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Let's sing an old refrain: 'online news sites will make traditional newspapers obsolete',
'google and yahoo are creating an army of people who search for the news they want
to read when they want to read it'. 'No longer can big television networks and publishers
force their views on what is newsworthy, down the publics throat.'
Step back a few years when advertising stopped working. If you were born in the
90's, you probably missed the party, but believe me when I tell you there was a
time when advertising executives and creative directors of big advertising agencies
were rock stars of the corporate world. This was the time advertising was at its
peak and brands were created from nothing to must-have lifestyle accessories.
Yes advertising has stopped working but the pundits are wrong. Advertising is ineffective
not because there is a smaller audience with a short attention span or a decrease
of disposable income. The decrease is because of the meaningless, uninspired, repetitive
drivel that is churned out daily. There is no need to point fingers at the agencies
or the clients or the people working on these communication pieces. What has this
got to do with Words - editorial content is also going the way of advertising content
- drivel laden.
As mentioned at the outset of this article the decline is not due to technology
because if anything technology i.e. the World Wide Web has increased the need for
good editorial content that is informative and creative. However, the double-edged
sword that is the Internet has also done two things:
- overloaded us with information which has forced us to ignore meaningless words -
drivel
- improved focus which has resulted in us choosing what we want to read or listen
to - sifting
From the days of the gold rush when gold miners waded into a gushing stream (information
overload) and only stayed if their patient sifting out the drivel flowing by them
resulted in a Gold Nugget. The resultant effective - gold miners staying for longer
and more miners joining them to get their nugget.
Want your communication to be that nugget?
- Only deliver a message if there is substance - nobody likes fluff
- Be factual and specific give details not generalities - numbers not statistics
- Unless everyone knows you are number one don't claim it, Unless your idea is truly
ground breaking do not say it - the reader is smart he/she will figure it out and
appreciate that you have been modest
- Always remember the customer approaches any communication with the question - What's
in it for me? Or derivation of the same idea - so tell them in as few direct words
as possible
- Honesty is the best policy and if you have evidence to support your communication
by all means use it.
It is great to be creative and keep saying the same thing over and over again but
it is the message that matters. A message which communicates to the customer what
is in it for them in as many words needs no special effects to be effective.
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