Jean-Claude Van Damme and the crappiest brief ever.

For close to 20 years, I’ve heard the same assumption from all my B2B clients who come for help with their communications (whether they say it in so many words or not): we need to emphasize the functional difference of our product to make people want it, and that means we’ve got to stick to the facts.

That assumption comes with an expectation of what they’re going to get: an explanatory headline + some bulleted proof points.

…riveted yet?

What Jean-Claude van Damme taught me is that we should be.

Ten years ago, he became my reason to believe that absolutely anything - a mundane fact, a lone statistic, a rational AF product feature - can be transformed into a story.

And making that transformation is the difference between a piece of communication that’s invisible (think: informational brochure, “did you know?” poster, or any Verizon billboard you’ve ever seen) and a piece of communication that captivates millions…and keeps us glued to our (considerably smaller) screens a decade later.

I like to imagine that the client brief that spurred the masterpiece below read something like: Volvo Dynamic Steering is more stable and more precise than our competitors’ steering.

Then the strategist and creative team replied: “Heard, Volvo.” And made THIS.

If you have a product to promote, a service to talk about, or a feature to highlight, you have a story to tell.

If you need some guidance on making that transformation, let’s talk. Otherwise, enjoy the eternally-relevant Jean-Claude.