How to Convince an Audience Through Storytelling

Steve Shepard teaches an executive education class at USC’s Marshall School of Business Institute for Communication Technology Management.  Beyond the course material, the best takeaway for the corporate communications executives is learning how to be a better storyteller.  This skill is not taught, but it is learned, largely by watching Steve and some of the other examples he shares.

A brilliant example is this TED Talk from Sir Ken Robinson, who says schools kill creativity.

If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original …. We are now running national educational systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make.

Creativity as the process of having original ideas that have value; more often than not it comes about through the interaction of different disciplinary ways of seeing things.

Sir Robinson warms us up with humor along the way, then convinces us with one of the most inspirational, encouraging stories I’ve heard: the epiphany of Gillian Lynne, Broadway choreographer of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, told in the segment from 15:00 – 17:35 in the video below.

As Steve writes in his book The Deliberate Storyteller, the best way to learn to be a great storyteller is by watching great storytellers.  He shares a few more points with us in our video interview.

OSN: Yankees’ A-Rod Past Prime, Unable to Match Asinine Public Embarrassment of Years Past

ESPN /ABC News reported today that NY Yankees “star” A-Rod might be suspended for drug use or poor performance, but The Onion Sports Network broke the story years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zveFhcqj_SA

A-Rod Past Prime, Unable To Match Asinine Public Embarrassments Of Years Past

UPDATE:  from The Onion:  A-Rod Shows Minor Leaguers Proper Way To Put Down Teammates

The Work Talk Show: Humor at Work and Being Unqualified

As with most worthwhile projects I stumble into, when DJ Waldow and Nick Westergaard invited me to be on The Work Talk Show, I felt unqualified.  But I said yes anyway.   To avoid sounding unqualified, I scrambled to come up with anything that sounded like a step or a process or an iPad app that I use to get work done, but we never really got around to those bullet points.  Like a good improv show, we started out with a little structure, and found ourselves on a much more fascinating path.

I confessed to the hosts that I have no idea how I get work done, and it seems like most of the time I am not getting work done.  My projects usually start with a request like, “Hey, can you produce a funny YouTube video to amplify our marketing message for the upcoming product launch?”  I’ll say yes, then block off the next 4 -5 hours to feel unqualified.  Day 2 in the project schedule is usually dedicated to self-loathing, and by EOD, I’ve concluded I shouldn’t even be in corporate comedy and should apply for a lateral move into Accounts Payable or Procurement. The following morning I’ll stop at a coffee shop and write the script in seven minutes on a napkin and ATM receipts.  And the video comes out okay.

But instead of discussing work process on this show, we discussed how more comedy and humor in the workplace can improve creativity, productivity, and make us all taller.  And, as with all business podcasts, we covered Del Close and  The Harold.

I’m only just not coming to peace with this way of working.  And I was comforted after listening to the first Work Talk Show episode of this year.   Seth Godin proclaimed that the industrial economy has been replaced by the Connection Economy, which rewards surprise, grit, delight and ridiculousness.   What we get paid for now is by standing for something, and by overcoming the fear of being remarkable and ridiculous.

Being ridiculous?  Now that is something I’m qualified for.

Vermont Tourism Ad: YouTube Comedy Week

A top vacation spot, the Green Mountain state is home to the von Trapp Family Lodge, Smuggler’s Notch ski resort, and Ben & Jerry’s; and leads per capita in covered bridges, maple syrup and cheddar cheese. A bicycling tour through the fall foliage should be a top five item on everyone’s buck list. Dedicate at least two days on the itinerary to explore Burlington — visit Church Street, American Flatbread, Penny Cluse Cafe and the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center. Oh, and there might be a monster lurking in Lake Champlain.

Enjoy YouTube Comedy Week.

Contagious. Why Things Catch On

Contagious.  Now Available in the large print edition.

Last month I visited The Wharton School to speak about the benefits of using humor in corporate social media. While on campus, I had the chance to interview Dr. Jonah Berger about his book, Contagious:  Why Things Catch On.  The video interview is posted in my BtoB Magazine blog.  We discussed how he’s applied science to understanding what will go viral, how B2B content marketing folks can apply his STEPPS model to improve the success of their campaigns, and how humor helps content marketing be more successful.  FastCompany posted a few excepts from the book.

Jonah also connected me to his friend Dr. Peter McGraw, author of The Humor Code and professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Colorado Boulder.  Ann Handley and I will interview him on Better Marriage Through Big Data this summer.

Photo: Andrew Hetherington, in Wired

After the gig, Steve Aguiree and I celebrated over an outstanding cheeseburger at 500 degrees.  On my next trip to Philadelphia, I’ll check out Lucky’s Last Chance, winner of this year’s Burger Brawl.

