A whacky storyline follows a frog. Remarkable content results.

It was Seth Godin raised the idea of "remarkable content" in his book Purple Cow. Godin said the key to creating successful content is to find a way to stand out - to be the purple cow in a  field
of monochrome Holsteins. Remarkable content should motivate people to want to read it, share it and comment on it.

The "Follow the Frog" spot from the Rainforest Alliance fits this description. It has over 1.1 million views on You Tube to date and still growing. So what's the big deal here?

The Rainforest Alliance went out on a limb with this spot. First it is over three minutes long. A viewer has to pay attention to "get it." It makes fun of earth-friendly / do-good people, plays on guilt and apathy, and then goes around the bend with a "...here's what you're not going to do..." fantasy storyline.

The spot ends up telling a very compelling story, that makes for quite remarkable content. It has an unpretentious beginning, a zany middle, and a great end with strong brand message and call-to-action: "Follow the frog." It is funny and compelling all at the same time. The editing is choppy, and the quick cuts will make most people dizzy. But it really works. It's remarkable. Kudos to director Max Joseph.

It is amazing how much content these days is simply re-purposed, re-packaged, fails to tell a compelling story, has nothing to do with a brand message or simply plays it safe and just does not get noticed. Maybe that's the price we've paid for our overwhelming fascination with technology, smart phone gadgets and 140 character micro messaging via Twitter.

Thrill and Delight Your Customers.

I had a really bad customer experience with Verizon Wireless last week. While trying to work my through the issue, it got me thinking about ways to thrill and delight customers.

First – Try hard to treat your current customers well. They are the nice people who already buy your products / services, and can be your best “brand advocates” or big time “brand detractors” in the wide world of social media.

It  started when Verizon offered me a 4G upgrade last week on my broadband ISP account. 

The customer experience "went south"  when I tried to activate it - following the quick start instructions. Failing that effort, I spent two hours on the phone with Verizon and another two hours in a Verizon store trying to install and troubleshoot a new Pantech UML 295. Fives sets of people tried to get the device to work, to no avail. At the end a store manager said "enough is enough" and upgraded me to a mobile "hot spot' device.

Second – Offer high quality products / services. Seem obvious. But Verizon Wireless apparently failed to QA test this new new device with its online software, on a very popular hardware / OS platform – a MacBook Pro with the most recent version of OS X.

All the Verizon employees I spoke to just could not get the device to work for Internet access. Could have been a VZ access manager software version incompatibility issue, who knows?

Third – Have a well-defined problem resolution process. Empower customer-facing service people with what ever they need to resolve problems. This did not happen with Verizon. The hardware / software combo I was dealing with was just not going to work. Maybe the failure was the result of a low-level nuclear electro-magnetic pulse blast from North Korea - that adversely impacted the Pantech plant in South Korea. 

Who knows what Kim Jong-un is up to these days with all that belligerent rhetoric?

So now I have a Verizon “Jetpack” mobile hot spot. The assistant manager of the Verizon store here in NYC took pity on me. She told me to forget the broadband device and suggested the mobile hot-spot solution. It appeared to be a "work-around" solution she came up with, and for that I am thankful.