EP12: The Science of Simplicity: The 'Rule of One' in Content Creation

Today, on Content Untapped we unravel the profound simplicity of the 'Rule of One'. 

It’s a transformative tool that giants like Apple have leveraged in their 'Think Different’ campaign and Twitter in their platform design. 

But make no mistake, this rule works just as well for creating great content for tiny businesses as it does for global giants...

Come along as we dissect phenomenons such as the "von Restorff effect", to help you understand why our brains crave simplicity and how you can harness it to make your content stand out.

Books mentioned on today's episode are:

Start With Why

Atomic Habits

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results:

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

In 1978, gunnar Brommer needed some inspiration. So, as he normally did, he decided to take a walk down the cobbled stone streets of Stockholm. It was there, amongst a bunch of vintage shops, he stumbles upon one thing that really catches his attention. It's a vintage, apocatheory store, and as he opens the door, rummaging through the dusty shelves and various trinkets, he spots just one thing that catches his eye. It's a simple, elegant glass medicinal bottle. Gunnar's heart begins to race. Thoughts are flowing to his head about what's this really work? Is it way too simple, too ordinary? But what he does is he takes that leap. And the rest is history. Because Gunnar Brommer was the co-owner and creative director of Absolute Vodka at the time and that bottle shape became this relentless focus of the Absolute Vodka brand for 25 years. It was more than just a container. It was a symbol, it was a beacon that set them apart from every other vodka brand on the shelves, in fact every other drinks brand on the shelves. And since 1978, that bottle design has never changed.

Speaker 1: 1:05

Now, if we fast forward to 1980, a New York advertising agency launches the Absolute Perfection campaign. I don't know if any of you guys remember it or if you've seen the photos, but it's an absolute masterclass of marketing. If you remember, what Gunnar found on the shelves that day in 1978 was that beautiful bottle. It became the centerpiece for a 25-year-long campaign with 1,500 different variations. Each one of these advertisements was unique, yet it tied back to one initial idea. It went from absolute cities absolute Stockholm, moscow, london, new York to absolute art. Everything had one thing in common it had the bottle. What they weren't doing is they weren't advertising new flavors of the features and benefits of drinking vodka. They just reminded people about their vodka without really even needing to use the word vodka. And what it did is it caught people's attention. They instantly knew what absolute vodka was. You had things like absolute takeoff, which was a plane taking off and the smoke was in the shape of the vodka bottle. Or you had absolute kickoff, with the pitch in the shape of the bottle to advertise themselves to football fans.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Right, whether doing the tailoring their message, but stickering to one core belief which was absolute the slogan and the shape of the bottle. This is an amazing example of how powerful just sticking to one thing can be, and this is what I'm going to be discussing in this episode how narrowing the focus of your content into one single core belief, and sticking to it can help you create more memorable content for your audience. So let's just take a look at what the rule of one actually is. If you Google this phrase, your comment was in pretty interesting results, to be fair, particularly a theory around population control, where it's actually the title of a dystopian novel about the very same thing population control. But I can assure you, guys, that there's nothing dystopian about what I'm about to tell you, obviously obviously. Actually, if you stick with me, I just might be able to give you a new way to approach content that will help you narrow your focus and reach more people and perhaps carve out even your own little slice of utopia, huh.

Speaker 1: 2:58

So the rule of one is a common favorite for marketers and email copywriters. That states basically that any piece of copy that you write should have one and only one core idea running through it. So one call to action, one belief, one major benefit, etc. Etc. But after thinking about this for a bit and doing a bit of research on this subject, as I'd like to do on this show, I also believe it's an amazing rule to use for other pieces of content too, particularly for larger form pieces of content Podcasts, blogs and even books and this is what I want to kind of show you in this episode is how we can take this common marketing tactic, like the rule of one, and use it to create much better books, blogs, podcasts, videos. So look, let's just take a look at why the rule of one is so powerful.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So, if you look at this from a psychological level, our brains are basically wired to prefer simplicity to over complexity, mainly because we process so much information on a daily basis that when we encounter a lot of information or cognitive load just increases and way too much process can overwhelm us. And what the rule of one can do really well is that alleviates this, right With one clear, memorable idea. It's like a breath of fresh air amidst a clouded room, very much like the apocrypherist tour that Gunnar Brumman stumbled into in 1978, right? So why does it work so well? Well, studies in cognitive psychology show us that the human attention and memory are limited, right, so we remember information better when it's simple and distinct. What this is known as after doing some research obviously I'm not a psychologist is the von Restorff effect, or it's called the isolation effects, and states that when and I will quote this now, because you know I'm not a scientist, but it states that when multiple homeogenesis stimuli are presented, the stimuli that differs from their breast is more likely to be remembered. So, okay, well, what does that mean in simple terms? Basically, when you try and cram too many ideas into your content and give them all the same level of importance, what you can get is you can get overwhelm and you can get disassociation from an audience. However, if you can highlight that one core concept or theme and let that run throughout your message and let the other points kind of back up that one concept, you're going to create something memorable and something that sticks out from the crowd.

