#46 - How to Create Content People WANT to Watch with the “Side Door” Approach
w/ JOHN AZONI
Podcast Host
🤔 Want to create deeper emotional impact with your institution’s storytelling and content creation efforts?
🎉Join the Newsletter!
Every week I send out a dose of insights and inspiration including:
💪Excerpts from that week's podcast episode
💪Case studies and best practices from other institutions
💪Tips for creating content that resonates and inspires action
(it’s free)
SHOW NOTES
In this solo episode, John talks about the power of using a "side door" approach when creating content that aims to draw audiences into your brand emotionally.
Key takeaways:
Front door content directly states brand values and goals, while side door content focuses more on storytelling.
Side door content takes audiences on a journey that immerses them in the emotions of a brand.
Great examples are Land Rover's video on a remote Nepali village dependent on classic Land Rovers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNXU1IR2LR8), P&G's "Thank You Mom" Olympic campaign focused on parental support (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQoJqDi8490), and Dove's recent anti-beauty filter initiative (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILCgNkv8hM).
Higher ed can also leverage cultural conversations and real-world problems to create content unrelated to recruitment, as seen in Purdue University's widely-viewed "What Can You Imagine?" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuF2WKjUNbc) or the viral story of communication technology developed at UC San Francisco (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTZ2N-HJbwA).
The litmus test: Could your content still stand without mentioning your brand? If so, you may have compelling side door content.
Connect with John:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnazoni
Subscribe to the Higher Ed Storyteller’s Digest newsletter: https://unveild.tv/newsletter
————————
Transcript (done with AI so only about 90% accurate):
00:00:00:03 - 00:00:26:11
John Azoni
Well, happy 2020 for everybody. I hope you all had a great holiday. I'm excited to be back from break. Here to go a break for this podcast, press the pause button. And that was all through the month of December. And while it was super nice just to slow down for the holidays and got a chance to reflect and set goals and stuff, as I'm sure others listening have, I'm equally excited to be back and hit the ground running.
00:00:26:11 - 00:00:47:17
John Azoni
Here on the podcast we celebrate Christmas at my house. My daughters are eight and six and just at the perfect Christmas ages, so it's really exciting to watch them like open presents and be in their PJs all day and playing with their gifts. Of course, my job is to put all the gifts together, to assemble all of them once, once they're opened.
00:00:48:08 - 00:01:18:16
John Azoni
So lots of little tiny screws and Allen wrenches, you know, spread across the living room. But it is my joy to serve in that way. But it's such a magical time. I mean, it's such a weird, cool time of year. Like, you know, we decorate a lot. We listen to Christmas music and just this warm, fuzzy, you know, feeling full of all this like anticipation and this year I was just extra aware of the holiday season, just how glad that I am, that that's like part of our culture, like our natural rhythm of the year.
00:01:18:16 - 00:01:50:21
John Azoni
It's just a really cool time to slow down and and just feel good. You know, that's the update on my Christmas. But anyway, welcome to the podcast. We've got a great lineup of guests coming your way in the New Year. Coming up next is artist Katsu from Element 451, talking about the intersection of storytelling and AI. And we unpack a really cool campaign by Carvana, which utilized AI pretty heavily to create hyper personalized videos for its customers.
00:01:51:07 - 00:02:09:04
John Azoni
So I'm super excited to share that episode with you because it's this Carvana thing is really cool. I just got a little bit like giddy just geeking out over it, so I'm excited for you kind of see what their carvana was up to and how we kind of work backwards and unpack that from artists sort of AI perspective.
00:02:09:17 - 00:02:32:08
John Azoni
But what I wanted to kick off 2024 with was a solo episode here, and I want to talk particularly about a concept that's near and dear to me, and that's this concept of what I call the side door phrase. I like to say, arriving at the brand through the side door. I think that's just a really helpful way to look at our efforts to create emotionally resonant content.
