Thread by @ArticleGroup

I want to talk about something.

There’s a surprising reason why most brand are not v good at storytelling, and it all has to do with this upside down triangle so HOLD ON PEOPLE this is a thread

1/ Among the super simple things they teach in journalism is the super simple inverted pyramid

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_…

2/ this upside down triangle — honestly there are no facets! So it’s just a triangle! — is the template that governs the order of info in an article

3/ News that speaks to the widest audience goes up top. News that speaks to the least amount of people goes at the bottom.

4/ So news articles tend to be written like this:

5/ The headline and photo attract the widest audience. They go at the top. The kicker is least important. It only attracts the people who’ve read the rest of the article.

6/ In between, there’s a logical progression of information that provides deeper and deeper context. The article is telling you a story. Taking you on a journey. First it grabs your attention, then it connects the dots.

7/ This is the simplest concept in media. Happily enough, *literally everything in media* works this way, from the structure of an article to the structure of a publication.

8/ Consider a magazine. Any magazine. That magazine’s goal is to capture as much of its desired audience as possible. The editor's job is to select stories that are timely, relevant, and interesting to his or her or their chosen audience.

9/ They lead with what appeals to the greatest number of people in their audience. This is why magazines have celebrities on their covers, and tiny book reviews somewhere else.

10/ This, for example, is how @GQMagazine works

11/ And @TheEconomist

12/ And Portable Restroom Operator (@ProMonthly). Don’t judge. Portable restrooms are a great business.

13/ In fact, a magazine (or any publication) is JUST A COLLECTION OF UPSIDE DOWN TRIANGLES

14/ A magazine (or web site), for example, has sections. Each section (aka vertical) is an upside down triangle! Each on is designed to be maximally attractive to a subset of an audience.

15/ And each article within each section is an upside down triangle…So yes, this is an inverted Sierpinski Triangle. Isn’t it pretty.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierpinsk…

16/ Anyway, this is an ATTENTION STRATEGY. Every decision begins with the audience in mind. The publication leads with what’s most relevant, timely, and interesting to the audience.

17/ Who the publication is, who the editors are, where the pages are printed or the pixels positioned, why this publication may be better than another publication, all of that — it’s incidental. **The publication isn’t the point. The audience is the point.**

18/ The audience is the point because **what the audience cares about leads naturally to who the publication is**

19/ This happens to be the exact opposite of a brand. Funnel-shaped silliness aside, most brands do not function like upside down triangles. Brands are right side up.

20/ A brand does not begin with the audience in mind. A brand begins as an idea about itself (the product) and then tries to sell that idea to an audience (the market). This is why it’s called “product-market fit”.

21/ You in the market for a horse saddle? Here’s a horse saddle. You’re not in the market for a horse saddle? Fuck right off.

22/ This is a conversion strategy. Conversion strategies work when there’s an audience that knows it needs a horse saddle .

23/ Conversion strategies *do not* work when the audience doesn’t know that it needs a horse saddle.

24/ When a brand realizes its customers don’t know they need a horse saddle, the brand starts thinking hmmmmmm ... maybe we should try content?

25/ The problem is most brands aren’t good at making content. Why? Because most brands are not good at talking about anything other than themselves. That's not a value judgment, it's just the way it is.

26/ A brand is a selfish thing. It was born as an idea about itself, it raised money talking about itself, it sells product talking about itself.

27/ It rightly and correctly does SEO and programmatic advertising and targeted banner ads and webinars and cold calls and feature releases and press releases about itself.

28/ But this is why brands aren’t good at telling stories beyond themselves. A brand wants people to aspire to its product. To a brand, their product is the customer’s goal. But people don’t aspire to products. People aspire to feelings that products give them.

29/ Can you see where this is going? Publications don’t sell horse saddles. Publications sell the idea of horseback riding. There are *so many more* people interested in the idea of horseback riding than there are people who *actually own a horse and need a saddle*.

30/ So the point of a publication’s awareness strategy is not to capture dollars by selling a thing. The point of an awareness strategy is to capture attention by selling an idea adjacent to that thing.

31/ By capturing attention with ideas you own that idea. By owning the idea, you own the audience. By owning the audience you can tell the audience what to pay attention to, and thereby define the marketplace.

32/ THAT is a long term play. But that is the power of an awareness strategy, and thus the power of content. And brands can do this, too.

33/ To succeed, you just need to stop talking about yourself…and start talking about what your audience already cares about.

More on this: medium.com/article-group/…

*this has been a thread *