TA #72: 🐻 Copywriting Counsel from an Unbearable Campaign; Your 22-Point Content Checklist; Creativity as a Choice.

Hey, you. You're still doing great. Click here to read this on the web.

This week's image, #72: Explore.org

Welcome to the 72nd issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, content, marketing, life. A special non-contact high-five to those from Content Marketing World and OptIn Live. THANK YOU for being here.

Boston, Sunday, October 25, 2020

Hi, Pumpkin.

This fall has been dominated by a contentious, polarizing, absolutely gutting election—where one plumped-up challenger seeks to unseat an overstuffed incumbent.

Social media has been taking sides (it always does)—adamant that their candidate is the most qualified. The most skilled. The only logical choice, you idiot.

I'm talking, of course, about Fat Bear Week.

Fat Bear Week is the annual competition that seeks an answer to the question: Which brown bear at Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve is the fattest?

The single-elimination tournament pits bear against bear. Voters online choose the one they think has packed on the most pounds to prepare for the coming winter's hibernation. This is not a body-shaming; it's body-glorifying: The fattest bear is celebrated as the one who has prepped the best.

No lie: this Fat Bear election has been a nice distraction from the other big election looming here in the US—the one that's equally polarizing, but with higher stakes.

And maybe the backdrop of the US Presidential election is why Fat Bear Week took on new resonance this year.

Or maybe it's because this year we are all Fat Bears? Sitting in our homes. Eating everything in sight. Bulking up for a winter we aren't sure we'll survive.

Whatever the reason, heavy bears are the lightness 2020 needs: This year, Fat Bear Week drew 646,282 online votes, more than double the number of voters during Fat Bear Week 2019.

This year's champion won by a... well, wide margin: A bear called 747 (he's "big as a jet") took the title:

There's a lot I love about Fat Bear Week from a Marketing point of view. (I've talked about why I love it in speeches this fall.)

But at the foundation of it is the story that the Katmai Park and National Park Service tells about each bear candidate.

Copywriting Tips from Fat Bear Week

👉 Telling is better than selling. The park service doesn't sell the fat candidates to us. It doesn't implore you or me to vote for one over another.

Instead, it tells their story in a way that makes every bear relatable, while educating us on the challenges and surprising humanity of wild bear life.

Her maternal experiences haven't been without hardship. When Holly and her single yearling arrived in 2007, the yearling had a pronounced limp. Despite the difficulties that accompanied her yearling's injury, Holly was able to successfully care for him. The yearling's leg healed by the end of summer and he was weaned the following spring.

In 2014 Holly adopted a lone yearling cub into her family. Holly cared for and raised this bear alongside her biological cub. In 2020, Holly returned with a single spring cub that represents her fifth known litter.

See what happened there?

Holly is transformed through story. It's not her weight or appearance or the facts of her fatness that win us over. It's the story of how she's advocated for her own children, fostered other kids in need—how she is basically Mother of the Year by any measure for any species.

👉 Humor is painted, not written. Holly isn't tan and black; she's the color of a bloated "toasted marshmallow."

Bear 402 (so close to "404" that I dubbed her Bear ALMOST Not Found LOL) has "apostrophe-shaped ears."

Grazer is "an especially skilled angler," which instantly conjures up the image of a pudgy brown sow in hip waders and a fishing vest, casting her rod into the rapids, posting her catch on her Instagram account later that day.

The best way to describe is almost always to paint a picture. And in humor, to use a paint set of unconventional words.

👉 Always apply alliteration. "Lardaceous Leviathan Levels Chunky Challenger" is a much more vivid way of writing "Fat, Large Creature Beats His Challenger."

Especially when it's followed by "747 fulfills the fate of the fat and fabulous as he heads off to hibernation."

That's some world-class alliteration there.

* * *

Danielle Bridiga runs digital strategy for the Department of Interior, which includes the parks in the National Park Service. She told me that the social strategy of the National Park Service "is to share plenty of content that sparks wonder and memories, travel ideas, and of course amusement—while keeping people aware and invested."

Our product might not be Fat Bears (sweet Cheezits I wish). But isn't Danielle's mission not unlike that for all our brands? To share content that sparks awareness and investment?

And maybe a little humor, a story, and a reminder that even in the wilderness... we can thrive.

👉 And if you're in the US: Please VOTE!!! It's too late to favorite a Fat Bear. But it's not too late for that other election dominating the news. Get to it.

* * *

This past week has been a doozy. So this fortnight I'm sharing just a few quick things.

▶️ Creativity Is a Choice. I really like this video that my friend Carole Alalouf produced for Seth Godin. (Hi, Carole!) There are some great reminders in here for any creative soul. (As in: alllll of us!) From Seth:

Our best work happens when we contribute something new, something generous, something that makes an improvement. But making a contribution isn't possible if we don't ship the work.

