HOW TO BE THE MOST INTERESTING WO/MAN IN THE WORLD

He doesn’t always talk…but when he does, he chooses his words wisely.

Dos Equis has built a great marketing program around one mythical man:  The most interesting man in the world (If you’re not familiar with him, enjoy listening to some of his wisdom here). 

This is an older, experienced gentleman that has lived a life filled with adventure.  He embodies the life many of us want to be able to look back on.  He has the stories and wisdom and perspective that grabs your attention.   He is the guy you want to sit next to on an airplane.

And he represents many of the qualities you should seek in the content you produce.  Here are a few: 

Be cross-generational:  You don’t need to follow the crowd and use young, sexy models to be appealing.  For many products, this is either polarizing or confusing.  Great content appeals to deeper, psychographic factors.  It goes beyond superficial, demographically-centric interest.

Be entertaining:  Humans get bored so easily.  We have such short attention spans.  Even when seeking education, we expect the information to be delivered in a somewhat entertaining format.  Realize that entertaining content with a little less education will typically engage your audience better than more thorough education with no entertainment value.

Be desirable:  Desire is at the root of all action.  Appealing to emotion is almost always more effective than appealing to logic.  Knowing what your customer really desires (hint:  It probably goes deeper than a feature or primary benefit of your product) should guide all the content you develop.  You want to design content that makes your customer wanting more.  They should anticipate the next interaction.

WHEN YOU CREATE CONTENT, CREATE GREAT CONTENT 

As you build out your content, never forget that you’re at a party with a lot of other products each fighting for the limited time and attention from the guest of honor (the customer).  Your objective is to be more interesting than the other guests.  You want to be noticed from a distance and have the guest of honor approach you.  The more you need to choreograph an interaction, the less likely you are to keep her attention.

Consider how each piece of content makes you more or less interesting to your customer.  Realize that one great piece of content is more effective than 10 mediocre pieces.  Just like it is better to leave a party being remembered for sharing one great story rather than 10 boring stories.