Frankenstein Your Comms Strategy
What do St. Jude's, Harvard University, Marvel and Frankenstein all have in common?
Out of guesses?
They all became well-known before AI.
You know them all. You know what they do or what they're about. You know them when you see them or hear about them.
Even if you don't know who wrote Frankenstein, during Halloween you recognize the monster. If you've never seen a Marvel movie, you know the logo means superheroes. If Harvard was never in your plans, you know to call its name when you have an extra smart cousin in the family. And even if you've never donated to St. Jude's, you've considered it.
In a world that's asking us to move faster, brand quicker, communicate with speed, and build with robots, I'm asking why?
If it worked without it before, why are we so sure it can only work with it now?
I'm not against AI, but I am against the constant outputs that all resemble the last story, post, and brand.
For the sake of brevity, I will truncate the myriad of factors that led to their wild success (and for now, ignore the nuances of some of their critiques). Here are 3 factors that we should all remember for our communications strategies:
Novelty
Morality
Community
St. Jude's broke the hospital business model by creating a zero-cost patient experience through hyper-localized fundraising efforts. Their mission was clear and consistent, it sounded something like, "We not doing childhood cancer over here!" And they made all of America feel personally responsible for keeping children alive.
Harvard was established as a training ground for Puritan ministers. As their work expanded, they stripped their motto to a single word that represented what they were founded on and what they wanted to live out no matter how far the institution went, "Truth." Truth became not their outlook on education, but their duty to society and progress. As the first institution deemed an "Ivy League," community speaks for itself.
Before I get into Marvel, let me start by saying that Batman is my favorite. I will not be elaborating because that's simple and unarguable. Marvel, however, in its comic book era (and to this day) dominates DC by bringing characters into the real world (NYC) and giving them real world problems (rent, sick aunts, disabilities, needing government clearance). Marvel tackles the social responsibility of superhero and the burden of power. And unlike comic books prior, Stan Lee treated fans like co-creators and family.
And, oh Frankenstein, that's still the name of the creator, not the monster by the way. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein out of the grief of losing her own child, funneling her own anxieties and fears around birth, death and parenthood. She published it anonymously, and it gained earned media, word-of-mouth marketing, and sparked controversy because it invented modern day sci-fi with an allegory. It's been passed down, retold, discussed, and shared far beyond the pages it started on.
And what was the heart of that story again?
What are the consequences of humans playing God? What happens when you create something and then abandon it? Who bears the responsibility after something comes into the world?
Ultimately, it warns us against pursuing scientific and intellectual power without thinking about what may happen after. Like Prometheus, like Babel, like Jurassic Park.
Like...us?
AI can create the next St. Jude's, Harvard, Marvel, and Frankenstein but it can't create the next novel, moral, and communal idea that's brewing within the walls of your organization.
That takes knowing what's driving you and not feeding it to the monster that'll feed it to the next org. That takes knowing your audience, even being your audience, which a robot could never be! That takes getting outside and talking to people about what you do, what your mission is, and making it so simple that there's no way for anyone to reject it.
To Frankenstein your comms strategy the right way means doing what the book did, not what the creator did with the monster. Let your personal experiences out. Let the work speak for you. Create something original. Find your tribe. Speak to people's sense of humanity.
Children. Truth. Superheroes. Grief.
They're all things to be awed.
If you're having trouble with your communications structures or systems, find the one word that makes people awe at what you're creating. One word. One single word that people get in their souls.
AI doesn't have a soul. But the compassionate do, the smarties do, the escapists do, and the grieving do. And whoever your audience is, they're looking for your one word that didn't come from AI, but came from your experience, your mind and your need to meet theirs.
Your organization already has a word like that in it somewhere. The question is whether anyone outside your walls has ever heard it clearly, or if it's gotten lost under everything else you're saying instead.
Take the Easy Diagnostic to see where your story actually stands; eleven questions, two minutes, one honest read on whether your message is landing clearly or getting lost.
