Friday, August 17, 2012

don't care

I'm reading Dan Ariely's book 'The Upside of Irrationality'.

In the early chapters he uses a story from the 1995 film First Knight starring Richard Gere to illustrate how motivation can affect performance.

The same analogy works for agencies and clients when we want to develop truly great advertising moments.

Gere's character Lancelot is an expert swordsman, who offers a sparring service to the locals where he works.

They pay a few coins to test their sword skills against the master.

Lancelot then opens the game up a bit by offering a small fortune to anyone who can beat him.

Along comes an enormous blonde geezer, who looks like he has the chops to win.

After a pretty hectic bit of metal bashing Lancelot disarms his opponent.

'How did you do this?' asks the befuddled and defeated chap.

Lancelot replies with three lessons.

And these are the lessons for us

1. Observe your opponent [customer] and learn how he moves and thinks.

2. Wait for your make or break moment [your moment of truth] and make your move.

The student nods in agreement. He's getting it so far.

Then Lancelot comes in with point three.

3. You must not care if you live or die.

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