When I watched the video “The Power of Words,” I cried.  Then I shared it on Facebook and Twitter.  A lot of the 18 million people who saw the video did the same. And it’s an ad!

How did Purple Feather make me and millions of other people around the world say, “Thank you, I’m glad I saw that”?  They used the principles of content marketing.  They gave the people what we want.

People like stories.  In a minute and forty-eight seconds, “The Power of Words” tells a complete story–one that includes a triumph at the end.

People identify with characters.  When you watched the video, did you identify with the blind man, the young woman, or the people who at first passed him by and then stopped to give generously?  Or, like me, did you identify with all of them?

People want to feel.  At the end of the video, I hadn’t done anything, right?  I only sat in my chair and looked at the screen.  Yet I felt as if I had been though something life-changing.

People are curious.  When the blind man asked the young woman, “What did you do to my sign?”, I was leaning forward in my seat to find out the answer.

People get it.  When the young woman answered, “I said the same thing, in different words,” and her rewrite of the sign came onto the screen, no one needed to sell me on Purple Feather.  They showed me the power of words.

I felt in my body how big a difference they might be able to make.

I wanted to thank them…and hire them.

And because I do communications, I wanted to write something as powerful as they had.  I hope I will.  I hope I do.

Let’s share some other examples.  What marketing message have you read or seen that made you glad you’d seen it?