Putting a Face to Simple, Effective Content

Sometimes simplicity really is the key to good content. As McMurry blogger David Murray noted, marketing communications professionals need to spend less time on the breadth of their messaging and focus on bringing depth to the one thing they want their audience to understand. To see that concept personified look no further than Southern New Hampshire University and their suave, mustached and now Internet meme’d President Paul LeBlanc.

Playing off the universal appeal of the Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man In The World” – he has his own Wikipedia page, need I say more? – SNHU launched a Twitter and Tumblr campaign having some fun at their #MostInterestingPrez’s expense with captioned photographs of LeBlanc in a smoking jacket, holding a cigar and looking very dapper in general. I laughed-out-loud at several of these (including my personal favorite, “SHNU is pronounced ‘SNU’ because the H is silent in his presence”) but also walked away with a single important piece of information about the University: SNHU is currently the fastest-growing higher ed institute in the country.  

See, the funny captions and staged photos are loose and entertaining, but the message driving the meme is spot-on and ultra-focused. The fact that I walked away retaining at least one nugget of information about this brand is really the most you could expect from me or any consumer these days, but it’s also something that helps reinforce the brand across mediums and channels. Want proof?

The next day a commercial for SNHU ran on ABC while I was watching preseason football (coincidence or not?), to which I immediately and uncharacteristically perked up to listen to when I heard the phrase “fastest growing higher ed…” Hey, I know who that is and, you know what, I’m going to go check out their blog, peruse their online classes and, what the hell, make one of these funny photo caption things of their President.

Hook, line, sinker. That’s how it’s done and if I could give you one takeaway from this post it’s to keep it simple, stupid. It sure worked on me!

As Marketing Manager, Luke Meyers handles all aspects of marketing, branding and market research for McMurry and writes on topics related to content marketing, branded media and emerging technology. Before McMurry, Luke worked in fundraising and development for the Visiting Nurse Service, one of the oldest non-profits in the country.