00:02:32:08 - 00:02:50:17
John Azoni
So when we create content, there's a strong pull to want to talk directly about the thing, like what is the brand talking points that we need to include here? And then the story kind of takes a backseat to that. Maybe it's a particular program you're promoting or you're just you're creating a piece of content to attract prospective students to your school.
00:02:50:17 - 00:03:12:18
John Azoni
And you want to obviously talk about the school and convince people to go there. And that sort of approach is like trying to get someone to go through the front door. It's the most obvious point of entrance, but in a minute here, I'm going to unpack a few examples of content that I find really compelling and persuasive that would be more of a side door approach, talking about something else, something other than the obvious thing or marketing.
00:03:13:03 - 00:03:37:08
John Azoni
Because when we arrive at the brand through the side door, in many cases the impact is felt on a much deeper level. So let me show you what I mean. There's a video and we'll try to talk about this, assuming that you might not watch the video, the videos that I'm talking about. So I'll try to do my best to describe them, but I will link to them and you should go check them out.
00:03:38:02 - 00:04:02:01
John Azoni
There's a video by Land Rover, the car company. I may have talked about this already in an earlier episode. It's called The Land of Land Rover. So if you just go on YouTube and Google the Land of Land Rovers, you'll find that again, I'll link it to it's an old video. It came out, I think, in like 2019 or something, but it's about a small, remote village in Nepal and they have to travel up.
00:04:02:01 - 00:04:21:02
John Azoni
It's a real story. It's like a document or three minute documentary and they have to travel up this up and down this big mountain. So it's really steep. It's like raining and stuff. So treacherous roads. It's a really thin, winding road. And because of that, the village owns something like over 40 Land Rovers, and they only trust Land Rovers.
00:04:21:17 - 00:04:40:21
John Azoni
And so they only trust this fleet of Land Rovers because they're so rugged and they're really good at navigating the landscape and they don't trust any other vehicle in this place. And so this video is about this village and the process of getting around and how they have to use these Land Rovers. And so that's like an interesting story in itself.
00:04:40:21 - 00:05:06:09
John Azoni
But to take it a step further, these are not new Land Rovers like these are not the music video, kind of like cool whips, you know, these are old the oldest one. They still actively use is from 1957. So you watch this and it's a true story that proves these claims to be true about the ruggedness and the long lasting ness of Land Rover.
00:05:06:22 - 00:05:24:22
John Azoni
You get a sense that these vehicles are built to last their tanks and they didn't just say Land Rovers are built to last. You know, they'll help you navigate the toughest terrain and blah, blah, blah, and they'll last a long time. But they told a true story that really proves those claims to be true. And that's a side door approach to marketing, a brilliant one.
00:05:24:22 - 00:05:50:16
John Azoni
I think it's a story about this particular brand of vehicles, but it's really a story about this village and what it takes to exist in this village on a daily basis and about the one tool that is crucial to their existence, very much worth watching. It's a three and a half minute video and yeah, I've used that that video as an example in other, you know, presentations, LinkedIn posts or whatever.
00:05:50:16 - 00:06:11:08
John Azoni
But I always come back to that is like, that's just a great and it's very cinematic. It's very like you're watching a movie and, and it's just like you're getting the vibe of Land Rovers, you're downloading something that you don't even realize you're downloading. You're like you're downloading to your psyche the value of this brand, but you're hooked on this story that's being told.
00:06:11:15 - 00:06:34:05
John Azoni
You do realize you're being marketed to. It's obviously a Land Rover commercial, but it doesn't feel like they're in an infomercial. It feels like something you can just sink into and just be transported away into. So another example. P&G, formerly known as Procter and Gamble for the 2014 Olympics, had this campaign called Thank You, Mom. And it showed like little toddlers learning how to walk.
