You have to be stranded on a desert island, with no phone signal and just a rom-com book to miss out on the drama surrounding the release of the movie It Ends With Us.
And whether you're Team Justin or Team Blake one thing you can't escape is the discussion around the two types of marketing for this movie.
While the goal is to get bums on seats and make money, critics have expressed their fear that the film's early promotional interviews are too light-hearted, fun, and floral - overlooking the serious message of domestic violence and toxic relationship behaviour.
On one side you have Blake telling us to "Grab our florals" and on the other you have Justin saying Why he wanted to make the movie to highlight Domestic violence.
And this he-said, she-said marketing is where the confusion happens - and the key message gets lost.
A common problem facing us as B2B writers is when our content has Too Broad of a Point. especially when we're tasked to write about complex, socially charged messages.
We tend to fall into the trap of overloading our content with too many ideas, trying to pack in as much as possible, but doing so will confuse both our message and audience.
Dilution of ideas: By trying to cover too many ideas in a single piece, you risk diluting the potency of each individual concept. This can diminish the impact of your overall message and leave readers feeling underwhelmed.
Take for example Aktion Baum's ad Its message should have been simple - "We're Guests in their Home." but the movie poster copy, AI cute toy-like animals, and varying font design pull the reader in different directions with the key message not getting the attention it deserves.
By dedicating your content to a single idea, you can delve deeper into the topic and provide more comprehensive insights, ultimately making a more significant impact on your audience.
2 . Lack of clarity:
Overloading content can lead to a confused and disorganized message. When readers are unsure of what they should take away from your content, they may disengage or fail to retain any of the information presented.
Focusing on the main idea will let you present a clear and concise message that is easily digestible for your audience.
3 . Overwhelming your audience: Bombarding readers with too much information at once can result in cognitive overload and ultimately cause your audience to lose interest and abandon your content altogether.
When readers can quickly grasp the central theme of your content, they are more likely to engage with it and retain the information shared.
Now that you know why here's what you can do to avoid the trap of overloading your content and ensure your key message is valued:
1. Define your purpose: Before creating content, identify the primary goal of your piece and the specific idea you want to communicate.
Ask "How can we add something meaningful to the conversation?"
If you find yourself writing about a socially relevant topic, you want to make sure you focus on the one key takeaway and turn your product into a means through which your customers can connect with the bigger idea.
Stabilo's 'Highlight the Remarkable" campaign could have gone down the rabbit hole about inequality, pay gaps, and discrimination - all worthy subjects, but they chose to concentrate on "how women in history have been upstaged by men with their work and successes ignored."
DDB Dusseldorf’s senior copywriter, Teresa Berude, said: “... We wanted to give these women and their stories the recognition they deserved. And we did this by, in the truest sense of the word, highlighting them – with a Stabilo Boss.”
Stabilo's imagery, copy, and story makes sure the central message is front and centre of their campaign and their product doesn't distract but rather complements the message.
Prioritize ideas: If you have multiple ideas, rank them in order of importance and relevance to your main goal. You can always save any lower-ranking ideas for future content pieces.
Write down the points that you want to highlight.
Identify one of them as the key issue for your piece
2 . Create a structured outline and draw your reader through your content with well-placed subheadings and relevant subtopics.
General Electrics Blog talks about sustainability. A topic that could go in any direction. But this article solely draws attention to Renewables and an Orchestration mindset with every part of its content continually referring back to the key message.
This will ensure your content flows logically and stops your reader from being distracted.
3. Edit with the purpose in mind: While refining your content, eliminate any tangents or extraneous information that doesn't directly support your main idea. You want to be consistent with everything in your content pointing and complementing your 1 Key Message.
Niche your focus - Understand where your audience stand on this topic. What will pique their curiosity? What confirms their knowledge?
And that's a wrap
Overloading your Socially Charged content with too many ideas, will lead to confusion, overwhelm your audience, and diminish the impact of your message.
By focusing on one main idea at a time, you can create clearer, more engaging content that resonates with your audience and drives results.
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