It matters what they think.

Once you put something out there—a brand, a campaign, a product—you no longer control it (hear that, JK Rowling?). It now belongs to the audience. An act of co-creation has begun.

And if you have to clarify what you meant in an attempt to reframe what people think, than your launch was a dud.

A great (and fictional) example is from the sci-fi podcast Ad Lucem. I'm going to try to do this without any spoilers. Here goes.

On the eve of a new product launch, a stakeholder in the company gets caught in a bad situation. Once that reflects poorly on the company and its product.

The founder/inventor wants to push ahead with the launch and she's arguing with a trusted employee of the company. He advocates for pushing back the launch because the messaging will play right into the controversy. She starts saying what the product is "meant" to do and he interrupts with:

It doesn't matter. It's what people think.

To which she responds:

I won't let them.

That's a futile argument.

You only control your side of the interaction. And you only get one chance to start it.

Everything after that is a dance.

This all makes a hell of a lot more sense in context, so if you don't mind spoilers jump ahead to about 18:35.

Now for something completely different.

Why Marketers Should Engage with Sci-Fi

I believe marketers do a better job if they are aware of the context their work is operating within.

We don't push campaigns out into a vacuum.

We tell stories to very human people that have a whole host of concerns beyond whether or not our newest product looks cool enough to 'gram.

We also have to think longer term than just the end of this next promo (or at least we should). Enter, sci-fi:

Sci-fi may not successfully predict the future (arguably, it is always about the present), but it can sure instigate thought experiments in advance of the future’s eventual — and in the case of Drake Prime, mundane if worrisome — arrival.

-Mark Weidenbaum

In general, fiction (and poetry) can be a great window into humanity and society. Along with a nice little brain break from all your marketing content consumption.