Did I get your attention?
Good. That’s the point.
I’m going to let you in on a little inside joke I have with my colleague, Jay. Our shorthand for an attention-grabbing, memorably branded media personality is “Fart-Head.” Whose name only needs to be said once in order for it to stick in your brain? Fart-Head. Who are you irrationally curious about? Fart-Head. Who are you likely to tell your friends about? Fart-Head.
What about Jim? Don’t care.
What about Melissa? Snooze.
What about Kevin? Already forgotten.
But Fart-Head… I don’t know what he’s all about, but tell me more!!
Now, it’s up to Fart-Head to deliver the goods. If he fails to entertain, that’s on him and his memorable brand is forever remembered in a bad way.
But, the point is that he got my attention.
So in a world in which we are inundated with countless messages and presented with oodles of entertainment options, while we’re by no means advocating the return of shock jocks, we are advocating that you consider what it takes to make an impression…
THE NAME: I bet it’s a lot harder for “Jim” or “Melissa” to draw attention than it is for “Conan” or “Jed The Fish” or “Marshmello” or “PewDiePie.”
THE DELIVERY: I bet it’s a lot harder for the super-polished talent who sounds like all the other super-polished talents than it is for the talent who talks with an accent, a memorable speech pattern or some kind of not-your-run-of-the-mill delivery.
THE CONTENT: I bet it’s a lot harder for the personality whose content consists of well-researched, interesting pop culture updates than it is for the personality who does something really unique and buzzworthy.
So look, maybe you’re not on board with Fart-Head. I get it. It’s silly, crude and unbecoming of a semi-respected researcher to even talk about.
But, you’ve got to admit, it’ll be hard to forget…
