“Main Character Syndrome” isn’t in Webster’s dictionary, but it’s something with which we’re increasingly becoming familiar: the idea that we as individuals believe we are the main character of life, and that the universe is creating its plot based on how we are affected.

It’s something we might observe in others — or, in self-reflective modes, within ourselves. When we step back, we know that’s not true.

But it is hard sometimes to know the difference.

Organizations can fall into this trap as it relates to their brands. The idea that their brand is the main character in the life of someone in their audience. So if you simply make an audience aware that you exist or what you want them to do, they'll run with it from there.

The reality, though, is that it probably isn’t the main character. Given how rare it is to achieve main character status, is that even a worthy aspiration? I say no. People are busy, and their concerns (especially after the last few years) are much more immediate than your brand. And that’s ok!

Embracing that opens a new line of possibility of how your brand can benefit from your audience. Or, even better, 

It forces you to really think about your audience, and what the main characters are in their lives. It’s likely many of the same things in yours: how are the relationships in their lives? Is everyone healthy? How do they spend their time for fun? What’s causing them difficulty at the moment? What are their dreams? What does their community feel like?

It always comes back too empathy and authenticity.

Let’s say that you are a nonprofit and you know that your theory of change, if implemented, will absolutely change the world for the better. It’s not enough to just explain that 

 your audience. In some ways, if the change were easy or natural to make, they’d have made the change already. Many times, your audience just doesn’t have the knowledge base you have. Or they’re thinking about the situation from a completely different frame of reference.

It becomes your responsibility to listen and learn about the frames and experiences that audiences are bringing to your topic. You can listen and learn about what vocabulary audiences use, what questions they ask, what fears they have.

The more you modify your message and your offering to accommodate the audience, the more they recognize it.

If your offering isn’t the main character in your audience’s life, how can it support the main character? To use a reference from Avengers, your brand might not be Tony Stark, but your brand can be the Infinity Stones. Your brand can be the thing your audience (as their own main character) uses to accomplish something that they already recognize as meaningful.

Over time, you achieve a shift - from something on the periphery to something that is recognizable to your audience in the context of their lives. You become just the thing or idea they were looking for.

And once they’ve done that, they’ll share your story for you. Because it empowers them to be the main character - the one who shares a novel solution that creates value for them and the people they care about.

We work with subject matter expert brands to help them untangle the blind spots and speak more meaningfully to their audience. 

Contact us and tell us what you’ve got going on. 

Creative Distillery is a marketing firm that helps clients achieve brand alignment converted into marketing action.

About Us

About

Your Brand Has Main Character Syndrome

Did you know that it takes 17 years from the development of new knowledge until it’s translated into popular practice?

That’s 17 years of missed opportunities in untold numbers of applications in scores of sectors.

Morris ZS, Wooding S, Grant J J R Soc Med. 2011 Dec; 104(12):510-20.

We’re on a mission to connect the most powerful, innovative expert ideas with the audiences that can use them faster, more effectively, and with less resistance to behavior change. Collaboratively with our client partners, we want knowledge to start benefiting our world now, instead of in another 17 years.

We’re constantly fascinated by the conversations we have with subject matter experts who are doing deep research and development on interventions and ideas that solve problems. In areas like public health, reproductive justice, education, economic development, and so many more, the amount of knowledge is rarely the problem. The challenge is convincing audiences to do the behaviors that will create the impact you want to see. 

That’s where the toolbox provided by smart creative marketing comes in.

“Specialists in domains such as health, environment, or altruism aren’t always conscious of the fact that they differ substantially from their knowledges in topical knowledge, values, priorities, and level of involvement, so they lack the perspective of the ‘average’ person.”

Atkin, Charles K., Freimuth, Vicki (2013). Guidelines for Formative Evaluation Research in Campaign Design. In Atkin, Charles K., Rice, Ronald E. Public Communication Campaigns. (2013). United Kingdom: SAGE Publications.

In our experience, subject matter experts basically know so much that it’s difficult to conceive of an audience that doesn’t understand. That’s a challenge if any part of your work is dedicated to changing the behavior of an audience. People bring a variety of experiences to their current thought processes, and often do things based more on their identities than they do because of facts. That means that messages have to be filtered through an identity to be relevant to your audience. Do you have different audiences? You may need different messages, customized to each.

Though your audience is likely not involved in the research leading to a campaign, thinking like your audience is a hugely important part of the process. It helps to expose hidden assumptions or blind spots.

“Arrange the conditions of policy contingencies so that it is fun, easy, and popular for people to make the right decision.”

Smith, Bill (2010). Behavioral economics and social marketing: new allies in the war on absent behavior. Social Marketing Quarterly. 16(2), 137-141.

