content-actually-ultimate-blog-comedy-411Writers

Ah, Christmas movies. I have a special place in my heart for them. I was watching Love, Actually the other day, you know, to start the holiday season on the right note. As I was following the multi-plot storyline, as attentively as I did the first time I saw it, my brain was stormed by an idea. How can this type of storytelling and plotting be adopted in digital marketing? Are there people providing content writing services who already do that?

I started with these types of questions and my research led me even further.

Attention: This blog post may contain movie spoilers.

The Love, Actually Premise

Many narratives, one big message

This British romantic classic follows the stories of nine people and their love interests and lives through the holiday season. Sounds cheesy, but it actually isn’t. It’s all about the way these stories unfold that holds your attention the whole time. The screenwriters of the movie used the mini-plot structure and made each story different and complex, but engaging for the audience to follow.

Love-Actually-Relations

A tree structure with all the characters made by FanPop’s user: HuddyJoy0524

Mini plot structuring is widely used in screenwriting and cinema. But, it’s one that requires mastery of all the different components.

Mini-Plot Structure Elements That Need Good Coordination

  • Chronology
  • Conversations
  • Storyline
  • Interconnected characters

In a way, the story was built like a puzzle. You only get one piece at a time and you know it’s somehow connected to the bigger picture, you just don’t know how yet. There is a bit of mystery and a lot of engagement – all of the ingredients of good storytelling.

Embedding the Mini-Plot Structure In Your Strategy

Cross-channel marketing and some creative ideas

In her last blog, Nikki talked about the difference between multichannel and omnichannel marketing. As I was thinking about mini-plot content ideas and how a company might insert them seamlessly into their strategy, cross-channel marketing appeared as a great path to follow.

Cross-channel marketing, as the name suggests, is getting your target audience involved with your brand across multiple channels – social media, apps, web site, etc. Companies like Starbucks have been doing it quite successfully.

So, the wheel has already been invented BUT what you can do to make the mini-plot strategy work is simply interweave storytelling into your cross-channel content marketing.

So what are some channels or ways to incorporate this? I have three examples of content ideas that will go great with the mini-plot content marketing.

  • Contests and game apps
  • Giveaways
  • Video commercials

What a mini-plot structure can’t go without is multiple plots. They can tell the story of each client type your business has. The plots can be showcasing how your business solves a specific problem.

They can be spread over your social media accounts (Facebook, for more text-heavy storytelling and Instagram, for more visual stories). If you are using professional content writing services that take into consideration the need for consistent storytelling and cross-channel marketing, there will be a better chance to win the hearts of your audience.

In addition to that, you can leverage giveaways. The level of engagement here with those can be really high. Influencers often use giveaways to gain more subscribers to all their channels at once. But, you can spice things up further. You may ask them to share a story or a picture of interacting with your product or service. Then you build a narrative from what they share with you. It can also be in the form of a game or a contest.

Do you remember Dumb Ways to Die? Metro Trains Melbourne created the video as part of a public service announcement. The idea was simple. To promote railway safety. It was a video campaign and thanks to the bizarre but entertaining animation and catchy tune, it went viral. Then, the game app came along and more people got on board. It’s a prime example of what I’m talking about.

For this type of campaign, you essentially need to hire writers that know how to tell many stories, meaning they need to be able to walk in many different pairs of shoes in order to make the stories relevant, relatable and reaction-prompting.

In the End, There Was Content

When all the threads come together

Well, who says copywriters can’t use the techniques of screenwriters? It’s actually great when people manage to take an idea from a different field and adapt it to fit their own. Just like Gutenberg did with the printing press. He borrowed the technology of a screw press (used for making wine) with a metal movable type, et voila. All I’m saying is that idea cross-pollination can inspire you.

Before I go, let me just remind you about the gist of this great movie that inspired today’s article:

all you need is love… actually.