Thursday, September 13, 2018

How I learned all the things at CMWorld 2018

My sixth time at this great event was a little different. This year, I was honored to co-host a session with my good friend Cathy McPhillips, to help attendees get the most out of the conference. Holding a session at 4:30 p.m. on the eve of the first day, we weren’t sure what to expect as far as attendance, but people came. People sat on the floor and in the isles. It was great.

After the always-fun first night event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the different feeling continued. First up, it was the fab Robert Rose taking the stage, not Joe Pulizzi. Robert did a great job of welcoming us and reminding us – true to this year’s Game On theme – that a new Player 2 had entered the Content Marketing game, and that new player is trust. True, poignant and thought provoking. But it wasn’t the orange-clad godfather I was used to seeing.

Stephanie Stahl, General Manager of Content Marketing Institute (CMI), joined Robert and welcomed the crowd, estimated to be larger than last year’s 3,600 content marketers, to what would be a great show. But where was…

Ah, then I felt better. Enter Joe Pulizzi, founder of CMI, creator of Content Marketing World and wearer of everything orange. As the guiding force he has become in the content marketing space, Joe provided some needed insight and reassuring familiarity. He told us there are three reasons our content marketing efforts fail: our goal isn’t big enough, we aren’t delivering consistently or our efforts aren’t focused. Joe also reminded us that in marketing, we always want to harvest; we take, take, take. In content marketing, we serve.

Balance restored. On with the show.

The first keynote of the show is given, as always, by the highest-rated speaker from the previous year (I love how this works, btw) and that was Andrew Davis. So many good messages here, but the main message he had for us is that we aren’t creating enough drama in our content. Or, as Drew puts it, enough tension. The payoff of your content, Drew says, must be proportional to the tension you build.

He proceeded to prove his point by bringing a giant mystery box with him on stage. He started to open it several times, but never took us all the way, if you know what I mean. He also shared two videos of exploding watermelons, because one does these things. One was a slow-motion explosion that took maybe 7 seconds. Nice, he says, but where’s the tension?

Then he shared a video where two Buzzfeed employees, clad in plastic from head to toe, began wrapping rubber bands around an unsuspecting watermelon. Everyone knew what would happen. Eventually. But when? What would it look like? People were watching online, delaying meetings and not picking up their kids at school to watch as more and more rubber bands were added. More than 700,000 people were watching at one point. This is tension.

Then, as any good tension-builder does, he let that sit. Drew Davis left us hanging. He talked about this idea called the curiosity gap, which is the chasm between what we know and what we want to know. He says we need to make this as big as possible to build, you know, tension. LIKE THE RUBBER BAND THING – CAN WE PLEASE GO BACK THERE? WHAT IS HAPPENING??

Of course, he did. And it exploded. But not before the point was made. He left us all with the question: what are you doing to build tension for your brand?

Tough act to follow, right? So, I went to see Jay Baer.

Jay is a speaker, author and lover of tequila & BBQ. He also knows some stuff, yall. On this day, he’s talking about word of mouth. We’ve all heard talks about word of mouth, but Jay’s examples brought it home. And, even though it’s called word of mouth, the best stories, he said, are about what you do, not what you say (because, if I may, it’s not your mouth, brands!).

Like Doubletree Hotels and how they will always have a warm chocolate chip cookie for you. For 30 years. What does a choc chip cookie have to do with clean rooms or a good night’s sleep? Nothing. But they are a reminder of home…and who doesn’t want that on the road. The cookie is the content.

Jay also trotted out Cheesecake Factory’s 5,940-word menu (he had an intern count the words for him). They prepare chicken in 85 different ways. This is the Cheesecake Factory, right? The ridiculously large menu has become their oversized calling card. And it works.

Jay called these things talk triggers and asked us about ours. Fair question. He also left us with this: surprise and delight is a stunt, not a strategy. Yes. He’s got a book coming out and you should get it. It has an alpaca on the front and no one knows why. Get it anyway.

Next for me was another Jay, no relation. Jay Acunzo has been successfully beating the best-practices-are-just-average drum for a bit, but always in a meaningful way.

To prove what I mean, Jay started out by reminding us, almost as if it was the first time, that there’s a gap between the work we want to do and the work we actually do. Yes! But, wait… why? Because we make decisions in three ways, Jay says, based on: conventional wisdom, the latest trends or, simply, everything. Because when you don’t know what to do, you do it all.

He offered great brand examples, like Poo-Pourri and Merriam-Webster (yes, the dictionary), and talked about this thing he called first principle insight, which are basic but hard-to-reach truths about your situation. Dig deeper, look for the real reason and you will also find an emotional connection, he told us.

Finally, he encouraged us not to be an expert, but an investigator. Then there was this: exceptional work isn’t created by the answers others give, but by asking better questions. Yes, my friend.

Just when I thought day one couldn’t get better, they bring me Ann Handley.

You know Ann. We all do. The first Chief Content Officer on the planet and, now, thanks to a surprise ceremony on this day, the first recipient of the Content Marketing Hero Award. Big doins folks.

Then, after all of that, she still gave a great presentation.

Ann spoke, appropriately, about great communication. She talked about newsletters, of all things, and why they are seeing a resurgence in growth and popularity. Ann told us that the secret to a great newsletter wasn’t the news part, but the letter.

Writing something to a specific person makes it — wait for it — more personal. She mentioned Warren Buffett, the bazillionaire investor guy, who’s famous for his shareholder newsletter. People wait by the mailbox (okay, probably their inbox) for this thing every quarter and he writes it…to his sister Doris. Smart guy, that Buffet. He figures if his sister, who’s a smart lady but knows virtually nothing about investing, can understand his newsletter, others can, too. Works.