Speaker 1: 5:09

So let's kind of look at some tangible examples here, right, so we'll look at a few businesses. You think of Apple's think different campaign? It wasn't about technical details. It was about one core common belief, which was think different, right? Everything they did focused around getting people to think different.

Speaker 1: 5:26

Another example and I really like this one is Twitter. Right, the entire platform is built kind of, if you think about it, on this rule of one concept, because it very much encourages one concise message. You have 280 characters, right, so you can't really do more than that, but it forces us to distill our thoughts to the most important points, which makes it easier for others to grasp and engage. Well, having said that, there are a lot of tweets and Twitterers out there who absolutely do not follow this rule and confuse the hell out of everyone, but the concept of the company was very much like that. Right, distill your message down, say what you want to say and say what's important in as few words as possible. So this is kind of marketing 101. But this doesn't just work great for large corporations or big top level branding, right. What content untapped is is a show about making great content. So let's look at how this is used in larger form. Pieces of content, right.

Speaker 1: 6:24

So let's look at some books. The first example of a book that I think really leverages as well is Simon Sinek's. Start With why. So Simon Sinek's One Thing is a question, you know why. He emphasizes that businesses should start by essentially stripping down what they do and answering why they do what they do, and he developed his whole book around a single idea. Now, obviously, there is a lot more to the book than just asking yourself why multiple times, right, but everything in that book points people towards this idea. Start with why? Okay, that's a good one. Another one is well, it says it right here on the tin, right? So the One Thing by Gary Keller it's another great book. So Keller's core message is that focusing on one thing at a time and by doing so we can accomplish more. So his entire book is woven around this principle and he provides inside strategy stories, anecdotes, all these kind of things to tie back to that one thing. Right, that's the one thing, right.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Finally, one more which again is a great example is a book Atomic Habits, by James Clear. Everyone probably knows this book, and this book again revolves around one core concept improving 1% each day, and how that can essentially lead to significant growth over time. So what James Clear does is he very meticulously expands this concept in various aspects of personal and professional life right. But everything loops back to the central idea of small, incremental change, making a change in your life. Right, as we said before, it's the 1% each day that makes a difference, and that is the one core concept that the book points towards, right?

Speaker 1: 7:59

So, as I said before, in something like a book you're obviously going to have a bunch of sub-ideas, but fundamentally it should be kind of stacked in the hierarchy of that one core value, one core belief. Think about it like a computer folder. Your one belief is the folder. Then you open up, you have a bunch of sub-files and sub-folders and those folders have files within them. Kind of similar in how you would construct a book is come up with that one core belief and then begin to create from that.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Or if you already have a draft and you're getting a bit lost in it, or a content project that you're getting a bit lost in and it's losing its meaning or losing its purpose, what I'm going to show you now is an exercise on how we can get that core one belief and then wrap your content around that. So just to give you a quick story, a quick example, we've been working with a client recently who handed us a draft because he felt a little bit lost in what it was trying to do. So after we take a look at it, we realized that the content was fantastic, his ideas were great, it was very well written and the idea has a lot of potential. However, one issue with it is when we approached the client and we asked him saying what is the intention of this book what is the core message that you're trying to get across to your reader group? He wasn't able to answer that question, and that's fair enough. Lots of people can't. It's not that easy, so what we decided to do is spin it around. So let's reverse engineer this and talk about what is the core, the one intention that you want to get across to your readers, or the one idea that you want to instill, the one belief that you want them walking away with when they finish this book. And after doing a little bit of research and a little bit of exercise with him, we came up with what that is. And what's really interesting is the structure of the book took a whole new shape, because it was purposeful now, because it was clinging onto one core concept and idea. So now it was like the clouds parted. We know exactly what we're doing and we're on the right track with it. The book's going to turn out awesome. We're all very excited about it.

Speaker 1: 9:50

But it's a good example of how this works, and it's kind of the same for social posts and blogs and, as I said, for emails as well. If you're writing a blog, trying to reel off a massive list of benefits in one blog is kind of ineffective and it's likely to overwhelm your readers, who don't actually have that much time and you probably only have like 1200 words to get something across. So if you try and cram like six or seven ideas and they're all with the same level of importance, no one's really going to know what the blog's about or what they should be doing next. So try and find your one core intention when you're writing something and let your content point towards that. So one benefit, one solution, one problem, one belief. There can only be one. That's the highlander reference for all the nerds out there. What's amazing is how much better something reads as well when you just cut everything out and get across that one idea. Less is more in content a lot of the times.

Speaker 1: 10:47

So let's try a little exercise here. In typical content untapped fashion, I'm going to give you guys a little practical thing that we can work together on and hopefully get some great results. So I call this the power of one brainstorm. It's kind of cheesy but it works. So all you need to do you don't need a pen and paper. If you did want to write this down, obviously you can do as well. But firstly let's just think about what your brand or message is all about. Don't overthink this. Just let words flow out in any kind of various form. So keywords, phrases and so on, problems, solutions, challenges just let it all out. Get it all out on paper. You can write it down and just have a think about it. Now let that stew for a bit and look at all the ideas and elements that are coming out of that exercise.

