In this Greatest Hits episode of Getting to Aha!, host Darshan Mehta talks with Joe Lazer, Head of Marketing at A.Team. Joe shares his pivotal "aha!" moment and highlights the critical role of storytelling in marketing. He emphasizes the need to connect with audiences genuinely, especially as attention spans shorten.

Joe leads marketing at A.Team, the first team network connecting top product builders with leading companies. A contributor to Fast Company, he covers tech industry trends and authored Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming Into the Void, and Make People Love You (2018). Before joining A.Team, Joe served as Vice President of Marketing at Contently, where he directed editorial strategy, overseeing publications like The Content Strategist, The Freelancer, and Contently Quarterly, their print magazine.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

👉 Storytelling without emotion means it isn’t a good story. A genuine sense of rising tension and conflict is the key to great storytelling. Joe cites the latest Apple advertisement as an example - it’s intense, and the viewers are on the edge of their seats. It’s what gets an audience to engage with a brand’s story and watch anything a brand posts for more than the first two seconds. Humans love stories with conflict and tension, so if you’re creating an advertisement or a marketing campaign, try to keep that in mind.

👉 There is a lot of content out there, and the entire concept of tension at its core has changed. Viewers have become accustomed to quick cuts within storytelling to keep their minds addicted and engaged. It’s rare to find any mainstream content nowadays that really takes its time and lets the audience sit in a certain feeling; they’re constantly fighting for attention. Joe even talks about how it’s a massive issue in children’s content, how there’s an algorithmically addictive content machine that’s constantly competing for children’s brains. It’s slightly worrying, and it's only getting worse with TikTok and other social media platforms.

👉 The first three seconds of your content - especially short-form content - is the key to engaging your audience. You need to keep them interested, so if you have conflict or tension, people present in the video, and some sort of action, you’re on the right track. You just need to ensure the rest of the footage engages them. Start asking yourself what you could be doing differently and what storytelling techniques you could use to your advantage. Never be afraid to experiment.

👉 Reach is essential for your marketing content, but does it resonate with your audience? There’s no use trying to reach thousands of people if the content you’re trying to get them with is not very good at the end of the day. All people want is to feel something; as a marketer, you owe it to the audience and yourself to provide that.

Listen now!
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Apple - https://apple.co/3gsuA31
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Connect with the Host and Guest Here:
Darshan Mehta on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/darshan--mehta
iResearch Website: iresearch.com
Joe Lazer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-lazer-lazauskas-8b442026/
A.Team Website: https://www.a.team/