P.S. Marketers: Carole creates these whiteboard explainer videos for brands, too. She created this one for me. I love that she included my beloved little dog, Abby, who passed away 6 months ago. That's the kind of thoughtful detail that sets Carole's work apart.

▶️ A 22-Point Web Content Checklist. A complete list of elements to include in your next article or blog post.

I like that Orbit Media breaks down the elements of content into 3 components: SEO (If no one sees it, what's the point?); human psychology (triggers that help us engage); and media (photos, videos, etc.). Full explanation of the checklist is here.

▶️ How Marketing Leaders Can Be Better Marketing Leaders. I like this piece by CMO Latane Conant, especially the quote below. It's a good read for marketing leaders at any level of an organization who want to understand what it takes to be great.

[Merging Marketing] under Sales doesn't work. Demands between the two teams are different, and when marketing team members get caught up in reactionary month-to-month tactics, they lose the time they need to mull over the market's long-term prospects to build long-term value.

TOOLS

Content tools I used this week

The Most Dangerous Writing App. "Dangerous" because it deletes all your work if you stop writing for 5 seconds. [h/t to the fantastic David Berkowitz, who shared this with me after I shared two of my own favorite offbeat writing apps last week]

STANDOUT SENTENCE OF THE WEEK

Arugula was discovered in the mid-1960s, which was followed by endive, which was followed by radicchio, which was followed by frisée, which was followed by the three M's—mesclun, mache, and microgreens—and that, in a nutshell, is the history of the past forty years from the point of view of lettuce.

—Bloomberg writer Justin Fox quoting the late, great Nora Ephron in a business piece on the demise of iceberg lettuce

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Dumpster. ZIP code. Bubble wrap. Escalator. Auto-tune.

Those 5 words are not part of a mental acuity test. They are 5 of 50 everyday words that started out in life as brand names and trademark puppets and grew up to be real words. Full list by Ramona Sukhraj at IMPACT. [h/t Cyndi Sutela]

LOVE LETTERS
Shouts from around the Internet.

💌 To Heidi Cohen for the love in her piece on blogging in 2020.

💌 To Sowndarya Kishore at Social Animal for the coverage from Content Marketing World.

💌 To Kady White at Idea Grove for naming me one of 3 digital marketing thought leaders for 2020.
💌 To Mike Allton at The Social Media Hat for naming this newsletter one of 15 he loves.

* * *

Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.

I'll be back on November 7.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, buy a book. Or forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SELECT PUBLIC EVENTS

📅 October 29: Accelerate OTT Virtual

📅 November 4 & 5: MarketingProfs B2B Forum. The worst part about going to an event is getting back to the office; all the good vibes + inspiration fade away with the day-to-day grind. We've solved that by combining our PRO community + the B2B Forum into one year-long community + resource. The details.

📅 November 9: World Business Forum, Australia

📅 November 12: SharpSpring Agency Accelerator Series [at LinkedIn]

📅 November 17-19: Digital Summit @Home

📅 November 30-December 2: Digital Sales and Marketing World [online]

📅 December 3: Amplexor Virtual Knowledge Series

📅 January 7: Skucon
📅 Your Date Here: Book me to speak [limited dates available]

➡️ ➡️ ➡️ Not into this? No problem: Unsubscribe right here.

SPECIAL THANKS to AWeber for being the provider of choice for Total Annarchy. If you are looking to up your email game, give them a shout.

Ann Handley is the author of Everybody Writes and other books.
Subscribe to this newsletter.

Follow her elsewhere:

Ann Handley
9 Bartlett St., #313, Andover, MA 01810

Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options

TA #72: 🐻 Copywriting Counsel from an Unbearable Campaign; Your 22-Point Content Checklist; Creativity as a Choice.

Older messages

TA #71: 💪 Two Little-Known Tools to Help You Get Unstuck; Brand-New Content Benchmarks

TA #70: 💌 What I Learned About Writing from Dumpling School; 20 Questions to Stronger Content

TA #69: ☕ Pumpkin Spice Newsletter: A Case Study in the Power of Copywriting

TA #68: ✨ How This Storytelling Program Mopped Up; 10 Tips to Make Your Social Media More Conversational

TA #67: 🕸️ A Writer's Hierarchy of Needs; the Most Important Skills of 2020 Leaders

You Might Also Like

Convincing loyal customers of a competitor

👀 The MF Who Ruined Search

Diamonds are not forever

🔍 Short Form Vid Structure & Landing Page Tactics

So, about my last email

Witness the AI power for yourself: Join our training LIVE!

Jons Growth Journal Issue #3 - why I'm avoiding short form content, side hustle updates, YouTube Channnel

Alternative to Google Traffic?

Digiday's annual guide to ad-supported streaming services, from the top platforms to marketing spend

♦️ Why your brand needs an enemy to grow faster (and how to choose one)