And that’s what you get from Ann. Smart insight that’s so accessible it also makes you feel good. Hey, I’d buy MarketingProfs stock. Okay day one, I thought to myself, that will do.

But I got an unexpected surprise.

Famed National Geographic photographer Dewitt Jones was up next (I’m sorry…who?). Now, I’ve seen National Geographic magazine. And if they say this guy’s a great photographer, that’s what I’m going with. But content marketing? What’s the connection? My mind started wandering, I started thinking maybe I could find this elusive new Starbucks in the convention center people were talking about…

I decided to hang around. And I’m very glad I did. Mr. Jones is a fine photographer, people. But I’m here to tell you he’s a better storyteller. He might even be a great storyteller. He’s probably a storyteller who also takes pictures (that’s how good the stories were).

From jungles and desserts to Scottish weight-thrower guys, he certainly had some great examples. His overall message was this: when it comes to creativity, there can always be more than one right answer. Let that sink in a bit, because it’s powerful.

Time and again, he would show us a beautiful photo he had taken somewhere in the world, only to be replaced by a better one (usually much better) that he captured just by looking at something closer, further away, differently. And then he dropped this on me, mister Dewitt Jones did: it’s not trespassing to go beyond one’s own boundaries.

Thank you, day one.

The second day of Content Marketing world would start out in a thoughtful way.

Mathew Sweezey (one T, please) from Salesforce offered a talk on the difference between high and low performing marketing teams. I was all in on this one (and so were a lot of others) because we want to be in that first group, right?

Mr. Sweezey started by telling us that tactics don’t matter. Yes! 1,000x. Everyone has the same tactics available to them, so that can’t be the difference between high and low performing teams. He also talked a lot about the importance of customer experience, which has taken on a buzzword feel today. He successfully used the Kmart Ship my pants campaign of an example of a great message (it won a Lion at Cannes, for Pete’s sake!) that wasn’t consistent with the in-store or online experience and, as a result, failed miserably. Point to Mr. Sweezey.

We don’t have a content problem, he said, we have a getting the right content to the right person problem. Game, set, match.

My next session took me across the pond (metaphorically, people, there’s no actual pond) to hear from the British content marketing duo Andrew & Pete. They challenged us to follow the leaders of the medium, not the industry, and argued quite successfully that there are only two ways to succeed today: be better or be different. (Is it me or did that last bit sound like I was speaking in a British accent to you? Me, too. Right.)

They had a great way of talking about the things we should probably already know, but in a fresh way. Like the remarkability trifle, which everyone should order the next time you’re in a restaurant that serves marketing desserts. There are three layers in this trifle: ideation (delivering content in a different way); validation (using SoMe to test your ideas and improve on them) and Dependability (be dependable in how, when you deliver content). It was delicious.

Next was Joe Lazauskas, who says it’s the golden age for brands who want to build meaningful relationships with their audience. To prove it, Joe educated us on the neuroscience stuffs and even went so far as to wire up four (willing) participants from the audience to see how they reacted to a somewhat (okay, very) emotional ad from HP. I wasn’t crying, you were crying.

It was cool — and a little scary — to think about how marketers might use this tech to test ideas and get even deeper into our heads. Kudos to Laser for researching and bringing us these deep thoughts. One audience member asked where they might get this technology today and Joe said it wasn’t yet available but that, since he was from Jersey, he might be able to “hook you up.” Perfect.

Just two more, swear.

Tom Webster talked about the importance of voice and the spoken word, not just those new-fangled smart speakers and podcasts, but sound in general. He suggested your brand needs to find its own sound and that there’s an open door here: while the NBC three tone jingle was the first sound registered as a trademark in America back in the 1970s, only some 200 others have been ® since. Opportunity?

Tom reminded us to do five things with audio:
Be consistent. Tom Bodett from Motel 6 and his “We’ll leave a light on for you” line has created a character over time that adds to the brand story (heck, he probably is the brand story). And none of us knows what he looks like. Honestly, I thought he worked at Motel 6; turns out he’s a voice actor and has been doing Motel 6 ads since 1986.Be contextual. Be aware of what people are doing when they are listening to you.
Be helpful. Things like smart speakers give people a chance to ask questions they might not want to ask other people. Like their doctor.
Be relevant.
Be a show. Entertainment value of sound is important. And, according to Tom, two guys sitting around talking about the Cubs is not a show. Be a show.

And, of course, as you might have heard, Tina Fey was the final keynote speaker this year. And she was great. Getting to her, with 4,000 of my closest friends, was another matter. While in line, I passed through rain, campfires and briefly lost consciousness. I don’t want to say the line was long but, when I first got in line, Burt Reynolds was still with us. Still, it was worth it.

Here’s Tina Fey on:

Women in comedy:
“We used to be treated like cappuccino machines — ‘Why do we need another one, we have one already?’”

Writing:
“Everything before Command+P is a nightmare”

Personal brands:
“I feel like I’m maybe a generation too old; I have a brand, but I have it by accident.”

The one rule when creating content:
“Trust your gut.”

How she prepares for something new:
“Learn from things you think are good and learn from things you think are bad.”

For those of you who attended #CMWorld (and the three of you who made it to the end of this long piece), we share a common bond. We came in search of knowledge and received so much more. We’ve renewed and created entirely new friendships, learned from experts in our field and from each other, and were inspired to do great things. And thanks to the great team at CMI, we are ready.

Let’s do this.