Three Stooges' Original Content Tips

By John McGory

The Three Stooges, circa 2012, are about to come punching, eye poking and yelling their way back into America’s psyche.

The Three Stooges movie, set for release April 13, is guaranteed to draw lines of 50-year-old men waiting to see if it holds up to the originals.

Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp were an early television staple.  Their 190 short films filled the screens with violence that made kids roar with laughter.  Every boy had a favorite Stooges’ gag.  Eye pokes, conks on the head and running in circles while lying on the floor were all standard fare.

Here is a great example of the Stooges’ “talent.”  This hilarious video http://youtu.be/1NCPyd0sWVs depicts chef Curly stuffing a turkey.

Parents and pop psychologists a generation ago kept saying that the Stooges would make children homicidal maniacs.  Little, if any, evidence exists that the trio wielded that much influence.

Mad men advertisers realized that the content had to appeal to kids and not their parents.  Television was new but radio taught advertisers the power of targeted content.

Television quickly grasped the strong connection between watching The Three Stooges, Popeye and Our Gang and the surge in sales of Trix, Coca Cola and (my favorite theme song) Chef Boyardee Beefaroni.  Quality, original and targeted content drove viewers to buy the advertised products.

Today’s web is the new television.  The pressure to create original content is much greater than the 1950s. Every brand is now a publisher and video producer.  Attracting an audience and getting them to return are the keys.  SEO tactics of driving viewers to sites that are unattractive or boring will backfire.

The Stooges’ path to original content creation was simple but effective.  Here is what they did:

Physical comedy is funny.  The Stooges were the most violently slapstick comedians of all time. That made them funny, especially to kids.  What is funny or entertaining to your audience?

Know what works with your audience.  The boys did not stray far from what worked.  Every short had Moe punching Curly in the stomach and pulling Larry’s hair.  Kids knew it was coming and laughed every time.  What are the constants in your content that reassures your audience?

Great sound effects.  The Stooges had some of the greatest sound effects of all time.  They worked through the radio era and used many of the same tricks of radio serials.  It brought life to the content.  What makes your content stand out and come alive?

The Three Stooges helped to make television what it was.  They attracted the youth of the 1950s and advertisers and companies reaped the benefits. 

Fifty-year-old guys will dominate the lines waiting to see the new Three Stooges movie.  The Stooges influence on that generation is unmistakable.  Most brands of today can only dream of loyalty that strong.

John McGory is a partner for Webface.  We are an original content creation company that can help your brand bloom. 

Nice is Not Enough

By John McGory

Is the lack of corporate creativity in marketing creating a chasm between business and the public?  Can corporations truly be creative or is the threat of offending people and losing market share keeping a lid on attention-getting social media tactics such as content marketing?

Today’s world of content marketing is creating conflict in corporate boardrooms across the world.  It has been a long time since George Carlin riffed on the seven words inappropriate for television and Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds.  The Internet brings an uncut version of the world to anyone who wants it.

The public seemingly wants more and more outlandish content.  Videos need to be faster, crazier and more eye-catching than ever before.  Text is too slow.  No topic is taboo.

Content marketing’s goal is to attract attention to brands by providing interesting and free content to the public in exchange for their attention.  On the surface it makes sense, but putting it into practice is really tough.  The public wants shock and awe and the corporate world wants nice.

The Coca Cola Company is buying into content marketing in a big way.  Its Content 2020 initiative is designed to double its sales through the use of content marketing.

The bottling giant released two videos http://blog.junta42.com/2012/01/coca-cola-content-marketing-20-20/ that outlines how it is going to reach its sales’ goal.  The plan is to “create ideas so contagious that they can’t be controlled.”  Those are big words bound to create big pressure on Coca Cola’s creative types.

Grabbing the attention of the world is a monumental task.  Contagious ideas must be practical and hip at the same time.  Successful ideas for global brands such as Coke must be practical enough to cross cultural, language and political barriers.  The same ideas must also be trendy enough to engage younger markets, while not turning off the more conservative elements of society.

Most corporations are conservative by nature.  Some may see Coke’s content marketing effort as a foolhardy attempt.   Conservative corporations’ attitude is to keep its head down till this fad passes. 

Unfortunately, this approach has less of a chance of working than Coke’s effort.   Consumers today expect to be entertained.  The “let’s keep doing what we’ve been doing” strategy is severely outdated.

So the gulf between what corporations are willing to do to capture customers’ attention and what customers will watch grows by the day.  Coke deserves credit for jumping head first into the content marketing pool.   Whether it can swim in that pool and entertain the masses is another story.

The question for the rest of the corporate world is:  What are you doing to gain the attention of your customers in a world where nice is not enough?

John McGory is a partner at Webface (www.web-face-solutions.com), a content marketing company that can create video and written materials to get the attention of your fans.