Tom Ricciardone: It’s Tough Out There. Choose Carefully.

Editor’s note: Tom Ricciardone is a 20-year veteran strategic communications consultant for corporate, nonprofit and trade association clients. In 2012, he co-founded Bespoke Video Productions and Multi-Screen Media Strategy to help companies and organizations of all sizes produce and use video, digital content and original programming to meet a range of business goals. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Which message? Why?

Where? When? How?

In today’s always-on-GO, multi-channel world, getting the right message to the right audience in the right way is, to say the least, not without its challenges.

It’s tough out there. Competition for your audience’s attention is increasing while attention spans and audience resolve shrinks. A recent Pew study suggests that while there are benefits to instant access to an abundance of information, our attention spans and our desire for in-depth analysis are consequently diminished. I could take a cheap, but thoroughly justified, shot here at the recent political ad season as an example, but I’d just be piling on.

What To Do?

Well, once again there’s no off-the shelf answer.

As I tell clients, in “undeniably obnoxious, yet so bad it’s good” consultant speak, the goal is “to do this, not that.”

Creativity, in a business context, should always be about problem solving. And problem solving is as much about understanding why and what not to do as it is why and what to do.

Sifting through the unique context and goals surrounding your message—and the various plausible scenarios for how your message will be “processed” in relation to the needs and expectations of your audience are the crucial first steps on the road to creating and delivering a relevant message with clarity, precision and impact.

There are times to go BIG, BOLD & SURE.

And times when subtlety, restraint and nuance are called for.

Brevity rules! Always. Except when it doesn’t.

Sometimes it’s a hand-delivered position paper to key influencers.

Or talking points carefully crafted in relation to anticipated—and hoped for—extensions in the media.

Other times it’s fresh, timely digital and social media content designed to engage across multiple platforms.

And sometimes—increasingly so–the answer is a powerful video telling a compelling story:

A truck driver’s day begins with the end in mind.

Safety first. Safety always. There can be no compromise…

For the professional truck driver—for the business that keeps America moving—their business is safety.

The above text serves as the opening and closing of the voice over script I wrote for a video about the 2014 Arkansas Trucking Championship.

The 90 second video, like the championship, celebrates and honors safe drivers and the Arkansas Trucking Association’s member carriers’ commitment to safety.

One of two produced about the event, the video is an example of softer, more audience-driven messaging than has typically been used by and about the industry in general and about safety in particular:

Why the softer message? Why video?

Safety is always the elephant in the industry’s living room. While the public largely acknowledges the complexities of the issue and views truck drivers as safer than car drivers, the perception of industry and highway safety is an octopus. It’s long tentacles reach out and invade everything.

As a communications consultant, my work with the industry straddles two worlds. This gives me a unique vantage point. On the one hand, I help to shape strategic messaging on national regulatory matters, all of which directly revolve around complex, highly-charged issues of driver and industry safety.

I also help to address and advance a range of “softer” more creative consumer-facing public relations, image, reputation and branding issues.

On the regulatory front it’s critical to get into the weeds, to use the data and dig deep on the many factors including the shifting political and industry alliances that come into play on all sides of an issue for this large and diverse industry.

Too often though the “industry talk” about safety, even when intended to reach a broader audience has focused too heavily on the weeds.

It’s understandable. There will always be the tension between industry self-regulation on the one extreme and governmental over-reach on the other. This tension is always in play. Much is at stake, so it’s no wonder that much of the industry’s communications have skewed so heavily to the rational, pedantic and analytical.

I consider myself fortunate that in my work for the industry I’m able to spend time with truck drivers. I’m always struck by how their individual and collective stories carry universal appeal. Their stories alone serve as reminders to me that branding about the industry and communicating about safety will always be more effective and engaging through telling stories that humanize the industry and the complex, highly emotional issue of highway safety.

Safety is important to everyone. And it’s an emotional issue to everyone. People like when you talk to them about what is important. This is a simple truth of communications, advertising and marketing because it’s a simple truth of human nature.

Video Reduces Complexity and Engages Emotions.

It’s not enough to simply convey information about what is important. That often amounts to little more than going through the motions. You must do so in ways that are relevant, are meaningful and that resonate. Both the tone and content of the message and the way it is delivered must rise to the challenge.

A recent footnote in an industry poll is instructive. Nearly half of respondents said they know someone on a personal level who works in the trucking industry, and those who know someone in trucking have more positive impressions of the industry and its safety record.

The above video invites the viewer to get to know of the industry’s commitment to safety through a more personal lens. I think you’ll agree that this softer approach helps advance the industry’s image and reputation in ways that a reliance on facts, figures and rational persuasion alone never will.

The strategic value of marketing communications planning and purposeful execution is undeniable. Marketing success is always about problem-solving and often that is about reducing complexities and engaging on an emotional level.

And for that, video is the perfect solution.