Assuming a ‘rational actor’ is often more theory than reality. Emotions like affinity and anger can drive behavior in powerful ways. Even business and political leaders are not immune to leading emotion. But it does underscore that facts alone can’t drive positive change. That’s how a public interest campaign on reducing littering becomes 

To drive the real change that you know is needed, you have to speak to your audience’s emotions. Fire them up! The ingredients for that aren’t found in a lab—they come from the world of creative marketing. And marketing on its own without inspirational clients is rudderless. Blending the two is the perfect mixture that I’ve spent my career pursuing.

“Through the haze of time, it is difficult to understand that the proponents of public communications campaigns—whatever their backgrounds—did not conceptualize a time when informational expertise would be contested or indeed that well-meaning expert elites would be challenged.”

Dervin, Brenda, Foreman-Wernet, Lois. Sense-making methodology as an approach to understanding and designing for campaign audiences. In Atkin, Charles K., Rice, Ronald E. Public Communication Campaigns. (2013). United Kingdom: SAGE Publications.

We know that we’re in a challenging time for facts. Audiences’ trust has been tested like never before. If you are an academic center designing a new program, or selling consulting services to the private sector, why should they trust you? Credentials alone don’t cut it—especially if you’re suddenly thrust into talking to the public. Your brand is the interplay and relationship that’s built between you and how your audience feels when they think about you. These are the building blocks towards creating change and landing your message with your audience. If you’ve never considered that your center or program needs a brand, we urge you to think again — you do.

Investing in your brand is the step you can take to bring your center, research, and resulting programs into alignment with the needs of your audience. We call our process Alignment + Action and we’ve got it down to an artful science.

“Consider how those in the commercial marketing sector look at marketing budgets—it’s all about the return on investment.”

Kotler, P., Lee, N. R. (2011). Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good. India: SAGE Publications.

Our belief is that you’re not doing your work so that knowledge sits on a shelf somewhere—you want it out in the world making positive change. We do, too. We think constantly about those 17 years that knowledge was created but not implemented in real world settings for the public good.

We’ve designed our team and our operations to effectively interpret the spirit of subject matter expert material into social marketing and knowledge translation campaigns. In our conversations with philanthropic funders, they know how important capacity building is for change work. We’re always dismayed when we learn that grantees who have been funded often have unspent marketing line items, simply because they didn’t know where to start! We want your work to connect with your audiences.

Contact us at info@creativedistillery.com and tell us what ideas you want to put into practice.

View our portfolio of creative outreach marketing campaign, advertising, & brand work.

Advertising, Branding, and Graphic Design Projects

Knowledge + Creative Outreach Is Power

We’ve spent the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic adjusting our own workflows and even more time adjusting the crisis communications on behalf of our clients as well. It is a trying time, with some businesses—especially those serving consumers—unfortunately having to temporarily shut down. Please support your local businesses! Here are some ways we’re communicating through our clients during this adjustment period:

If people aren’t seeing you in their daily routine out of their homes right now, it’s all the more reason to stay on your customers’ radar. From our own experience working from home and social distancing, I am looking for ways to make my home environment more comfortable and treat myself in small ways — I know that your customers are too. 

If you have a closet of branded t-shirts, try to find a responsible way to give them away to your fans. Consider ways to incentivize customers to post about your brand on their social accounts. People are creating a LOT more social content from home, and activating your die-hard fans will create opportunities for touchpoints to keep you out there.

Brands are ultimately about trust: in quality, in a vibe, and in a connection. Your brand is a valuable asset right now, and something to focus on taking care of during this time. People will remain loyal to brands that they trust and stay in touch with while we’re all spending more time at home.

Now is a great time to check your scheduled posts, promotions, and other things to see if they are relevant. In our office, we call this putting on our “consumer” hat even as we are “makers.” That means paying attention to our own emotions about how we’re reacting to communications we’re receiving from others. Is this comforting me right now? Is it solving a legitimate problem for me? Is it providing me value? Filter your outgoing communications through this lens and only share things that are authentic and additive.

This has been a popular concept shared on social media, and for good reason. It puts cash into businesses’ hands now, allows them to support their employees, and you get to spend it when we can all move about more freely. If you are not set up to sell gift cards online, figure it out now! We’ve seen clients add some incentives to gift card pricing, which sweetens the deal for everyone, and I think this is a smart strategy.

In keeping with thinking like a consumer rather than a maker, it’s important to not exploit your customers, period. What do I think is exploitative? Anything that involves trickery, fear, scarcity, or plays towards negative emotions. 

That said, speaking to your audience's emotions is a good thing. I believe that the best branding and marketing isn't trying to trick anybody into anything, and genuine empathy is a part of that. Do you miss seeing your regular customers at your storefront? They probably miss seeing you, too. Can your brand provide a place for that kind of interaction?  

I think there's too much attention being put on political leadership "reopening" the economy. The truth is there's no magic switch to turn the economy on or off. It's driven by market forces of supply and demand. Even if the economy "reopens," shoppers' behavior will be forever altered by this situation. 

