Infotainment Marketing Tools
The term “infotainment” (derived from the combination of information + entertainment) has some negative connotations, particularly when it’s used to describe news organizations using high powered sound effects and animated graphics, or split screens featuring two Washington pundits interrupting each other and yelling – all at the expense of straight forward, unbiased reporting. Unsavory terms like “tabloid news” and “mocumentaries” have fallen under the “infotainment umbrella” when viewed in this light. But is there a positive and useful side to infotainment? We think so, especially when it comes to marketing.
Just at “edutainment” (education + entertainment) has proven to be a valuable tool in helping kids learn (think Sesame Street), so too can infotainment be useful for marketers to engage with and teach prospective customers about products and services. Even the most banal of products can have some entertainment value – it’s just a matter of delivery.
A writer friend of mine once told me the best lesson she learned in creative writing class was “show don’t tell.” This lesson can be applied in marketing and is at the heart of infotainment marketing. Don’t just tell your prospects what a product does; show them how it will make their lives simpler and easier, how it will help them save money and make more money, how it worked for other customers who have the same issues as they do.
Today, marketers have more creative options than ever before to engage prospective customers. Here are some ideas for putting more entertainment value into your marketing campaigns.
Top 10 Lists and Other Engaging Copy
Good ideas for infotainment marketing copy can be taken directly from the magazine rack. Interviews with leaders in their respective fields or people who have experienced something significant abound on magazine covers. They’re interesting to people because they come “straight from the horses mouth” and have an air of real world experience and legitimacy. Interviews, testimonials, and case studies with your best customers can carry more weight with your prospects than messaging that comes straight from your marketing department.
Another tactic the magazines (and many TV shows) use are Top 10 Lists (or Top 3, 8, 20, etc.) Lists are fun because they make it easy to get a lot of information quickly, and there’s something in human nature that enjoys classifying, ranking, and listing things. Some ideas for lists include “The Most Used Features by Our Customers” or “The Top 20 Reasons to Switch to Our Product,” or “5 Ways to Save,” etc.
Video
Video can be used in a broad variety of ways, including the above mentioned testimonials, case studies, and top 10 lists. Thanks to YouTube and the ease of publishing videos on the Web - and even reality shows - unpolished, amateur videos have become perfectly acceptable and can even be used in marketing when appropriate. The online shoe company, Zappos, is a great example of this, featuring short video clips of what looks like people who work in their corporate offices simply talking about a pair of shoes and what they like about it.
Video infotainment can range from casual user reviews filmed at trade shows using an inexpensive hand held camera, like a Canon or iPod Nano, to a full fledged production done in a studio. Customer testimonials, interviews, best practices, product reviews, messages from executives, and recorded presentations can all make interesting content. Video content can be a welcome alternative to the copy heavy Internet and the hundreds of emails that business people receive every day.
Generally, videos that are short and to the point and focused on one topic work well on the Web (and the short attention spans of busy business people.) Take a look at current video content you find on the Web and think about what is effective in terms length, style, messaging, number of people presented, back ground, etc. for ideas on how you can put this medium to good use in your marketing.
Multimedia
In the same way that video is effective at engaging and entertaining your prospects, so too is other forms of multimedia, including digital animation/cartoons, audio/music, etc.
Flash
Flash has been around for years, but in no way has it lost its luster as a medium for delivering interesting and engaging content. At one company where I worked, we gave our audience two options: 1 - to click on a link to read about a product and 2 - to click on a link and watch an animated online Flash demo. The animated demo beat the copy version in terms of clicks by 10 to 1.
If you don’t have an in-house Flash designer, there are many independent Flash designers who can create demos or other engaging content for your company, as well as dedicated demo-production companies that focus purely on creating product demos in Flash. They can also provide voice over services so you have both visual and audio effects.
Recorded Webinars and Desktop Presentations
If you don’t have the resources to create a Flash demo or video, there are some inexpensive alternatives for presenting product information in an entertaining way. Web and video conferencing providers usually have recording features for presentations. You can give a PowerPoint presentation from a quiet office or conference room (as if you were presenting to a live audience) and record it for playback later, including a link to view the presentation from your website or an email campaign.
Camtasia Studio
Camtasia Studio is another great tool for recording a desktop presentation. Camtasia works in a similar way as recording a webinar desktop presentation, but has some additional features that go beyond simply recording a PowerPoint webinar, including YouTube video uploads, keystroke callouts or sketch motion call outs.
A Note About Audio
Audio can be an engaging addition to any website, however, it can also be an incredibly annoying addition – especially the kind that launches, and launches loud, as soon as a visitor comes to your website. If you’re marketing to business people who are accessing your site from work, this is especially important to keep in mind. It’s best to either not automatically play audio, or make it very obvious and easy for people to find the mute button.
Images, Diagrams, Contests and Widgets
In addition to a variety of mediums to deliver more interesting marketing information, the content itself can’t be overlooked. Presenting ideas in a graphical format, with diagrams, flow charts, photos and illustrations can be far more engaging than just text. Interactive tools, such as multiple choice tests to gauge prospects’ needs and interests or calculators that show real money saved or opportunities in their market, can be far more impactful than just promising your prospects that you’ll deliver value. Contests and promotions have been around for decades and still carry great marketing weight. At the heart, marketing is a creative endeavor and putting more thought into the entertainment value of your marketing campaigns can go a long way in engaging prospective customers so your core message gets through.