Bubbles

Today, I had a lovely convo with a great tech company trying to do lead gen via content. Which is the right idea.

Excellent product set, all great, solid story. First half of the conversation, cuddly and warm. Second half, less so.. as they were literally unable to answer the question, Why would a busy business person open this mail to find this out?

So many times over the years, especially when I go in to do media training or kick-off B2B content creation work like this, I’ve encountered an invisible protective wall around the company I am talking to. I call it The Bubble. Inside the Bubble lives the company. It’s a golden land, a bit like the elite kingdom of the pastel-wearing 1% in Zardoz… everyone loves the company and is on-board with the messaging.

But, I say. In my gadfly, Crazy Fool way.

I don’t live in The Bubble.

I don’t know how great you are yet.

You need to open the Bubble and look at you (and your proposition) from MY point of view. As that’s the only way you’ll sell to me.

Clients live in comfortable brand-only echo chambers and are unable and unwilling to puncture The Bubble.

Until they do, by coaxing or pressure, they’ll just broadcast spam no-one cares about–leaving the field wide open for the ones brave enough to go beyond the jargon-blanket.

I know I’m going to do some great work on important social and business issues with my new friends.

But until they get brave enough to flip the perspective and see what their shiny thing is from an outsider’s perspective… all we’ll be doing is stacking dead pixels up, one on the other.