Micah Caronna
Willow Arts Conference - How to make your ideas “Sticky” - #wcawonder

Willow Arts Conference - How to make your ideas “Sticky” - #wcawonder
Chip and Dan Heath are the authors of “made to stick” a great book that i would recommend. http://www.madetostick.com

This was a great lecture,  and they are from Raleigh!!

6 traits to a sticky idea
1. simple - easy to understand
  • designer knows (s)he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add but when there is nothing left to take away
  • simplicity is only concerned about communicating the core of the idea.
  • art is about finding the heart of what you want to communicate
  • facts and elements are only tools they are negotiable to use or not use
  • most artists have the curse of knowledge
  • we know the details of our art form way more than the people we impact with it.
  • we can spend tons of time on things that don’t matter to those who are impacted by our art
  • what are your pet elements that you MUST get right that most of your audience will never notice.
2. unexpected - surprising
  • must break a pattern that people preconceive
  • Atkins diet was popular because it broke peoples preconceived notions of a died.
  • sticky ideas break the pattern of what you think a thing should be.
  • Jesus did this in the sermon on the mount…”you have heard it said…but i say to you”
  • you must find what is unexpected in your idea and highlight it.
  • try make your services/art unexpected.
  • do people already know your service/art routine?
  • nothing wrong with routines but people disengage when they think they know what comes next.
  • every time you watch the same movie you have less and less interest because you know what will happen next.
  • invoke curiosity in order to get people to engage.
3. concrete - you can visualize it.
  • Most messages don’t give you a concrete mental image of the subject matter.
  • Jesus was a master at this.
  • subway “Jared campaign” vs previous “7sandwiches under 6grams of fat” you can visualize Jared.
  • find the visual behind each story/message and anchor what you want to stick in peoples heads to that visual

4. credible - convinces us to believe it
  • it has to be believable and logical
  • a credible idea makes people believe
5. emotional - evokes emotion
  • an emotional idea makes people care
  • only using the facts kills emotion.
  • make sure it makes people happy, sad, angry, scared, etc
6. stories - often told as stories
  • people are moved by stories.
  • information with no story to stick to us. 
  • put peoples stories. this is why “Impact” is so popular.
  • 5 in 100 people will remember the facts after 10 min. 6 in 10 people will remember a story after 10 min.
when communicating through your art form as these three simple questions.
  • what do you want them to know?
  • what do you want them to feel?
  • what do you want them to do?

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