00:06:34:05 - 00:06:59:05
John Azoni
Can they fall down in the mom is right there to pick them up and then they get older and the you know, they're on a snowboard. A kid falls down in the backyard and in the snow and his mom's there to pick them up. And they get older. And, you know, they're in team sports. They're playing hockey. And the kid, you know, a kid gets like checked real hard and falls down the ice in the moms, in the crowd, you know, behind the glass like, oh, just, you know, watching a kid being concerned.
00:06:59:10 - 00:07:23:17
John Azoni
And it's all these examples of the progression of life, like trying and failing, failing more than we succeed. But the role of mom is the constant. And then it shows these kids as adults that competing in the Olympics and winning this big victory. And, you know, mom is there to celebrate, you know, with her daughter. And we see P&G products throughout, you know, as like they're toddlers and, you know, using some of the products.
00:07:23:17 - 00:07:44:16
John Azoni
But it's really not the focus. I almost like forgot that it was a P&G commercial and really honestly didn't even notice the products in there. It was really just about the feeling. But it's it's really about the important role of like a mother in a child's life. And you watch that. And even as a dad, it makes me want to go be a better dad, right?
00:07:44:16 - 00:08:07:14
John Azoni
To be more engaged and to help my kids over hurdles in life and to, like, see their passions, like see where their life is taking them, where is their passions taking them. My youngest is really into basketball and just she's a little more sporty. Allie, my oldest, is into music and Taylor Swift in all things, you know, beauty and fashion and celebrities.
00:08:07:14 - 00:08:24:22
John Azoni
And it just makes me want to like, lean in to that. You know, they're making a connection to sports and and stuff. But I thought it was interesting that it's about sports, but it's really that it's like they turned to the camera and said, let's look at mom and mom's role in this. And I think when you watch the Olympics, there's there's some stories.
00:08:24:22 - 00:08:42:09
John Azoni
There's one snowboarder I don't know her name and I don't know, you know, her dad's name or whatever, but she was this, I want to say, like probably 18 or 19 year old snowboarder in like the X-Games. I think it was the Olympics or the X-Games or something like that. But there was a side story of like how her dad, like, would like, drive her.
00:08:42:20 - 00:09:13:19
John Azoni
So far, I can't remember. It was like an eight hour drive or something like that repeatedly every week to get her to practice or whatever it was. It was just, again, I'm butchering the story. I can't remember. I just have this vague memory of this snowboarder and the story they told about her dad's persistence with supporting her love for snowboarding and getting her to practices and just like really going out of his way to make sure that she was reaching her full potential as a snowboarder.
00:09:14:05 - 00:09:44:00
John Azoni
And I just think that that's a cool thing that PG picked up on is like within sports, there's the emotional draw of the sport itself, right? And the wins and in the losses and stuff. But like as a side door, like where else can we point the camera and where else is there emotion going on? There's emotion happening with the relationship of the athletes to their parents and the parents are obviously as toddlers and as they grow up, the ones buying the stuff, you know.
00:09:45:07 - 00:10:05:15
John Azoni
So anyway, I just thought that was a really good sort of side draw. PG Found a good side door as a way to market their products, but like really kind of like drawing you in with this very real emotions as of a parent that you can relate to even as a dad. I relate to that. But let's, let's look at a recent example.
00:10:05:15 - 00:10:26:05
John Azoni
In March of 2023, Dove doves out there doing some good stuff. You know, I mean, I keep seeing Dove in these like case studies of like best marketing campaigns and stuff like that. So I think Dove did the one where it was like the sketch artist that maybe I'm messing it up, but it was like a sketch artist.
00:10:26:05 - 00:10:46:05
John Azoni
And he like, brings, you know, people in and they, they describe themselves and he sketches them out and then they had like, people meet this person in the lobby and they have the people that met them describe that person. And the drawing is more beautiful of the way that others described them versus how they describe themselves. Anyway, I think it's dove.
00:10:46:05 - 00:11:08:14
John Azoni
Anyway, they're doing some good stuff, but in 2023 March of 2023, they launched this campaign called Turn Your Back, which I thought was cool. And it was this whole initiative where they partnered with influencers and celebrities to take on the social media filter culture. And it's like these beauty filters that are so rampant and TikTok and Snapchat and stuff.
