I hear this a lot: “I work in a boring industry or I have a boring product. There isn’t much I can do.” I disagree. You can bust boring content. There is no boring product or industry – only boring marketing lacking imagination. I believe anyone can think more creatively about content. There are so many ways to get creative!
Three Sheets to the Wind, Source: gratisography.com
I do a lot of blabs, Periscope and Facebook videos where I let the audience ask me anything about storytelling, improv or content.
Bust Boring Content: Creative Ideas for a Boring Sheet Fitter Product
In one blab, I was contacted by a woman whose company produces sheet fitters so sheets fit better and are easier to secure on a bed. In her email to me, she said, “Help. I don’t know how to make this funny?”
You don’t need to be funny. If you aim for busting boring, that’s a great start because when you start, the fun and funny will unfold (see what I did there? ha!). So here are a few ideas I gave her live on blab to help her see possibilities, and I hope it gives you ideas, too:
1. Anthropomorphize. Give your product a personality. Look at NASA’s Mars Rover in its social media accounts. The updates are all first-person; in other words, it’s an ongoing story and adventure told through the “human” lens of the Rover because that is fun and interesting. Remember the Ikea lamp? Yes – that. What would it say? What would it do? Give it a voice, mannerisms, point of view.
2. Think Complements. If a product is unexciting, think about complementary products that go with that product that you could talk about. In this case – sheets! Sheets are fun. Give tips on how to have great sheets and what people do with their wrinkled sheets. Ask people to create funny images with sheets and send them in. Then post the really great ones.
Banish Boring Content! Source: gratisography.com
3. Puntificate! Puns are great. Ask people for their best sheet puns. “When sheet hits the fan…or Three Sheets to the Wind..” Publish that list.
4. Go Un-product. Fitters are boring so talk about what they could do other than what they were designed for. This is derived from an improv game I use all the time. So they’re not bed fitters for example in this exercise. Instead, they’re sleds for mice, or suspenders for cats. Publish a list of “alternative uses” in a funny post.
5. Video! There is nothing funnier than watching people try to get a sheet to stay on a bed – especially when the sheet is tight. You get one corner on and the diagonal corner comes off. That’s funny. You can create a funny video to highlight the pain point – that users will identify and laugh with – and how your product helps solve that challenge. Invite your audience to participate and to submit their funny videos. I have watched my kid try to do this and it’s funny. I laugh – then I help.
These are just 5 ways. There are so many more. Think upside down, backwards, and non-traditionally. Have fun. What would be unexpected and unboring for your product? Then, do some of those.
