The movie trailer for your organization

Building an effective brand for any organization is about telling a good story that builds quality perceptions. If your current branding isn’t working the way you hope, you have to think differently. NFL Films thought differently and its leadership story transformed a fledgling sport into a powerhouse. You can do the same.

Movie fan or not, you know what a “trailer” is. Hollywood has been using them since 1913 when the Loews theatre chain produced a short film promoting a new Broadway musical. It was essentially a cost-cutting innovation: producers felt showing a commercial in cinemas would make traditional billboard advertising unnecessary. It got its name from the fact these short films were, at first, shown at the end of movies. As soon as theatre owners realized patrons left theatres immediately after the feature ended, and that trailers were going unseen, the commercial was quickly shifted to the beginning. But the name–and the practice–stuck.

Over the course of a century, the trailer concept hasn’t changed: attracting audiences means telling an engaging short story that persuasively says, “Trust us, you’ll love the movie.” Much like the flap copy on a bestselling book, a trailer manipulates viewers. It doesn’t care about distortion, and doesn’t spend precious time expanding on the real narrative; trailers reveal just enough of the plot without giving away the whole story. But this is marketing: the goal is to sell viewers on the idea that they need to buy a ticket, so a little distortion is both healthy and encouraged. Fundraising organizations are always on the look out for best practices. Are they ready for the Hollywood-style trailer, or will the tactic be dismissed out of fear their message is being “Disneyfied”? Don’t be put off. Trailers are beautiful promotion pieces that convey mood, atmosphere and engage people by being provocative. They’re a clean and simple way to showcase the juicy moments in what people will see when they experience your product. In other words, trailers are good storytelling in their own right and a great example of mission-connecting communication.

It’s only becoming harder and harder to reach consumers. Maybe its time to be like Loews – 104 years later – and look for alternatives to bus shelter ads. People are exposed to a flood of content every day; they will only read/watch what is relevant and valuable to them. The rest will be ignored and won’t ever get read. Many organizations already post short videos on their websites, but for the most part, these information-focused videos look like government training movies from the 1950s. You wouldn’t likely go to a movie if the trailer was dull or low quality. Building an effective brand is about building quality perceptions. If you want to attract attention and get people to visit, that video has to hook viewers. It has to say, “Trust us, you’ll love what we do!”

Can nonprofits think differently?

Twenty years ago, a McKinsey Quarterly article (“If Nike can ‘Just Do It’, why can’t we?”) encouraged nonprofit readers to follow the Nike model for building a power brand. Why not, indeed? Brands aren’t the preserve of major corporations. Nike certainly didn’t start as one, but it told engaging stories about its new products that attracted customers. But when it comes to brand development, communicating unique identity and motivating people to develop a relationship with your organization, nonprofits stand to learn more from the NFL than Nike.

Just as Nike began modestly, professional football in the United States was a fourth-tier sport in the late 1940s. Less than 20 years later, it was the most popular and commercially lucrative sport in America. Like any revolutionary product that becomes a runaway success, we quickly forget the story of its journey. To rise above a cluttered competitive marketplace, NFL owners knew they would have to do two things: first, align the quality of their story with the quality of the on-field product, and second, expose professional football to a broader population than those who could personally attend games.

The “trailers” were not intended to maximize profit,
but to increase the league’s prestige.

Our current image of the NFL would be vastly different without NFL Films, an innovative enterprise that turned NFL broadcasts into storytelling sessions. Led by the father-son duo of Ed and Steve Sabol, NFL Films gave the league its own version of the Hollywood trailer. Their carefully assembled highlight reels, combined with John Facenda’s now famous “voice of God” narration, proved to be as entertaining as the game itself (if not more so) and hooked new viewers on the game.

Giving every game a narrative structure and a sense of sport as a performance rather than merely a game created myths and highlighted the league’s quality and sophistication. The “trailers” were not intended to maximize profit, but to increase the league’s prestige…and the nostalgia and lore they manufactured impressed everyone. Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who understood the films gave the league a clear and unified story, protected their autonomy. This kind of advertising wasn’t cheap, but as Ed Sabol commented, “You remember the quality long after you forget the price.”

Can your nonprofit think and act that way? Your current story probably isn’t working the way you hope because the conventional mass marketing approach isn’t explaining what people need to know. You have to develop new hooks for your audiences and evolve your storytelling capability along with the demands of the people to whom you want to be talking, so you can make an enduring connection.

Make your voice sustainable.

We’re now miles beyond conventional storytelling. With the many competitive pressures your organization faces today – from video games and social media to outdoor recreational pursuits and spectator sports – you have to focus on connecting with your audiences on multiple levels and offer perspectives to help them understand the capture and tell stories that not everyone will see.

Loews thought differently, so did the NFL. Every day, your organization has to balance education, engagement and entertainment. Don’t be afraid of a little bit of distortion that helps engage, attract and lead audiences to education. Think differently about your story.