By Jeffrey Hedquist
There once was a man with no imagination. Whatever came to him through his senses was what he experienced. Nothing more. Songs made no sense to him. Poetry – meaningless. Multimedia, subtlety, irony, metaphors, humor – all were a waste of time. They triggered no memories, evoked no emotional responses. Stories, plays, movies and books were just… words. You had to repeat information to him ceaselessly to communicate.
He was a person with no concerns, no warm memories, no past regrets, no hope for the future, and no ideas that set him on fire. He led a quiet life and died… of boredom.
What you just read is fiction. This person did not/does not exist.
We all come equipped with imagination. It may be more developed in some people than others, but we all have it. Even animals have imaginations of sorts -- at least memories that can be evoked by stimulating the senses.
HOWEVER – many commercials are written as if we didn’t have this wonderful trait. They’re written for the person in the story. They attempt to load us down with facts and features. They seek to grab attention with sheer repetition. They try to coerce or bludgeon us into submission. They’re directed at us, not to us, and certainly not with us. There’s no interaction. And you know what? Unless the recipient of the message is desperate to buy, they don’t work all that well.
No matter how tired, over-communicated, under-compensated, depressed, busy, or distracted they are, engaging your audience’s imagination will conquer all. And it’s not that difficult to do. Just imagine that your audience has… an imagination.
Plant seeds to tap into the rich reservoir of your audience’s senses, memories and emotions.
Let’s see, what have we learned from our own experience as marketers? When we make a purchase it’s usually an emotional decision. Radio is the most emotional medium. I think you can connect the dots.
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