TA #91: 🚀 How to do a content launch right. Plus: the hottest meme of the week... but make it marketing.

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Welcome to the 91st issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, life. THANK YOU for being here! I appreciate you.

Boston, Sunday, July 18, 2021

Hello, friend.

Several weeks ago I got a personal invitation to a film premiere.

The invitation said I'd been "handpicked" to attend a VIP prescreening of a documentary short that set out to capture the zeitgeist of a post-pandemic world.

Following the premiere would be a live panel Q&A with the film's stars. Also, they'd be sending a swag bag with merch. Popcorn. Candy! (Me: Please please please make it Junior Mints.)

None of that would be surprising if I were, say, the editor of the Hollywood Reporter and the invitation came from some studio's marketing department.

But it was surprising because it arrived one unremarkable Wednesday afternoon in late May, just as I was closing out an unseasonably sweltering day in my Tiny House office. It came not from a studio exec but from my friend Tyler Lessard, who heads up marketing at Vidyard, a B2B company in Toronto.

A B2B marketing team producing a documentary short is not as common as I wish it were. But it's not totally weird, either. In 2015, InVision produced a full-length documentary on the power of smart design that put that company on the map for many designers.

So the fact that Tyler produced a documentary short isn't why I'm telling you about it.

I'm telling you about it because of the way Tyler & team launched and marketed the marketing—turning a new program release into an "event," and then seamlessly linking live/virtual components to make it a party. Even while the US/Canadian border is sealed tight; even while the pandemic is still making a lot of us think twice about attending a party.

There's a lot I love about the approach: The slow marketing rollout. Creating momentum for more content. Seeding an account-based marketing play...

But I'm getting ahead of myself—I haven't even told you about the film yet.

* * *

Premiere day. June 23. I'm in my shady Tiny House Office, not a dark movie theater. But I have the swag and snacks. (Chocolates—darn good, even surviving sweating customs through Canada; popcorn—kinda stale TBH. Zero Junior Mints. Sad.)

The movie starts. In over 16 minutes, re:connection tells stories of how real people connect with others in a remote world—and what it all means for the future of business as the world becomes less remote again.

It features a collection of neuroscientists, marketers, business leaders, and one 82-year-old TikTok star named Steve Austin who goes by Old Man Steve and has 1.7 million followers. ("I don't know why my friends say they don't get it," Old Man Steve said about TikTok. "It's easy.") <--- Love that.

Vidyard is a video platform for sales and marketing. And video is, of course, one way that we've all stayed connected with each another in the past year and a half.

But the marketing team wisely avoided getting Vidyard-centric. They kept the film focused on its bigger idea: "It's really about inspiring people with what's possible and to think differently about human connection in the virtual age," Tyler told me later.

The film was good. But let's look more closely at the launch strategy as a road map for any marketing campaign.

SLOW + EXCLUSIVITY. Tyler could've easily decided to roll this film out with a big cannonball in the deep end, creating a big splash designed to hit as many people as possible, as fast as possible.

Paid media. Influencer seeding. Ads that follow you around Google like a stalker about to be hit with a restraining order. Social posts up the wazoo... You know what I mean.

But nay-nay, friend! Instead, Tyler chose a slower, more strategic route focused not on lead generation but on real connection: Personally inviting 500 VIPs (customers, partners, media, friends) to a private viewing and Q&A discussion with the film's stars; and shipping swag to underscore the exclusivity and relaxed party vibe. He invited 500; 100 came to the party.

The default in Marketing is to go for volume, not depth. But a slower burn maintains heat longer than a quick spark.

ON-DEMAND + LIVE. The documentary was obviously not live, and it was highly polished. But your prerecorded anything needs a live component as a trigger for people to actually show up.

Why: "Available On-Demand Anytime" equals "will never get to it." For more detail on this approach, see Can a virtual event be better than an in-person event?

The panel discussion and live Q&A was that trigger. And it also became an opportunity to create more content—featuring audience questions and the stars from the film—as well as to gauge how the whole project landed. "It was a single point in time to bring them together for a live discussion that we could record," Tyler said.

Old Man Steve

CONTENT + ABM. Part of the goal of the premiere was to pique interest from champions at key customer and prospect accounts to host a similar private screening event at their own companies, "with the goal of those private screenings creating more strategic conversations," Tyler said. Again, slower + strategic vs. cannonbaaaaallllllllll!!

