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Introduction
"If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit." An eight word rhyming couplet vaporized the state's entire, six month, multi-million dollar case.
It was all the jury had to remember. And we still do. It's not a sound bite, it's a whole idea bite. It's magic.
Isn't it interesting and a little ironic that when an organism is mortally threatened, when the gun is pointing at your nose, when the tornado is
coming up your driveway, or the lion makes a U-turn for your spot in the herd, things finally start to get... simple.
It works at every level of the food chain, all the way down to cells and organs. When the body thinks its freezing, for example, it shifts to the
heart of the matter, literally. It shuts down blood flow to the extremities and directs it all to your heart and your brain. You're prioritizing
big time. It doesn't have to be told. It doesn't have issues relating to commitment, decision making or focus. It's truth time. It's simple time. And above all, it's hyper-effectiveness time.
Behavioral scientists tell us that at such crisis moments, we shift to instinct and intuition that is remarkably fast and remarkably accurate.
We operate on pre-programmed, highly evolved "heuristics," a.k.a rules of thumb that tell us how to react without thinking to succeed or just
survive with the highest probability.
What the rules of thumb do is show us the real bottom line when it counts - the heart of the matter - faster and better than any process laden,
intellectual analytic ever could. They remove surrounding noise, clutter and distractions. They present us with one button to push or one split
decision to make - which then automatically triggers the whole solution process in the right sequence. A single simple action that produces a multi-sided high yield.
When your Neanderthal buddy throws a big rock at your head, how do you know how to track its flight so you can duck? Your brain has to solve hundreds
of complex mathematical equations to do this. But it doesn't send you math. It sends a single rule of thumb. The "Angle" Hueristic." It says - just
watch the trajectory. If the angle's constant you're dead. If the angle changes, you're safe. It's the same heuristic major league ball players
use today to catch a fly ball, or a dog uses to snatch a Frisbee. Constant angle = catch.
What if we could bottle this
What if we found the heuristics for communicating ideas that were so simple and effective, we could capture the power we reach at times
of deep stress, and apply it every day to sales and marketing. Or branding. Or any kind of communication that we want to penetrate
(teenagers). What if the silver lining of today's tough economy was that instead of going fetal, we finally discover communication's super-bottom
line, the stuff we should have been doing all along? And what if these rules solved for the mad clutter of the hyper-connected, over-saturated communications age by showing us exactly what the digital media + wired people require us to do... to break through?
"Yes we can!"
That's what this book is all about.
And as we'll see, the heuristics for communicating big ideas simply and
powerfully today will inevitably lead us to Micro-scripts...
Excerpt 1...
1. Find Your Micro-Scripts, then Launch Their Power.
What did simple little words like "Bridge to Nowhere" "He's a Maverick" "Toxic Assets" or even "Airborne was invented by a teacher" mean to you before the 4th quarter of 2008? What do they mean now? To millions of people?
A Micro-script is any set of words from one word to a sentence or two - no more than can fit on one Blackberry screen or the back of a tee shirt -
that uses descriptive, visual imagery, metaphors or just rhythmic words to express an idea in a way that people like to say and to repeat to others.
People hear Micro-Scripts and then pass them along in conversations, emails, blogs, press articles, text messages even bumper stickers - person to person communication that comes fast and goes fast.
You're going to see that it's Micro-scripts that are truly the magic words of master communicators in any field, politics, marketing, sales,
academics, anything. And from now on, you'll need to understand their simple principles if you want get through. They've been the secret of the best
communicators since time immemorial, although many of the best paid today (see this year's Super Bowl commercials?) have become disastrously
divorced from any real understanding, appreciation or practice - opting for effects over effectiveness.
But isn't a Micro-script just a catch phrase or a sound bite?
Sure -- but it's a very special, very scientific kind of sound bite as we'll see. It is
an idea bite that contains or triggers a whole story already running in the brain. It's used to inform, influence or impress others and is
intentionally passed along because people like to say it. (Hint: "Guns don't kill people, people do." "It's made from sugar to taste like sugar."
