By Laurren McAtamney 

Kony 2012 has been tagged as the most successful viral idea since the term was invented in the last few years or so, recording a staggering 88 million views worldwide on their primary marketing tool, YouTube. 

Whilst it was certainly a cause-based marketing campaign, whereby Kony found an emotionally alluring message that resonated with people to unscaleable heights world-wide, what contributed to the campaign’s success was its storytelling ability.

Kony had a simply story to share, an easy to understand plot, good guys and bad guys and our role as the audience was beautifully understood. Putting aside any feelings or opinions you may have about the cause, what we can learn or at least remind ourselves what to do is: keep it simple. 

Creating simple content is what sells. To be heard in today’s cluttered market place, all you need is a single-minded idea with a clear request (or call to action in marketing speak). 

Another example of a brand that does this well is McDonalds. When you see a billboard or a TV commercial, they aren’t trying to tell us the whole menu in one mouthful; instead they focus on a single menu item. 

So, if you are going to stand out in the crowd and appeal to your target markets in your next campaign or marketing effort, think about sticking with a single-minded idea. 

You need clarity about what you want to achieve. Be specific! Don’t try to be everything to everyone. This will dilute the impact of your message. Creative is not about squeezing as much information as you can into a flyer, ad or billboard. It’s about creating an angle that will absolutely capture the hearts and minds of your target market. Less is usually more and an emotional or rational connection with your market is the key. 

Once you have your single-minded idea the rest will follow. The idea will then determine the headline, the imagery, the style of the creative and probably also the placement and execution. But how do you crack the idea? Most people don’t just come up with original and creative ideas at the click of a finger; there are tools and methods to create the single-minded idea. So that is the Why you need to a single-minded idea, but the How is the tough part. Stay tuned for the next edition where I talk about idea generation.

Laurren is the Strategic Marketing Planner for Chilli. If you’d like to see how Laurren and the Chilli team can help you grow your business call 5437 7788.