That means building the infrastructure needed to support a long-term investment in e-commerce, delivery, curbside service, in as many ways as you can get. Think of a requirement that someone walk through your door as a major source of friction, and what you can do to elminate that friction however you can.

If you host seminars, are you implementing online options? Are you shoring up your e-commerce, social selling, home delivery, or other convenience platforms? I believe that the best response to a challenging situation is creative generative energy, and we want to see everyone survive this time together.

We've started every morning off with a group video call. I think it's important to maintain structure. We're also doing a group video happy hour on Friday afternoons.

Beyond that, we've relied on cloud tools for a long time so there's not a ton of disruption from a work standpoint. We're fortunate on that front. We've seen a lot of various angles through our clients. Most of what we've talked about here has been from the local business and consumer-facing perspective. 

Nonprofits and organizations with non-consumer funding streams are shifting operations more from a communications and capacity standpoint - moving fundraisers online, redirecting where funds are allocated, things like that. This entire situation is a good lesson on the value of adaptation and agility, values we've long prized in our business.

If you’re a business or organization that needs help with crisis communications or adjusting brand strategy in light of coronavirus, let’s roll up our sleeves from a safe social distance and get to work.

Local Business Ideas for Adapting to Coronavirus

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Contact Us

Creative Distillery works with clients across the country on _______ projects. We can be most helpful in your project’s early stages so that we can create a custom solution that works best for you.

Contact us at the button below and we’ll arrange a conference by Zoom.

We create projects that are engaging, effective, and communicate your information with clarity and cleverness.

We've built a talented creative team united around our shared vision of launching projects that make a difference in the world. We work together seamlessly to lend the best of various disciplines to each project. 

We are creative, but we're not artists. We're focused on using branding, marketing, and advertising to achieve important goals in the real world. We listen throughout the process to help you focus on goals, and use insights to drive our creative. Who is your audience? What is relevant to them right now? 

Design is the difference between your audience taking your information seriously or not. Design can control engagement and emotion, activating powerful influences.

We integrate all of the tasks required to make a website into a smooth workflow that ensures your site not only looks great and functions correctly but, most importantly, achieves the goals that are meaningful to you.

Seeing is believing, and video is an engaging way to create an experience for your audience that demonstrates emotion and story that drives your point home. We integrate brand strategy throughout the video process, so in the production and editing phases we're focused on delivering your message the right way.

Creative Services

At our core, we are a firm that makes things. We've assembled a team that can create anything: branding, interactive, writing, or multimedia. 

We're excited for you to see what we've made - we set high standard for ourselves. But every project is a new start, and we hope you'll explore the variety of what we've created. From interesting subject to ever-evolving audience trends, we're always hungry for what's around the corner.

Creative

We help you align your priorities and values, identify your target audience, and develop objectives that’ll return investment.

: helping to unpack the internal goals and values, and aligning those with the needs and beliefs of your audience. Then, we translate those insights into action - creating the catalyst that'll help achieve your desired impact.

Our firm is experienced in partnering with subject matter experts on tricky, complex material. As Marie Kondo says, 

Making large changes often requires dealing with a complex reality. That's okay! We'll work with you through the real dynamics that are guiding your situation. We believe that knowledge on its own is not enough if you want your audience to 

 the change you're working towards. That's where we come in.

We'll help you truly empathize with your audience from their perspective, and create communications that move them in a positive direction. We have a knack for identifying the high-leverage targets and applying the right message.

We believe in interconnected systems — the better the work together for the progress of all, the better our world will be. Your organization is a part of that system, and our work complements yours by helping to translate what you do in a way that your audience can act upon. Contact us to get started.

Strategy Services

We're strategic thinkers motivated by real world outcomes.

 Audience, values, insight, and deep topical knowledge fuel our process. The result is often creative and unexpected, but the aim is lasting transformation in your audience.

Clients emerge from projects with renewed clarity about their brand positioning in the market and increased alignment between internal operations and the authentic values of their audience.

Strategy

We're entirely focused on connecting ideas with audiences, and marketing is where information transfers to their hands.

We employ all the channels available to you - from low-tech relationships to the latest evolutions in digital marketing and audience targeting. Our marketing projects are where ideas meet the audience. 

The biggest factor is that we stay on top of marketing campaigns, follow through, and make adjustments along the way to improve results. Because we're so invested in the real world outcomes of your project, we're motivated to see it happen.

Marketing Services

Marketing is where your message meets your audience. There are more sophisticated and efficient ways to do this than ever before. From the latest digital audience targeting to mainstream traditional placements to low-fi super targeted applications, we'll help evaluate the mix to ensure the best allocation of your marketing mix.

We're never complacent: analytics drive our strategy continually throughout a campaign, and we're agile enough to make adjustments on the fly. This means that we don't just deliver reports as giant spreadsheets. We take the time to identify insights and trends that'll help drive your continued growth.

We help your ideas reach their audiences - through digital advertising, distribution, and other tactics that get the job done.