Amtrak on creating a viral messaging campaign

We need to be really different and captivate … attention

Similar with a twist is the recipe for algorithmic attention.

Being the same doesn’t stand out.

Being too different might backfire.

Using a familiar hook (Friday! Friday! Friday!) in a new context provides an on ramp to curiosity.

🚂

via EMARKETER


Partnerships and ad buys with prestige names confer status internally in the businesses that make the buy. “No one ever got fired for choosing IBM.”

Your audience doesn’t care that you paid to be on the top / hot channel. They care that you met them where they are.

Vanity / scale metrics are lazy proxies and ladder climbing fodder.

44% of the U.S. podcast audience who do not listen to shows within the top 1,000 have ever purchased a product as a result of hearing it on the medium, similar to the rate (47%) of U.S. podcast listeners to shows in the top 1,000 who say the same. 

via Edison Research


The work of marketing is not the selection of suitable messages. The work is the task of engaging another mind. It is a constant dance between understanding your subject and understanding how a future customer will react to it - a customer you can never know, but which you still have to intuit.

vandalizing a quote from John Higgs


”By Humans, For Humans”

How long until this is a positioning signal?

How long until this is a signal of the new luxury?


If you can prove it in 5 seconds, don’t explain it in 20.

We’re all tired of explanations and promises, we just want results. Your marketing is no different.

via DTC Daily