Show don't Tell (and strive for simplistic elegance)

Ah, simplistic elegance. (spot is below)

It makes this marketer very happy. (smiley face here)

Because it's so darn effective.

It need not have bells, whistles, flash and fire to get noticed.

Many times it just needs simple objects. And a person that tells us things in plain English.

Yep, it just needs to get the message across in a way that is simple, short and easily understood.

In fact, if you want to cut through the clutter many times you should "go guerilla." And when selling your wares, solve a problem.

Take this piece by PRWeb. It solves the problem of "What the heck is RSS, anyhow?" And in answering our question it positions itself as the solution.

It also goes for a metaphor with "rivers" and "the river of news." And it gets its message across: "PRWeb gets your news to the people that matter most."

Rivers are nice, everyone understands them. Conversely, technology, with all its bits and bytes isn't so nice.

(The reason the Apple ads did so well is because they made technology human.)

The piece also serves to make this RSS technology more human by focusing on what humans can do with it--and what benefits humans derive from it. The 2.5-minute piece is below (RSS readers click through to my blog).

Shout: Thanks to Paul Herring for telling me of this great "show" piece.

Comments

[Jay Berkowitz]

CK:

Thanks for sharing this video. I am a big fan of PR Web. On our recent Podcast Episode 11, Laura Sturaitis, Vp of Business Wire (partners with PR Web) explained the ten tips for getting a release picked up by the search engines.

http://podcast.tengoldenrules.com

Jay

[Lewis Green]

CK,

I have been using PR Web for two years and love it. My clients' press releases get lots of hits and attention and have ended up becoming print stories on a few occasions as well. Thanks for sharing.

PS "Lead with Your Heart" has been printed and I get my 20 copies tomorrow. I will let everyone know when it gets in the distribution pipeline.

[Alex -S-]

Yet another masterpiece from the commoncraft people. Their RSS in plain English video is superb too - aw heck, everything they do is digital gold!

Oh yeah -the Halloween "zombies in Plain English" - funny and educational :)

[Adam Broitman]

great find! I love this video, I should send it to all my clients...

I also love how they reference Dave Winer's "river of news"