If you’re going to break the rules, do it with style.
Rule: BAD advertising is about you, your company, or your product. GOOD advertising is about the customer; the kind of person who would buy what you sell or need your service.
How do you break this rule of advertising and get away with it?
By telling your own story, your origin story, while making me (your customer) the center of the story arc.
If that seems contradictory, allow me to explain.
It’s not enough to tell me what happened to you. Make me feel why it’s important. Connect the dots for me. Show me why your past experiences are significant to my current experience with you.
Why do your past sacrifices make you better at helping me? How will you use your lessons learned on my behalf? How does what happened to you change the way you do things, and why is that in my best interests?
Those are the kind of questions you have to answer if you’re going to break the rules and tell your own story.
Because bad advertising is about you.
Good advertising is about you, but with style.
– Zac Smith, VC
