Herschel Gordon Lewis was known as the "Godfather of Gore." His horror movies launched the "splatter" film genre. (I'll let you use your imagination on that one. Or, your welcome to do a Google search. Fair warning, it's pretty offensive.)
A vast majority of Herschel's film work was considered very controversial at the time. His film style was influential on notable film directors, including Quentin Tarantino, John Carpenter, and Wes Craven.
What most people don't know about Mr. Lewis is that he was an advertising and marketing genius. He was very much the shrewd capitalist. Because he made horror films for the sole purpose of profit!
After retiring from filmmaking in the 1970s, Herschel Gordon Lewis went back to his advertising and marketing roots. He published several advertising and marketing books in the 1980s and owned an advertising agency.
One of the nuggets of marketing wisdom from his books is the phrase:
"If you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing!"
Do yourself a favor and write the quote above down. Because it impacts everything you do in the marketing of your event! Including television, print, online, email marketing, and social media. Today, more so than ever, your consumer is mired with information overload.
Too much event marketing is focused on the "emphasizing everything" approach. Take for example, an event website. The event organizer wants that website to look pretty, make sure team members have a great picture and bio, tell people how much money the organization has raised, and on and on. Those are all very nice and do next to nothing to further someone attending your next event.
Don't load up your website, marketing, and advertising with a bunch of extraneous information that most readers will either ignore or simply not care about. Focus all your marketing and advertising on one single goal, getting them to your event. Keep it lean and mean.
Want to get more event marketing info? Check out the articles below:
- Advertising and Marketing that Sells
- Does Your Headline Grab Their Undivided Attention?
- Get Your Audience Involved Through Their Emotions
- Words with Pizzazz and Razzle Dazzle
- Web Copy Argument: Short or Long?
- Promotional Headlines for Your Event
- Keep Your Text Columns Narrow
- Is Your Text the Right Color?
- Proofing your Work On Paper