Nathania Johnson

A local hospital has an ad running on TV. The first time it came on I wasn’t watching it, but I heard this:

Doctor: What makes a great heart hospital?

Patient: I just want to go back to work.

Slightly shocked, I looked up to watch the ad. Was it a parody? No. It was a serious ad. But what you could only learn by watching was that the commercial was cutting back and forth between scenes.

So, a word to the wise: Listen to your commercials without the visual. Make sure your message gets across even when viewers are checking their email, grabbing a snack or folding laundry.

The secret is Listening.

Not hearing. Not skimming. Not reading. Not reading without comprehending.

Listening.

Listening to your niche.

Listening to other authorities.

Listening to your coworkers

Listening to your customers.

Listening to your competitors.

Listening to your listeners.

It’s impossible to do true improv without listening. To be in a given moment, you have to pay attention to what’s going on in that instant. To improvise, you have to be able to adjust to new information, which you can only gather from listening.

True listening runs at a slightly slower pace than today’s technology-driven society. But the results are worth it. Listening develops carefully thought-out perspectives, which can inform your impulses.

Listening also requires humility. It requires that you’re not stuck in your ways and that, even if you ultimately disagree, you respond with respect. You get respect when you give it. And listening helps you gain respect among your coworkers and customers.

What are your thoughts on listening?

Today at the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association’s Luncheon, the topic was social media. Permission-based marketing popped up, which I didn’t expect. I usually associate that with email marketing.

Peter Shankman discussed a campaign that Mac - the makeup company, not the computers - embarked on. They targeted teen female bloggers. The plan was to send them free makeup samples. But before they did, they asked permission first.

Sam Harrelson related how Microsoft also wanted to market to young, hip bloggers with the Zune. But instead of asking if they could send the digital media player, they simply mailed it. They caught a lot of flack for it as a result.

Sam said that when you ask permission, you empower the blogger. This is especially true of teenagers, who often struggle to find empowerment in a world where there are parents, teachers, and laws surrounding their age (driving, drinking, etc.)

Permission isn’t something we typically think about in improvisation. Moments happen. Improvisers and audiences must deal with them accordingly.

But I sometimes think that the permissiveness in improv often leads us away from impulse and right back towards our safe inhibitions. The same old joke or the same old feeling - are they really improv? Or are they just safe choices? Could permission be the key to unlocking our comfort zones?

Perhaps the first place to start is simply giving ourselves permission to examine the authenticity of our most recent improvisations.

What are your thoughts on permission as it relates to marketing and improvisation?

Think your company is too boring for online video? Think again…

Today, Mark Goren of Transmission Marketing blogged about Spirit Airlines’ poor customer relations incidents. The CEO of Spirit apparently wrote an internal email about a customer service situation that eventually made its way to some bloggers…

“Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I’m concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.”

The CEO acted on impulse, but the only reason that ended up being a bad thing was because his impulses are based on flawed character. Life is full of impulsive, improvised moments. Our character must be in tact if we are going to make spontaneous choices.

So, let’s imagine if the opposite had happened.

What if, instead of having poor customer relations, Spirit had awesome customer relations. If, for example, when Alex Rudloff was informed that his flight was canceled, the Spirit employee stayed on the phone with him to schedule a new flight, give him a refund, or provide him with a voucher - that would have been far preferable to him waiting for hours on the phone, internet and in person only to be told he couldn’t have a voucher and had to reschedule his flight on Spirit to arrive much later than he wanted (no partner airlines).

Most people’s impulse reaction to good customer relations would be to tell others about it. If things had gone differently, you might see blogging posts that encouraged people to fly Spirit because it’s such a great experience. Impulse informs impulse. Ask yourself who’s impulse you’re being influenced by - and whose impulse are you influencing.

There’s a song on the latest Lifehouse CD called “Easier to Be.” I love it because it’s a very romantic song about how the guy feels like his love makes it easier to be himself. I think of my husband every time I listen to it.

So let’s look at business. How easy do we make it easy to be our customers? A core improv principle is supporting your scene partner. In business, our customers are one of our many scene partners. When we make strong choices and advance the scene (instead of stall to see what we can get out of a situation for ourselves), then we are taking care of our customers.

When we help people to feel comfortable in their own skin, we empower them. And when they associate that positive feeling with us, then we increase the likelihood of their loyalty.

No one really wants to be part of a company that’s all business. Don’t we love to hear about companies that treat their employees like rock stars? Don’t we love to do business or purchase products that treat us like rock stars?

Then that’s what inspires us to take what’s been given and dish it right back out! It’s not just about building business, it’s about tapping who we want to be a human beings. Go make it happen!