Did you watch the Super Bowl this past weekend?
I was in the next room working but I caught a few of the commercials and I have to hand it to the NFL. Theirs made me laugh the hardest.
But it’s not all fun and games when you’re in marketing, is it? You’re always looking for ways to apply to your business what you see elsewhere.
While I recognize this created an awkward moment when my eight-year-olds were wondering why I was laughing, there are still some great things to use here for the chamber world. No, really.
Applying Lessons Learned in a Super Bowl Ad to Your Chamber Storytelling
In addition to making us all laugh (particularly if you were at a party and some people had already overindulged), the underlying theme here was of family, interconnectedness, and community.
“You have to like football. It’s the reason you’re here.”
Chambers also are able to create a sense of community through their history (albeit not in the same way) but they’ve seen it all. They’ve cheered for local sporting teams, watched the community rally over a devastating event, built bridges between opposing organizations, and so much more. All of this community history is part of your chamber story and should be shared.
When people are making decisions about joining groups, they want to join a group with people like them. This NFL spot shows the audience many of us have the same joyous beginning.
You can accomplish this with your chamber by showing your audience that you all share a love for your community and its people. Let potential members see the human side of your organization so that they can begin to draw correlations between who you are and who they went to associate with.
As I mentioned this video is awkward. We want to laugh. We look at the calendar. A thought of horror strikes us if we were born in the fall. But this is exactly what makes the video so effective and memorable.
As a chamber you don’t want to evoke that same awkwardness with people counting from one of your awards dinners, but you can create a story that no one else can replicate. Your chamber story is unique because your community is unique. Your community struggles, your dreams, your goals, and your accomplishments flavor your chamber story. Be memorable in your storytelling. Don’t use the same old “WE were founded in…” lead off.
Norman Mailer once said, “The mark of mediocrity is looking for precedent.” Be true to your own story, regardless of awkward moments. It’s those awkward moments that help us to be remembered and loved.
