June 2014

Do this, get that. Use this, be that.

There is definitely a place for features and benefits when talking with your target market. But all too often everyone misses the value of what we are truly offering them when this is our only focus.

This is where stories come in.

Stories have the power to take us out of the noisy world we live in and transport us to a place that we can then feel a part of and develop an emotional attachment to. Stories share the values behind the features and benefits, they go beyond simply advertising and begin to develop relationships.

That’s why we chose to tell a story when it came to helping Shriners Hospitals for Children build awareness for the incredible work they do for children like Sadie.

Her story of hope and love is nothing short of amazing, and we wanted people to experience it in their latest DRTV campaign.

When you immerse people into a story, you’re no longer fighting for their attention, you’re speaking to their heart, and that’s where true value is shared.

Watch Sadie’s Story here: Sadie’s Story and be sure to support the incredible work of Shriners Hospitals for Children if you can.

We’ve all heard the story of Cinderella and countless others who have had their lives magically changed from ordinary to extraordinary in an instant.

No Fairy Tales

While those stories might seem far fetched, the idea of taking something mundane and making it remarkable is still a noble one. Just because something doesn’t seem exciting, doesn’t mean it has to stay that way.

In fact, something as unremarkable as a corporate report can become as remarkable as a short film and children’s book if you have the creativity to see it.

Remarkable

That’s just what we did when Edge Direct, First Degree Marketing, and CDR Group came to us for help in creating their corporate report for Shriners Hospitals for Children.

They’ve poured their hearts into their work for this noble cause and have done some pretty exciting things to help build awareness for Shriners Hospitals for Children. They knew a typical corporate report with videos wasn’t going to cut it.

We had an idea.

We took Fezzy, the newest ambassador they created for Shriners Hospitals for Children and made a custom short film showing all the things that have been done to build awareness through the eyes of a child reading a children’s book with her grandma.

It took the ordinary corporate report and made it something that was remarkable and would be talked about long after the event where it was shown.

But don’t take our word for it, watch it here for yourself and remember:

Even the most ordinary things can be extraordinary with a little creativity!

The world is getting noisier by the day.

Every morning it feels like there are new outlets, channels, networks, and more trying to grab for your audience’s attention. So how do you get heard amidst the growing background noise of life?

How do you go about finding and growing your audience?

Simple.

You focus on the connection more than the sale.

It’s expensive and costly to continually try to reach new customers and grow your audience, so the key is to focus on building even stronger relationships with the ones you have.

Find ways to strengthen the relationship by including them into your daily routine. What you do might not seem exciting to you, but to your raving fans it just might be.

Look for ways to surprise and delight them. Be remarkable. Give them exclusive content that they can share first so they feel important and pretty soon you’ll find that you’re becoming even more important to them.

You might be thinking. What does this have to do with finding my audience?

Everything.

You see, your audience is right under your nose, and the way to grow it isn’t by making more noise. It’s about finding better ways to build the relationships with the audience you already have, no matter how small.

When you do, you just might discover that you don’t have to find your audience because your audience found you.