Michael Moore on marketing

There is a film festival on at the moment in Sheffield called Doc Fest. Doc Fest is what it sounds – a festival of documentaries.

Now, I like a documentary. But many documentaries are booorrriiing.

As part of Doc Fest Michael Moore turned up in Sheffield last night.

I don’t agree with everything Michael Moore has to say, but I’ve always admired his willingness to stand up for unjust causes. Even at the expense of his personal safety. So I went along.

The most interesting thing about Moore’s talk was his perspective on documentaries.

“You’re making a movie, not a sermon.” Moore said. “Entertainment is essential. Humour is one of the best vehicles to deliver a message and instigate change.”

That advice applies just as much marketing just as documentaries.

Like documentary-makers, marketers are often very serious about what they are doing. Their message must cover particular features and benefits. The messagemust be overwhelmingly positive. The message must fit within brand guidelines.

As an aside if you only ever send positive messages to your customers you are treating them like children, not adults.

“Worry about the art ahead of the message,” Moore continued. “Trust you have got the message right.”

In my opinion the three goals of a marketing message are (1) to entertain, (2) to educate and (3) to change someone’s thinking. In that order.

If you don’t entertain you cannot educate. If you cannot educate you will never change anyone’s thinking. If you never change anyone’s thinking you won’t increase your sales.

Most of your competitors have no interest in delivering entertaining messages, and that is too bad for them. Let them stick to their stuffy brand guidelines.

If you want to get better at entertaining you should learn the six-step process we cover in Nurture Email Mastery.