00:11:09:16 - 00:11:37:01
John Azoni
According to Dove's research, 48% of girls who digitally altered their photos have lower self-esteem, compared to 28% of girls who don't digitally alter their photos. I hate these filters. It's so ridiculous. You know how rampant rampant they are. You can literally just make yourself look like an entirely different person. And people are repeatedly doing that to, you know, make up for some insecurity they have about the way that they look.
00:11:37:13 - 00:12:00:00
John Azoni
Anyway, Dove comes along and they've put the stake in the ground like, you know, you're beautiful in your natural skin. And of course, they make soap mostly marketed to women. But it's an interesting way to take a side door approach. And instead of, you know, hocking the natural ingredients in their soap and the moisturizers and this and that, they're entering into a cultural conversation that's important in our time.
00:12:00:00 - 00:12:23:04
John Azoni
It's a very real pain point in female culture and probably male culture, too. I don't see a lot of men using the like the big eyelash filter, you know, like the skin softening filter and stuff like that. And they said, you know what? We're going to be the brand that helps women see the beauty they already possess. I think that's just I think that's cool.
00:12:23:04 - 00:12:45:15
John Azoni
And I think that there's so many opportunities for colleges to enter into cultural I say cultural conversations, and maybe it's not a literal conversation, but it's like a real world thing. Like a real world. Maybe it's the problem of like environmental sustainability. What is the college's role in that conversation? What research is going on? What advocacy is going on?
00:12:45:15 - 00:13:10:09
John Azoni
You know, who's interested in that, What problems are being solved? What is the process behind solving those problems? You know, that's what it means to enter into a cultural conversation that isn't just come to our school because we're a great place to learn. It's no, we're part of an entire ecosystem of people and culture here. And college plays a role in that, in educating people to go off and make a difference in the world.
00:13:10:09 - 00:13:30:07
John Azoni
But also the college itself can say, Hey, here's some content like, here's how we are making a difference in the world, How even just coming to our college, you know, you're going to be part of something bigger than yourself, you know, while you're here. There's an example of this that I'll get to in a minute. But let's look at an example from Higher Ed Purdue.
00:13:30:21 - 00:13:48:19
John Azoni
You may have heard of them, has an award winning campaign called What Can You Imagine? And we did an earlier episode with with produce creative director Emily Rich whine about this. And they just won an award in the last couple of weeks for this. I keep seeing them this this campaign pop up in my LinkedIn feed. So I don't know if they won multiple.
00:13:48:19 - 00:14:06:13
John Azoni
I know they won at least this one award for this, but they've also won all these other, you know, looked fast company featured them as like, you know, most innovative brands or something like that anyway produce out They're doing some cool stuff but this features a young girls are dreaming about what she wants to do, what she wants to be when she grows up.
00:14:07:01 - 00:14:26:13
John Azoni
Then it takes us through different possible moments in like, you know, takes her, shows her like graduating high school and then going to college and stuff. And, you know, she's in high school. She's like building robots and stuff. And then she graduates and then she's like, I could go to Purdue and, you know, she goes to Purdue, she makes new friends, she's studying, she's building her rocket, she's learning how to code.
00:14:27:11 - 00:14:57:22
John Azoni
She's doing music and dance. She's riding horses. Like it's just this cool, like, here's this whole spread of like, whatever you want to be. There's a place for you at Purdue without actually saying that. And it's just this cool, aspirational piece that captures the dreams of a child and how they can be realized at Purdue. And it's a great way to showcase the campus as well and student life and there's these were actors but you get a sense for the culture at Purdue that's maybe something that you want to be a part of through this girl dreaming.
00:14:57:22 - 00:15:13:22
John Azoni
Like fast forward in her life, there's a part where she's like, I can join the marching band and play the world's biggest drum, and it's this big bass drum that I assume is some staple at Purdue. I'm not sure, but it was kind of like probably a wink to Purdue culture. I thought that was cool, but really inspiring marketing piece.
