This post was originally an email sent out to subscribers of Spice up your life, my weekly email.
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In 2014, Sam Koch, punter for the Baltimore Ravens, changed the NFL forever.
The punter was traditionally the worst position in American Football (incidentally, the sport I consider to be the worst in the world, but that’s a chat for another day).
The sole job of the punter is to kick the ball down the field so their team can gain territory. They might only be on the field for 3 minutes in a whole game.
Until recently, they were barely even considered real players – so lowly they spawned a meme, after a US commentator said ‘Punters are people too’ during a broadcast.
Traditionally, punters had just one type of punt – a ‘turnover ball’ that spiralled through the air like a rifle bullet.
It was good for getting maximum height and distance, but the opposition would know exactly where the ball was going to land and simply stick their most dangerous players underneath it. It was a losing strategy.
So Sam Koch said enough’s enough.
The guy catching the punts in this particular game was especially dangerous. No matter how far you punted the ball, if he caught it and started running at you, game over. The usual tactic wouldn’t do.
So Koch did something crazy. He deliberately miskicked the ball.
Instead of those big aerial spiral kicks, he’d kick it along the ground so it bounced and bobbled around.
He’d hit ‘knuckleballs’ that wobbled through the air – less distance, but much harder to catch.
He’d angle his body one way, then slice the ball the other way to wrong-foot the opposition.
It was so unthinkable that the crowd thought Koch was having a nightmare game, and started booing him. But Koch and his coach had planned it all.
The opposition’s danger man was nullified, and by the end of the season, Koch was the top punter in the NFL. Punters were no longer seen as the bottom feeders of American Football, and it changed NFL tactics forever.
His repertoire of kicks meant the opposition were always on their toes, never quite sure where the next ball was going.
Why am I telling you this story about a sport I despise? Because thinking like Sam Koch is a good way to approach your marketing strategy.
With social media or email marketing, where you’re regularly kicking stuff out to your audience, you need to mix it up.
If you’re saying the same things in the same way over and over again, people know what to expect. They get wise to it, they get bored of it.
While of course you need to reiterate your core messaging, you need to find different angles and ways of saying it.
Keep people on their toes. Surprise them. Make them wonder what’s coming next.
There are a billion ways you can do that, but here are a few I’ve used:
💭 The bait and switch – start telling a story with just enough context to make people jump to a conclusion. Then, end with a comment that reveals it was all about something completely different all along. Works well with stuff that’s big in the news.
💭 The shameful confession – admit to doing (or not doing) something that most other people in your profession consider the norm. The more melodramatic you can be the better.
💭 Take the piss out of yourself – it shows your humanity, honesty and humour. All important stuff when someone’s deciding if you’re good to work with.
💭 Pick a fight – launch a broadside at a well-known baddie. AI is a big one these days, but governments, billionaires, and for some reason, punctuation marks also cop for a lot of flak.
Always try to give your own unique take, and don’t worry about people disagreeing with you. If they disagree to the extent that they don’t want anything to do with you, they were never going to be any use to you anyway.
💭 Share examples and ideas related to what you do, but from unexpected places – for example, I’ve found several great bits of copy on signs in gents’ toilets encouraging blokes to take care with their aim.
💭 Do what I did in this blog and use a needlessly long and elaborate allegory to get your message across.
If you’ve read this far, I salute you. I hope you found some use in there, and if you give any of those approaches a try, do let me know how it goes.