How an Entertainment Strategy Helps You Cut Through the White Noise – InstantFollowerz

This week’s master is always down for the fun, and he’s got the receipts to prove it.

“The funniest brand in the world hired us to make them fun,” he smiles. “We’re certified fun and we can prove it.”

Case in point: when I asked Chandler Quintin for an interview, I neglected to mention what it was for (I would have blamed my brain on Monday, but it was Thursday) and he still gave me more laughs and insight than I could cram into this email.

Lesson 1: Have a party strategy.

“People are exposed to marketing all day long, whether we ask for it or not,” says Chandler Quintin. I immediately think to look for the mute button on gas station it’s the commercials that are blabbing to me. Is no place sacred?

“If it’s at least interesting to watch and check the ‘Hey, I didn’t mind seeing that’ box, then everyone’s life will improve because we won’t be so inundated with boring stuff.”

Quintin fully believes that we are at what he calls “the peak of white noise on most platforms.” (And that goes double for you B2B marketers.)

Are you using an ad blocker? Does your thumb have a lightning-fast “skip ad” reflex? Are you scrolling past sponsored posts on LinkedIn? Well, so does the audience you paid so much to reach.

Quintin believes the best way to cut through the white noise is to make content fun – and one day soon marketing departments will have entertainment strategies the same way we now have editorial strategies.

“Now I want to clarify that when I say entertaining content, I’m not saying everything has to be funny.“Funny is only one type of entertainment, and entertainment looks different for different brands.

Lists an example campaign Video Brothers created for an outsourcing company. On the entertainment scale, outsourcing usually ranks somewhere around popcorn kernels stuck in gum. Quintin and his team created an ad package that focused on saying the word “outsource” as a swear word. By tackling the outsourcing taboo head-on, their ad stood out from competitors who danced around the theme.

But he stresses that the key word is still “strategy” – you need a comprehensive plan for a well-connected marketing campaign based on audience insights.

“It’s not just about creating one lead piece of content and building on that, it’s building a strategy around entertaining content.“The outsourcing series, for example, is built on direct knowledge of customer attitudes towards their industry.

“Think less about marketing and more about the people on the other side. What kind of things might they be interested in?”

Lesson 2: Think less about marketing and more about people.

For Quintin, good marketing is about people.

Even if you’re B2B, you’re not actually selling to a business, are you? You’re selling to the CMO, the CEO, the manager — and, contrary to the joke, these are people.

And the thing about people is that they don’t think about your great new feature. They’re thinking about meeting deadlines, what’s for lunch, or getting the kid to band practice.

“A lot of marketers focus on the product, the features, the benefits, all the things that their product or service can do,” says Quintin. “And, 9 times out of 10, audiences are just looking for pain to be addressed. They don’t get excited about this new integration.”

For most businesses, this means not leading with your brand or even your product or service. Instead, lead with something your customers can relate to… and then connect the dots with your product or service.

And, to top it off, you’ll also find entertainment value.

“When you look at what kind of pain your audience might be having — that you’re solving for — there’s probably some humor or some cleverness in that pain, right?”

Lesson 3: Engage with the people who are in contact with you.

While you’re busy figuring out how to connect with your audience, don’t forget to actually connect with your audience.

“The first thing you can do to maximize whatever budget you’re spending is to simply communicate with the people who are in contact with you.”

And he’s not just talking about reactive engagement, like responding to social messages or responding to emails. Those things are a given. It’s about taking a proactive approach to the people who interact with your business presence. Quintin himself sends a message to anyone who views his LinkedIn profile or watches a video he posts.

“We booked almost 80% of our calls simply by interacting with people who are in contact with us, not those who go to our website and fill out a form.”

I am also a living testimony of this tactic. On Thursday mornings, I drink tea and cruise LinkedIn in search of marketing gurus. (I’m doing it for you! Well… not the tea. It’s for me.) A few minutes later, Quintin texted with asking for help because he was upside down. (See hero picture above.) Friday morning, we schedule an interview.

Quintin admits it takes effort.

“It takes a long time. There may be some ways to automate it. But at the end of the day, I think people can see through automation a little bit. Especially when you’re trying to make an authentic connection. At least that’s what it’s for: Just be authentic. Be a human being.”

But the return is worth the effort.

“If you only have $1,000, you’ll be able to turn that $1,000 into a power of five or 10,000 if you just go that extra mile and engage.“

During our interview, the conversation came back to two points: Being human. And have fun. It seems to be the soul of Chandler Quintin, who smiles as he dismisses the moral of our story:

If you commit to creating entertaining content, “the worst thing that can happen is that someone remembers your brand.”