00:15:13:22 - 00:15:47:09
John Azoni
It's it's currently sitting at 29 million views on YouTube and looking through the comments. You can tell this really resonated with both Purdue alumni and prospective students. All of these content campaigns are really great examples of a side door approach to marketing content in content creation and in creating content that really prioritizes the emotions of the viewer. You know, our job is to make something that doesn't feel like a commercial, and that's where you help someone enter the brand through the side doors.
00:15:47:09 - 00:16:03:19
John Azoni
It's like if you just put a commercial in front of someone, it's like, Hey, you want to come in working in this house? And then the product. No, no, thanks. But wasn't looking to go in anyone's house. But if you present this sort of narrative, it's kind of like, Oh, what's going on over here now? What's going on in here?
00:16:04:02 - 00:16:24:16
John Azoni
And then all of a sudden they're taken on this journey and they're like, Oh my God, I'm in the house, you know? And I think that that's just our job as marketers is to the part of our job as marketers and content creators is to help people experience the brand and creative ways where it's not just like boom in your face, like, come here.
00:16:24:16 - 00:16:45:19
John Azoni
For these reasons, I think, you know, creating emotionally resonant content is about creating content that makes people feel seen, feel, heard, feel known, and taps into the part of their brain that will stick around and watch something or read something because they relate to it. And somehow that speaks to a problem in their life or an issue they're passionate about.
00:16:45:22 - 00:17:08:21
John Azoni
It tells a story. It takes us somewhere on a journey in our minds. All of that stuff is the stuff of great, powerful emotional content. And there is 100% a place for directly saying the brand value. So I watched my kids watch YouTube a lot. Ali, my eight year old loves to watch Mr. Beast, who is like the top YouTuber.
00:17:08:21 - 00:17:30:19
John Azoni
He's got like 200 million subscribers or something like that. And and then also Ninja Kids. We were watching Ninja Kids last night. They partnered with Liquid. I've was a sponsor of this one video where you're watching and they're doing like gymnastics and flips and games and stuff like that, you know, And all of a sudden they kind of sneak in this, hey, like drink liquid I.V. because it's going to hydrate you better than water and blah, blah, blah.
00:17:30:19 - 00:17:53:21
John Azoni
And liquid I.V. is like powdered version of Gatorade or something like that that you can, you know, electrolytes and things like that. But it made me think about because I knew I was gonna record this episode today, I'm like, It would actually be weird if, you know, you're watching this Ninja kids thing and then all of a sudden they start talking about some story that's like not at all related to the games that they're playing in the video.
00:17:54:00 - 00:18:12:12
John Azoni
They're like, you know, let me tell you about when my grandfather was blah, blah, blah. Like, you know, that would just be like weird. It would feel out of place. It makes sense in that moment for them to be like, Hey, by the way, bubble, what is hydrates you better than anything? And and it tastes great and you can just put in water, it's great and blah, blah, blah.
00:18:12:12 - 00:18:30:10
John Azoni
And here's us drinking it in blue. All right. Back to the show. Sometimes you just you know, you need to get to the point. I'm not saying like storytelling is always the right answer. I don't think that it makes sense in every scenario. Certainly, there's an extremely solid place for just saying, like, what is it that you offer and why should I care?
00:18:31:00 - 00:18:54:10
John Azoni
Because just depends where people are in the funnel. But I guess we're talking more about like top of the funnel awareness. You're trying to draw people in, give people a feeling of the brand. And so that's really where the side door content kind of lives is attracting eyeballs, attracting hearts to then want to take the next step. One other example, I wasn't going to throw this in here, but then I met this guy yesterday.
