Perhaps you’ve taken inspiration from the last post on reinventing your email campaigns during the summer and have decided to pursue a new campaign strategy this summer. If so, congratulations on a bold move. And welcome to the reality of even the most fun, light-hearted email marketing campaigns: they still need to be focused on a message.
One such example is an infographic I recently designed to help relate really boring information about a group of people politically, in a fun new way to a group of another people who have no interest in politics and can’t hold the attention span. I used pop culture.
Using characters from HBO’s Game of Thrones – a show with legions of dedicated fans who are invested in every plot and politics of the show – I showed how some key players are exactly like figures and groups in real life. I didn’t have to write a thesis or get into heavy data. It was fun, easy to understand and visually stunning. And I gave the whole infographic a bit of edge by throwing in character art work from a local artists who had done some really gorgeous paintings of some of the characters I was using. This way, the infographic has a creative and artistic vibe as well that makes it more visually stunning…and shareable.
The artist also has a pretty steady following of his own which I was able to tap into, because he’s now sharing this infographic with everyone he knows. It was an immense source of pride for him that gathered me a much wider audience that I typically have to beg for … because these people typically aren’t interested in real life political drama.
So, what’s the moral of the story you ask? The moral of the story is that no matter which way you flip it, this infographic is highly message focused. The emphasis on messaging: I want group A to know about group B. The execution was fun and inventive but the end product is still message focused: Group A, please understand Group B.
The goal with any summer holiday campaign is to make it fun, interesting to you because you also would rather go out and enjoy summer, and to make it still message focused. These things are a lot easier than you’d imagine. In my case, I just let myself be creative. However, if I was working in an agency this simple process would have taken 3 meetings and 5 extra hours of planning and review. It would have become a chore along with wasting valuable time. If you’re with a marketing team, don’t let your creatives become burdened by process. Task each person to come up with a fun campaign with zero supervision or review until it’s time to use the idea. This gives your team members a wide freedom and trust to do what they feel is best. Of course some people will fail; that’s to be expected. But I imagine that even in those who fail, there’s going to be a lesson learned that will motivate them to step it up. And for those who don’t fail, you’ve just spotted the hidden gems you didn’t know existed in your group.
