pay for it. Picasso agreed and sketched an image on the napkin but before handing the napkin over he asked for 1 million francs.
The lady’s response was, “How could you ask for so much of money for a drawing that took just a couple of minutes?”
Picasso replied, “It took me a lifetime to draw this sketch”.
Currently, we have billions of people creating content, we have billions of content a year. How much is credible and how much is copied? Who would read it or watch it?
Great content is content that is original or unique... but…
There are several combining factors to look out for when creating content.
Does that mean that original or unique content is great content?
No
So, what does unique/original content that delivers value look like?
1. Great content is content that cannot be duplicated
The more you create content through learnings, intentions, and market analysis the more insight you get. Now it’s finding a way to deliver it to those who need to see or hear it. Make “engaging content”.
How?
In my opinion, video format is the best way to deliver content. It reaches all 5 senses; touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing. This evokes emotions. We need to identify if we’re creating a movie trailer or an informative video that will help the audience through product(ive) marketing.
On that note, create relevant content that is useful and engaging with the added touch of delivering it through a medium that is unique to your brand. Whenever new content comes from your brand, the audience looks forward to it, it’s like a breath of fresh air, it’s like keeping them on the edge to see what you will come up with next. This sort of content can be spotted a mile away, the audience already knows that this content belongs to this brand, but they are not sure what to expect, they’ve been holding onto their seats.
How can you spot whose content it is from a mile away?
Through the tone of the brand.
2. Great Content is Memorable
Tell me you still remember Ray-Ban’s ads? You must remember one of those ads, who would know best if not the Baby Boomers, and Generation X.
Ray-Ban’s brand colours are red and white. A short video story, like a part of a movie really worked well, and it was original. Sometimes it was a complete surprise, one would never see them coming, and then at other times there were some obvious clues with the colours red and white and the obvious Ray-Ban item itself. Remember the vampire ad of Ray Ban? Ray-Ban South Africa really had an amazing ad in the year 2000. I can’t seem to find it anywhere, but I remember it as clearly as day. It still stands out as one of the best marketing videos I have ever seen to date.
Here’s another one, Ray-Ban has been around since 1937 (maybe even 1936), but for those who were born way later down the line, they had one ad that had the tag line “Genuine since 1937”. See that word “Genuine”. That’s what makes them original.
3. Less is more – Keep it as simple as possible
If there’s one take away, you’re leaving the audience with, what would that message be?
Through the entertaining, witty, video or read, that one final message as a solution to a problem is received clearly.
How will you deliver that one final, clear message through the “play”, script, and the fun entertainment/positive piece of content? When all the play and the fun is over, what’s the memorable part that links to the objective of the content? It must point to that, clearly.
Do you have a simple tagline for your brand? Use that to your advantage.
Do you see where we are heading…?
So far, no one can duplicate your brand colours, a wit specific to your brand that is your marketing personality, tone (through written or video), or your tag line. This combination and more can end up really giving a clear message that creates engaging, meaningful, useful and relevant content. How about the way the protagonists speak in your ads.
4. Values create a meaningful history
Take a look at this video, How Ray Ban Became the King of Sunglasses, the Ray Ban movement, from their struggles during the war and staying true to their core values to their most popular glasses that shot sales up from signature looks of Denzel Washington, Michael Jackson and Tom Cruise.
When I look at Ray-Ban’s content its got vibrancy even through its brand colours, its tone is fun, unique, purposeful and going back to all their content the brand’s core values is sublime.
What makes a brand original?
Let’s break it down
Going back to Ray-Ban, let’s take a look over time at all the concepts the brand plays with while beating the sunlight!
1. The main premise/purpose
A better/clearer vision; fashionable eye protection from the sunlight.
2. The tone
The tone starts off light, and fun with the obvious item, Ray-Ban sunglasses, but still, we’re not sure if this is a Ray-Ban ad.
3. Where and how (In this case for a clearer vision and the settings they use for advertising)
A fun or interesting setting
- The beach
- An outside party
- Sports (e.g. motor racing, skateboarding)
- Fashion (so huge even in music videos)
- Cinema (remember the iconic aviator in the move Top Gun?)
4. Stand out
Now for the next points we are going to use this example Tomatina.
Ray-Ban used the Spanish setting, culture and tradition.
a) The choice of music on the ads
Always fun, positive and inspiring.
5. The element of surprise
a) The use of culture and traditions
In the example of Tomatina. This is the Spanish culture, a festival in Buñol, in the state of Valencia, celebrated on the last Wednesday of August every year.
a1) The use of traditional Spanish music.
a2) A small Spanish village, the architecture and the cobblestone streets.
6. Memorable storytelling
We wouldn’t know the story until we see the video without its title. It has all the elements of storytelling. Take a look at https://tdenchpatel.com/elements-of-storytelling/ to learn more.
7. Demonstrating the purpose
a) Eye protection, comfort and added style
Sunglasses
A nice bike ride after a purchase in the village, calm, peaceful and sunny. Protection from the sunlight.
Ray-Ban prescription glasses
Demonstrating daily wear for precision and daily tasks.
Fashion
We can identify it’s a Ray-Ban ad, through the colours and the element of Red (tomatoes), the eyewear and the brand name on the eyewear.
8. Supporting a cause
The campaign “Never Hide”.
The tagline on this ad was supporting the cause for being creative, exploratory, experimental and yourself. To support the LGBTQ community.
To close off, take a look at this resource below:
It makes mention of other elements that I touched on but goes further in depth on the topics of:
- Strong headlines
- Intention and results-driven
- User generated
- Answers audience questions
- Great content has video
- Great content is original
Looking forward to our next discussion, in the meantime take a look at my entertaining and educational video on my YouTube Channel about what makes great content, exactly.
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Yours sincerely,
T. Dench Patel