"Airborne works because it was made by a second grade teacher who was sick of getting sick"). Micro-scripts are a little key that unlocks the much bigger idea currently in residence. If a sound bite, a tag line even a descriptive name can do all this, and if people using it to tell others about your product, then it meets the definition. Indeed such a tag line would be a Micro-script.
The key if you are a communicator, is to speak and write your most important ideas in this language. We have to learn to speak and write
in Micro-script.
Micro-scripts are the best drivers of anything word of mouth or viral which means they're the jet engine of marketing in the
new digital age where word of mouth, the most primitive but still most effective channel, rules. We'll see that all digital devices are just hand
held, electronic word of mouth machines.
Ironically, it's been the political campaigns (not the advertising industry who invented the Micro-script rules in the days of radio) who've
learned to leverage their modern day power and have done some of the most impressive things to advance their science of late. After all, political
campaigns are in constant clock ticking, crisis marketing mode by nature. As my friend Mark Walsh says: elections are a "one day sale for 100% market
share." The Republicans figured it out first with Ronald Reagan in the 80's (Are you better off than you were four years ago? and There you go again!)
They were a decisive factor in the five out of the seven Presidential races that the GOP captured up through 2004. The Democrats are just now catching
up (Yes we can! and McCain and Bush are McSame).
Today, the best and brightest marketing communicators in all media are getting back in the game.
Micro-Script Q&A:
Q: How is a Micro-script different from a Dominant Selling Idea?
The Dominant Selling Idea is the actual difference, the idea itself -- like safety, strength, or worthiness. The Micro-script is the expression
of that idea - in descriptive, everyday, visual kinds of words that people like; that make it easy for them to remember and repeat to others.
Example--The idea is this: "guns are not inherently bad. Guns themselves aren't the problem. Guns are good in the right hands."
The Micro-Script: Guns don't kill people, people do.
Q: How is a Micro-script Different than a Tag line?
A tag line-an anchoring slogan for an entity-can certainly be a Micro-script if people also like to say it and repeat it to others.
For example: People like and repeat the tag line for Las Vegas which supports the idea - "The adult playground designed to let you
experience your fantasies without getting caught like you would at home in Philadelphia." Instead, they tell you with a grin:
"What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." They didn't make it up. They saw it on the commercial and they liked saying it to their friends. That's because the tag line is written in Micro-script language and it worked. Not a bad way to write tag lines.
Q: Aren't You Just Describing a Sound Bite?
Yeah, but it's a very special kind of sound bite. A typical sound bite can be random, passive, picked up by press for entertainment, news, shock, human interest. It may or may not be empty of social or commercial importance. Doesn't matter.
Micro-Sript is an idea bite. Purposely crafted as a persuasion and penetration tool by someone with a specific message to communicate
and the knowledge to create it. Not just to be noticed, but to plant an Idea in concentrated form for broadcast by social media as well as paid
media. But mostly human to human -- that is via the universal word of mouth machines (all hand held electronic devices) broadcasting from a
palm near you -- now and forever more. "No child left behind," and "Bounty, the Quicker Picker Upper" are not an accident. They are master-crafted. Designed to transmit. "Sara Palin didn't know Africa was a country." The entire electorate heard that in about 24 hours because it was a perfect Micro-script.
Q: Aren't You Talking About Evil Propaganda-Using Language to Manipulate?
No this isn't about value judgments. It's about the most effective human communication. The principles can be used for good or ill, so any
communicator today must be certain to understand them. Today's digital Word of Mouth planet makes it more imperative than ever. If the
opposition uses these weapons against you, you must arm yourself in kind - and use them for truth and the good cause.
Q: How come it can only be in words-today people are visual?
Your right. Words are critical. Words are still the #1 way we speak and even think. But Micro-scripts can be expressed visually, and more
and more today, are expressed in video. Key visuals act like visual Micro-scripts if they are proactively used to tell a story or make a
point by one person to another. If I text you "look at this and send you a video clip of Rodney king getting beaten by the cops, I'm
sending you a visual Micro-script that says: Police brutality in LA.
Video is becoming so ubiquitous - so easy and available to take (any cell phone)
upload, download - it's increasingly becoming a language in and of itself. It will be increasingly be used for micro-scripts.
Copyright © Bill Schley. All Rights Reserved.
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