I recently listened to Daniel H. Pink’s To Sell is Human (having previously listened to the also excellent Start With Why), which is a great book if you don’t particularly like sales but have to do it (e.g. you’re a freelancer/consultant).
One part of the book introduces the concept of the Pixar Pitch, which was thought up by former Pixar employee Emma Coates. It is so simple it’s beautiful. It goes like this:
- Once upon a time there was ___.
- Every day, ___.
- One day ___.
- Because of that, ___.
- Because of that, ___.
- Until finally ___.
The idea is that every Pixar story is told in this way, in six simple steps – and that’s why their storytelling is so effective. In the book (and this blog post), Finding Nemo is used as an example:
- Once upon a time there was… a widowed fish, named Marlin, who was extremely protective of his only son, Nemo.
- Every day, … Marlin warned Nemo of the ocean’s dangers and implored him not to swim far away.
- One day… in an act of defiance, Nemo ignores his father’s warnings and swims into the open water.
- Because of that… he is captured by a diver and ends up in the fish tank of a dentist in Sydney.
- Because of that… Marlin sets off on a journey to recover Nemo, enlisting the help of other sea creatures along the way.
- Until finally… Marlin and Nemo find each other, reunite and learn that love depends on trust.
Oh, spoiler alert…? Sorry! Moving on…
I wondered if this formula could be applied to what I’d call ‘modern SEO’ – i.e. a collaborative approach (something that I preach at MOM, especially on the link building side of things) in the current post-Penguin, content-focused, let’s-break-down-the-silos digital marketing climate…