I am prone to hyperbole. What can I say? It makes me giggle. So if you want to accuse me of exaggerating, well, guilty as charged.
But this? This made me go full 2009 Kanye. Imma let you finish, but this is the greatest marketing image of all time. Of all time!
Y’know what I dig? Museums. You know what else I dig? Nerdery. What, that’s a word. Look, English is a living language. Let’s move on.
I recently checked out the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, TX, and it was more fun than unlimited waffles. Aside from the lack of shooting game Area 51 in the arcade, it was practically flawless.
But the icing on the cake was a piece of print collateral so nerdily and perfectly suited to this museum’s audience I can overlook the rough copy. Behold!
Companies and marketers are spending more on online video. Which makes sense. Motion attracts attention. Part of our lizard hindbrain perks up and says, “Hey. That thing. It’s moving. Can it eat me? Oh! Can I eat it?” Instincts like that make for receptivity, if only at first.
The key is “at first.” Even with that advantage, you have to keep viewers engaged. And let’s be honest, y’all — a lot of videos suck.
Have you done something different with your hair? It looks nice. Touchable. And that color really brings out your eyes. Here, let me top off your drink, darlin’. Time to talk about mood again.
Mood happens. Whether you are conscious of it or not. So it makes sense to be aware of it, mm? So you don’t, say, write a really chipper blog post about cremation, or melancholy web copy for a party planner. And we establish mood with setting, diction, and now tone.
Setting was pretty straightforward, diction a little less so, and tone is the most elusive. We’ve sort of been building up to the biggie.
“But Steph,” you say, because you are a smart little tomato, “Isn’t tone the same thing as mood?” Kinda. But no. But yeah. But not really. Continue reading
Storytelling for Success 