Caution: Don’t Copy Hollywood’s Hype-Marketing, but…

 

 

 

…copy what it does so masterfully!

We surely see how Hollywood is doing it.  You can’t escape it.  Every time you go to the movies, you are exposed to amazing trailers put together in this seemingly perfect fashion of fast-flashing images, emotional music and well-selected conversation clips.  

We get drawn into the story, we love the sense of anticipation for what is to come, we long to see the movie NOW…and as marketers we also wonder how we could create that same sense of anticipation in our audience, for our products and services.  

And we can and we should look for Hollywood’s teaching but with caution.  

 As entrepreneurs committed to doing business in a way that delivers honest value to our clients, we often struggle with the perceived need to “hype” our products up in order to stand out.  We’d rather under-promise than over-hype.  And here is where we can be cautious but alert students of Hollywood:  Some facts:

1. Storytelling works.  In Hollywood and on YOUR website.  

2. Triggering Emotions works.  In Hollywood and in YOUR sales copy.

3. Enticing video clips work.  In Hollywood and in YOUR video blog.

4. Over-promising DOESN’T work.  Not in Hollywood and not in YOUR business.

Here is where Hollywood gets it wrong.  

You all have experienced what I am talking about.  A great movie trailer, full of funny dialogue, great stories and beautiful music.  You wait for the day of release, you make time to stand in line and then… you get two hours of disappointment.  The dialogue you saw in the trailer was the best words uttered in the whole entire movie.  The story line was so lame, you could have come up with a better one.  The special effects were overdone and used as a crutch rather than an amazing tool…

Long story short, you leave disappointed and determined to never fall for it again…

And that is the GREATEST mistake Hollywood makes.  

By disappointing you, their customer, they now have to hype up the next movie even more in order for you to believe in their product.  They now got themselves into a vicious cycle of hype, to “uber”-hype, to… an industry that is extinguishing itself slowly but surely.  The hyped-up sales model is not a sustainable model…and you can see that by the fact that movies have to now make their money back on that first opening weekend or they lose money!

But, back to you, the entrepreneur with integrity.  What’s there to do?  

Let’s look at the word “hype” a little closer.  To me, “hype” describes an excessive claim or promise that is not justified by the product.  That’s all. So, if your product or service is amazing, is top quality, then letting others know about it with great storytelling, by triggering emotions and by creating anticipation is perfectly ok.  
But so many honest and purpose-driven entrepreneurs “throw the baby out with the  bathwater” because they are afraid of appearing to hype their product up.  Result: A boring headline on their website, timid copy describing their services, benefits that are understated..you know what I mean.

 

Action plan: Take out your promotional material today!  See where you can:

• create some more emotions
• involve your audience
• create excitement
• stir up some feelings
• get people to anticipate a release of your newest product 
• AND watch movie trailers as marketing lessons BUT make sure you deliver on your promise! (which I have no doubt you will).

Until next time for more “anti-obscurity” tips,

Christiane

P.S. Share how you feel about Hollywood trailers.  What do you like or not like about them below in the comment section.