00:18:54:18 - 00:19:22:10
John Azoni
It's an example from Higher Ed from the University of California, San Francisco, UCSF. They're a medical school. I chatted with their video producer Pete yesterday, and he shared with me this this video they created that went viral. Right now, it's at 5.8 million views on YouTube. And it's about this technology that that UCSF students and faculty were experimenting with that allows someone who can't talk to communicate through a computer's voice.
00:19:22:20 - 00:19:46:21
John Azoni
This one woman, I think her name is and I can't remember where I could look it up right now, but let's just say her name is and this one woman, she suffered a stroke and had all these complications, like she was like she had just had a baby six months prior and then she had a stroke. And all this this perfect storm of things go wrong that doctors like don't know why she has now the symptoms that she does.
00:19:46:21 - 00:20:04:06
John Azoni
But for whatever reason, she's not able to talk and she's in a wheelchair and stuff. But they hooked her up to this machine. It was like hooked up to her head. And then there was like a TV screen with like a I kind of like human avatar or something that was kind of like going to be her voice.
00:20:04:06 - 00:20:30:10
John Azoni
And so she's thinking what she wants to say and it's intercepting brain electricity or something, whatever, and somehow turning that into language. So long story short, she can't talk, but she can think about what she wants to say. And this technology will pick up on that and make the avatar the A.I. lady say that. So, you know, it shows her thinking like, how are you today?
00:20:30:10 - 00:20:49:15
John Azoni
Or something like that? And then the A.I. lady says, How are you today? You know, you see her have this conversation with with the researchers in the room and stuff. And it's just so interesting. And I'm watching this thinking, of course, this went viral. It's not viral because the video quality was good and all this stuff. It certainly was a very well produced video.
00:20:50:09 - 00:21:28:21
John Azoni
But it's it's the content, like it's the stuff that UCSF is doing that's groundbreaking. And it's not a commercial for UCSF. Nowhere in there do they say anything about applying to UCSF or whatever. They're just telling a story of this woman who got her voice back and you're watching it like, Wow, that is huge. Imagine the implications of that in our world and just like this groundbreaking stuff that's being done that students are getting to be a part of developing, it was, I think was like researchers and also students that helped develop this and worked through the kinks and worked through the problems and the coding and all this stuff.
00:21:29:11 - 00:21:50:10
John Azoni
If I were like a techie medical student, data scientist, whatever the skill set is that makes a piece of technology like that, that would make UCSF stand out to me as a school that's differentiated, you wouldn't have to say like, Oh, we're the leader in technology, because what does that mean, really? What does that mean? Everyone's going to say they're the leader in whatever it is that they do.
00:21:50:10 - 00:22:06:17
John Azoni
We're the leading medical school. Our professors are the leading, you know, world class people in the world and stuff like that. But it's like, no, seriously, we are leading the way in this technology and our students are coming along on that ride. Do you want to be on this ride with us? Because this is what that could look like for you.
00:22:06:17 - 00:22:23:13
John Azoni
And if I were in that sort of genre of study, that would really stand out to me. Like I feel like they buried themselves in my mind with this cool thing that they made and how it changed someone's life and the potential for it to change other people's lives who can't talk. I mean, imagine knowing how to talk.
00:22:24:00 - 00:22:46:12
John Azoni
You at one point could talk, but now you're just trapped in this body with without the ability to express thoughts verbally. And now you're given a tool and now very practical tool. I mean, in the beta stages where, you know, she's like hooked up to a computer and it's like reading all this data and brainwaves and things like that.
00:22:46:12 - 00:23:06:18
John Azoni
So it's not like it's like you take it with you two to talk, but just proving that it can be done to turn thoughts into speech is really cool. That would make UCSF like, I feel like they buried themselves in my mind with with that and I got all I needed to know about UCSF from that video that would make me take the next step.
00:23:06:18 - 00:23:31:16
John Azoni
Like from there I would then move down the funnel where I'll go seek out more information about their programs if I was interested in that. And then, you know, whether find out if it's a good fit for me, see what other people are saying about the experience going there. So that's where all those other pieces of content, you know, the actual saying, saying what it is that you do and why it's worth considering, that's why you need to have that stuff.
