Make the customer the main character.

Most company content has one star: the company. The product shot, the founder at the whiteboard, the team photo, the award. It feels natural, because it’s your account and your money. It’s also why most of it gets scrolled past.

Three brands that left themselves out

Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches sat women behind a curtain with a forensic sketch artist. Each described her own face, then a stranger described the same face. The stranger’s drawing was kinder almost every time. There’s no soap in it, and it became one of the most-watched ads ever made.

Nike’s ad for the 2012 Olympics had no Olympian in it. It was one long shot of a twelve-year-old in Ohio, jogging toward the camera down an empty road. Nobody mentions shoes.

Apple’s Shot on iPhone billboards didn’t explain the camera. They showed a photo someone took, with that person’s name on it.

Why it works

People don’t forward things about companies. They forward things that are secretly about them, or about someone they know. Everyone watching the Nike ad has been the slow one at the back, still going. The brand gets the credit for noticing.

How to do it this week

–Pick one customer and one moment from their week that your product touches.

–Tell that moment in their words, not yours: the exact phrases from emails, reviews and calls.

–Let the product show up once, or not at all. If the story lands, people go looking for who made it.

You don’t need a sketch artist or a film crew. You need to step out of the middle of your own frame.

These are other brands’ campaigns, not our work.

Be the obvious choice, not another copy.