WhatsNextDC: 4 Concepts for Producing Award-Winning Video on a Grad Student Budget

As part of the WhatsNextDC keynote this week, I shared a few simple and inexpensive approaches on how to produce corporate videos for YouTube:  Humor, cinematography, information and history/documentary.   Here’s the slide deck (with a bunch of extra text added).  It includes a few examples from an IBM smarter planet animation that was part of the PRSA Silver Anvil award-winning campaign, a comedy voted “Staff Favorite” in Comedy Central’s “Test Pilots” contest, and a 2013 Webby Honoree.

I’ll update this later today with a few photos, tweets.  It was a blast to emcee.  Thank you, Tod Plotkin and all the folks at Green Buzz Agency for producing an outstanding social media conference.

Webby Award Honoree: Phone Company in a Box

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou

One simple approach to creating stories for corporate social media and content marketing is focusing on  history.  Even for a young company, there is history in the industry or in the innovations that inspired it.  The key is to research and discover the fascinating stories and storytellers.

In 2011, we took a small part of our budget and produced a documentary about some of the pioneers who helped build the telecom network, and how the “largest, most reliable machine ever built” is contributing to economic growth, especially in developing regions of the world.

We did not mention our company or products ever, but focused on stories.  That allowed us to connect with the audience in a much more compelling way, and still do the marketing work of amplifying an important message about the importance of the telecom network.  It is one of the top ranked videos on our YouTube channel, and was broadcast on the ShortsHD television network.

Our documentary has been recognized as an Official 2013 Webby Honoree in the Technology category for Online Video and Film.  We’re proud to be in the good company of Team Coco, honored for the “John Adobe” video.

Spend some time on the Webby Awards site and scroll through the winners like the inspirational TED Ed, Google’s win in Corporate Communications, and Jerry Seinfeld’s breakthrough Web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”  Congrats to fellow Upright Citizens Bridge alum Michael Dubin for his Dollar Shave Club Webby win.  Yet another testament to the power of humor in marketing.

On The Hill with Conan O’Brien

The last time I was inside the Beltway with Conan O’Brien was during the Judge Alito confirmation hearings.

But we were both in Washington D.C. Saturday night, although he had a slightly bigger gig. I was emceeing an event for 750 Christian Wall Street bankers (not an oxymoron) at the historic Omni Shoreham Hotel where the first inaugural ball of President Franklin D. Roosevelt was held in 1933.  The hotel has made a few updates since then.  Conan was one mile away at the Hilton, hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner.

A highlight was the “House of Cards” mock video, which gave NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg the funniest line.

I’m looking forward to heading back next week to emcee Whats Next DC event, and speak about using humor and storytelling in corporate social media.

Benefit for St. Stephen’s School Scholarship Fund, May 2

My friend Elza and I will be performing May 2nd, 6pm-8pm, at Sarah’s Wine Bar in Ridgefield, CT to benefit the St. Stephen Nursery School scholarship fund.  It will be a fun evening of award-winning music and mediocre comedy.  Elza is an award winning singer, songwriter and recording artist whose music was most recently featured on ABC’s NY MED and Hopkins.

Comedy Reel from Tim Washer on Vimeo.

An Evening of entertainment & hors d’oeuvres. Sarah’s Wine Bar, upstair at Bernard’s Restaurant  20 West Lane  (Route 35)  Ridgefield  CT  06877.  Click for directions.

$75 per person

Space is limited. To reserve your space please mail check to St. Stephen’s Nursery School, 351 Main St, Ridgefield, CT 06877
For more info: 203.438.6806 or www.ststephensnurseryschool.org

ROI on Humor in Social Marketing

I’m often asked what is the value of using humor in social media and marketing efforts.  While I can’t always make the case that a :60 YouTube comedy is going to inspire an impulsive purchase of a $100,000 piece of hardware, comedy helps corporate videos stand out and be remembered among the clutter.  NBC News reports that 72 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every minute, so it is becoming more and more difficult to get noticed.

Today, at the B2B Content2Conversion Conference at the New York Times Center, Michael Brenner, Forbes blogger and SAP vice president of marketing, included our valentines video as a case study.

The spot, while completely absurd and ridiculous, helped us amplify an important marketing message during a product launch over three years ago.  It earned press coverage in The New York Times, NetworkWorld and other trade magazines; and David Meerman Scott referenced it as a best practice example in his bestselling book Real-Time Marketing & PR.

And here we are, more than three years later, and it’s being presented to a group of B2B marketers and influencers, and the social buzz continues from some of B2B’s top influencers, including Ann Handley, Margaret Molloy and Marissa Pick.

I don’t think Michael Brenner sold any routers for us today, although if he did, I’m sure he’ll DM me about his commission check.