00:23:31:16 - 00:23:54:13
John Azoni
But you don't get there. That's content that someone's already in the door, they're already in the house, and then you can tell them that, but you can't get them in the house with just trying to, you know, pitch to them necessarily when they've never really heard of you before, you know, experience the value of the use. If you CSF brand or whatever.
00:23:54:13 - 00:24:14:14
John Azoni
So top of funnel with a with a piece of site or content like this video, you know you're not trying to get someone to apply, you're just trying to occupy a space in their mind that makes that person go like, I want to learn more. And then they, they take the next step. So really cool video Shout out to Pete Bell, who is their video producer there at UCSF.
00:24:15:03 - 00:24:49:02
John Azoni
Great work that they're doing over there and I'll link to it here. So so you can check it out. But okay, so what I'd love for you to take away from this episode is to think about the content that you're putting out or that you're scheduled to put out. And in the midst of all of that communications, the communications from the president and promoting this or that event or sending out your next email newsletter or whatever it is, are you being intentional enough to think what kind of content can we put out there that's going to bury us in the hearts of our prospective students and get them to take the next step?
00:24:49:16 - 00:25:12:21
John Azoni
Where are some of the side doors that we can explore that will get our audience inside the house of our brand? We're then we can then talk to them on a deeper level about the value of our school without knowing they're even aware that they've entered. Are there any opportunities here to spin these content ideas into a broader cultural conversation?
00:25:12:21 - 00:25:35:20
John Azoni
And so, you know, taking out, say, you're promoting a particular program, can you turn the camera to the side a little bit? Who else is involved? It's just kind of like that. P&G with the with the mom. It's like who else is a kind of a character in this industry and how can we kind of build a narrative around something else that then kind of leads to the value of the brand?
00:25:36:11 - 00:25:54:05
John Azoni
What would this content look like if it weren't allowed to mention the name? If we weren't allowed to mention the name of the school? That's a really good litmus test. I think if you're creating like a top of funnel awareness piece and you want this to be different, you want you don't want it to just be like every others schools.
00:25:54:13 - 00:26:13:03
John Azoni
The video at the top of their YouTube page, which is going to like open with a drone shot and have this very poetic voiceover and stuff like that. If you could take that idea and go, What if we weren't allowed to mention the name of our school? Would the video fall apart? In that case, you might have just a very front door video and maybe that's okay.
00:26:13:03 - 00:26:41:17
John Azoni
Maybe that's what you want. Maybe we just need to put it in the front door category like this still makes sense to make or this still makes sense to write or whatever it is, but this piece of content is going to live on that front door, sort of more direct to sale kind of approach. But if you can take the brand name out of it and it still holds up, chances are you've probably got something with a little more substance that can hold up to a narrative and still get the point across.
00:26:41:20 - 00:27:11:10
John Azoni
Like if you can't get the point across without mentioning your school, if you can't get the value across, then chances are you're not really looking off to the side for a side door sort of piece of content. So that's my charge to you in 2024 and I think we should start a movement, we'll call it Side Door in 2024, and I hope you will lead the way for your institution in creating content.
00:27:12:03 - 00:27:52:19
John Azoni
Doesn't have to be. All your content has to be like this, but look for opportunities where you can turn the attention a little to the side and see like what else? What is over here that we can that we can focus on and then really do justice to that story. Let the story let that narrative, that journey that you're building speak for itself without trying to muscle in all the brand speak, you know, finding opportunities where like where can we look for a compelling narrative And we work backwards from the narrative instead of working backwards from the brand talking points and the sort of commercial aspect of what we're trying to do.
00:27:53:08 - 00:28:15:21
John Azoni
So that's what I got for you. Happy 2024. Happy New Year. Looking forward to more great content for this podcast and we will see you next week with Artists Tattoo talking about AI and this this cool cabana example. So yeah, thanks. Thanks for listening.