DIFFERENT APPROACH = DIFFERENT METRICS. How do you measure success of a program like this?

Short answer: Change your metrics.

Longer answer: Here's Tyler: "Longer term we'll be looking at any correlations we can find between people who watched the film (private screening or public launch) and downstream influence on use of Vidyard/upsells/etc." Marketing will also look at the film's overall viewership (reach), average engagement time (resonance), and overall ROI (impact on downstream revenue).

THE GLORY OF LANGUAGE!

Not a video, a film.
Not thought leaders and experts, but stars.
Not a marketing activation or launch, but a world premiere.
...Even the sig file on Tyler's email now reads: "Executive Producer of re:connection."

Silly? Pretentious? High-falutin?

I don't think so. Words matter. How you describe yourself matters. If you want people to take you seriously, you have to take yourself seriously.

This is a good philosophy in life, not just in Marketing. Now that I think about it.

* * *

Everybody Writes Writing Tip of the Fortnight (WTOOF) ("wa=toof")

This week's writing tip is about finding the story that needs to be told vs. the one you think needs to be told.

Or: Give the narrative room to grow. Evolve. Go to college. Get married. Or not. Let it make its own choices in life.

The original working title for the re:connection film was Shoot! This Is Real. "We originally thought the story would be about the jarring shift to a video-first culture, and how people were or weren't adapting," Tyler said.

But as the marketing team unpacked the stories and perspectives from those featured, Tyler added, "we realized the hidden story—and the common thread—was one of human connection."

About video in business, sure. But also about the challenges and opportunities of building friendships and camaraderie in a digital world. The narrative got stronger because, Tyler said, "it exposed some of our traditional biases towards video as a medium, and explored new ideas for how we can use it not only in our business but also in our personal lives."

In other words, the creative challenged the thinking of its own creators. (<-- That's everything I love about creating, right there.)

Our preconceived notions and plans can box us in. Let your story find its way. It's okay to be entirely wrong—very often, that's the best part.

Takeaway: So yeah: start with an outline. A rubric. An idea. But use it as a guidepost, not a prescription.

* * *

QUICKIES

A 17-Step Process for Creating High-Performing Articles. An infographic that's like your GPS for creating great stuff.

Public Speaking for Introverts. We talked about this a few weeks ago in this newsletter. So many of you chimed in with your own ideas that I promoted the newsletter to a blog post, and incorporated a bunch of your thoughts.

The Hottest Meme of the Week... But make it marketing.

CONTENT TOOLS

A content tool I used this week.

Emotional Headline Analyzer. How emotionally evolved is your headline?

TRAVEL TRENDS + INSIGHTS ✈️ [SPONSORED]

The travel and hospitality sector lost almost $4.7 trillion in 2020—as much as if all 7.9 billion people in the world threw $595 each straight into a garbage can.

This new report from Braze of more than 9,500 consumers details how travel businesses can truly soar as the world reopens and many of us get on planes and trains again. If you're in the travel or tourism industry: Get all the glorious details right here. [Reg. required]

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

My dog Augie turned 1 this week! One is a big deal. We had a full gala planned: Guest list. Bouncers. Olivia Rodrigo pop-up concert.

Then it was raining on his birthday. Party canceled; gala postponed. So I did what Moms do everywhere... We went on a Target run.

From his POV, just as good. 😂

LOVE LETTERS

💌 To Anna David for the newsletter love.

💌 To Twibi for naming me to its influencer list.

💌 To Carmine Mastropierro for the shout in his piece on copywriting.

💌 To Wiliam Dolan at sagefrog for 10 copywriting lessons from Everybody Writes.

* * *

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

Stay safe. Stay sane. Stay hopeful.

I'll be back on August 1.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, you can:

1) buy a book.
2) Get yourself some $WORD coin. (Read more about creator coins here.)
3) Simply forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

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.
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TA #91: 🚀 How to do a content launch right. Plus: the hottest meme of the week... but make it marketing.

Older messages

TA #90: 🔥 The Cure for Burnout; Standout Sentence of the Week

TA #89: 🗣️ Public Speaking for Introverts (And Those Who Forget How to Be Around People); My Writing Framework

TA #88: 🌻 Show Me Your Summer Office; a Masterclass in How to Empathy

TA #87: 🎉 The Fun Parts of Writing; Ranking Content the Michael Scott Way

TA #86: 🍕 Taking Risks in Marketing without Losing Your Job; 15 Writing Lessons from Famous Authors

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