No One Gives a [insert favorite expletive] About You!

You are stranded on a deserted island. You know nothing about this island and there is no obvious food, water, or shelter. Who would be the one person that you would want to be there with you?

You would probably pick somebody with survival knowledge, like Bear Grylls. Why? Because he is going to be the person that will help you survive.

Now picture yourself in a crowded conference room. A well-dressed man stands at the front of the room,  a presentation title card projected behind him stating, “The Awesome Agency.” “Hi, I’m Jack, founder and CEO of The Awesome Agency. Seven years ago I started the agency with the sole purpose of…”  you think to yourself, not another presentation. You daydream about what it would be like to be on a deserted island. It would probably be a lot more interesting than sitting in this conference room right now.

Really, you don’t give a [expletive] about Jack, his “ dynamite team,” or “The Awesome Agency.”  What you need right now is a campaign that will generate results.

How Star Wars changed the way movies start!

In 1977 a controversial movie hit the theaters. “Star Wars,” was controversial not because of the content, the production, or because of the characters in the movie. The controversy was around how the movie began. Most movies followed a systematic introduction that provided the title of the movie, gave credit to the director, and listed the main actors all before any of the story line took place.

George Lucas (creator of Star Wars and fellow Trojan) decided to ignore tradition and instead jump right into the action. As people sat in the dark theater, yellow text started scrolling across space, setting the scene for the epic conflict. Once the text disappeared into the starry space, the action immediately started. No credits.

This did not go over well with the rest of Hollywood, but movie goers loved it! None of the audience complained about the missing title cards. Why? Because they didn’t care. They just wanted to see the movie.

Give them a reason to want to know who you are.

When you are on a deserted island and need to survive, you don’t want someone with a PhD in molecular biology. You want someone who can fashion a fishing spear out of bamboo and can identify whether the berries on the shrub are safe to eat or if you would end up dead, or worse, with days of diarrhea!

This might sound harsh, but people typically won’t care about you until you can demonstrate how you provide value to them. George Lucas knew that people don’t go to the movies because they want to find out who made the movies, they go because they want to be entertained. He launched them into the entertainment that they were searching for right in the beginning.

How do you start then?

Given that no one really cares about who you are or what you are selling until you can demonstrate value, then my question is, how do you demonstrate value right from the get go?

What do you think?