Speaker 1: 11:28

Right now, what we need to do is we need to start trimming the fact, so we need to start distilling it all into one powerful idea or concept. That can be your one thing. So the idea here is to try and get it down into one sentence, or a couple of sentences, or a very short phrase, and please be ruthless here. It may feel harsh to cut out all the clever little quips or elaborate concepts that you have developed over time, as so many people do. Obviously, myself included it to this, but, as I said before, there can only be one. So cut it down, try and get down to that one core concept. And now, once you have that core thing, you can start to brainstorm ways to communicate this concept through your content. Remember, it's not about over-complicating things. It's about finding creative ways to express that one thing. Everything should branch off of that one idea. And what happens is, as you begin to practice, I promise you this gets easier. You're going to start seeing the rule of one in action and your content is going to help you clarify your message and bring people closer to you, because they actually know who you are and know what you stand for and know what you're about. You may know that, but what the rule of one does really well is it helps you distill that into other people and actually get them knowing it as well. So I appreciate that was a little bit theoretical and it's easy for me to talk about that without actually seeing a real-life example of how that will play out. And one thing that I'm not a huge fan of in business content is people just giving you a bunch of theoretical, top-level knowledge without any kind of idea of how that would play out in a real-life scenario. So let's just focus on this for a second and see how this might look in a business, for example. So me Lisa.

Speaker 1: 13:03

Lisa runs a bakery in her hometown, let's say in Tumbridge Wells, because I live in Tumbridge Wells and I love baked goods, so she bakes a variety of treats. So she bakes sourdough loaves, frosted cupcakes, doughnuts you name it, whatever muffins. And one thing she loves is connecting with her community through baking. Okay, but she's been struggling to capture the spirit of that in her online content and many of you may feel familiar with this. Right, you may feel like the service that you have and the offer that you have. You make people so happy, you offer so much value to people that you do, but when you try and communicate that online in content, something is missing. People aren't really connecting in the same way. Right, that may sound familiar, but let's see how this power of one brainstorm could help someone like Lisa and potentially yourself, if you're going through a similar issue.

Speaker 1: 13:55

So, firstly, Lisa starts writing down what her bakery's all about. Okay, so let's write this down. So fresh ingredients, family recipes, the joy of biding down into a warm muffin, this sense of community. Her bakery brings the local ingredients. You know all these kind of things. She writes it down. Then Lisa looks at all these elements and starts to see a pattern. The one thing stands out is not just the ingredients, the bread or the cakes, or how tasty they are. Right, it's the sense of warmth and comfort and community that people feel when they step into her bakery or bite into her croissants. She decides that her one thing now isn't the product, it's the feeling that the product gives. It's something, it's comfort.

Speaker 1: 14:38

So now Lisa thinks about how she can express these concepts of comfort in her content. She begins to build a schedule. She plans posts around the comforting feeling of needing dough, or stories from customers who find comfort in eating a freshly baked croissant, and pictures highlighting the cozy, inviting atmosphere of her bakery. She begins to start forming communities and doing little tea room sessions, little quizzes, art displays, you know all this kind of stuff to bring people together and focus on this idea of comfort. And what happens is her content starts to revolve around this one very powerful idea and it becomes very specific and very purposeful. So with this exercise Lisa's managed to kind of cut through the noise and not talk about features and benefits and all this kind of stuff. A very small business has taken this think different big idea from Apple or, you know, just do it from Nike or Absolute from Gunnar Bromman in the 80s, right, like, she's taken that, leverage that and turned it into something from a small town bakery. So she's managed to keep her content simple, impactful, and she finds that her posts resonate with more people in her audience because they can very clearly see what she stands for and they want a little slice of that comfort as well. So, just like Lisa and that's a very realistic example you know you can use this exercise to find that one thing and create more engaging, focused content for your audience.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Doesn't matter if you're running a bakery. You could be running a tech startup or podcast, or you could be running a content creation agency, like we do. You could be, you know, any for coaching, business, coaching, leadership it doesn't matter. Any business really can use this. But just remember that simplicity is key.

Speaker 1: 16:17

So you can see what we've kind of done in this episode. Right, we've taken you on a journey from a Swedish apocrythiary store to focusing about a core concept and that one big, you know, simple, clear idea, and hopefully you can see how powerful this can be when it's well articulated. So, just like we spoke about earlier on right with Gunnar Bromman and a medicine bottle that was a symbol that was recognized worldwide and it transformed the entire brand, and you could do the same thing. All you need is a core idea and stick to the rule of one and, as we kind of wrap up today's episode, what I want you to do is to carry this mantra with you right? A very wise man once said simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, and that guy was Leonardo da Vinci, and I'm pretty sure that he was onto something. Okay, that's a wrap for today. I hope that was useful. Until next time, keep creating, keep telling awesome stories, and I will see you soon.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Hey guys, thanks again for listening to another episode of Content Untapped. If you are interested in finding out what we're up to at Right Business Results, I'm gonna create content to grow an oil audience. Please do get in touch at info at rightbusinessresultscom and we will get back to you post haste. Secondly, if you wanted to continue the conversation about creating great content or anything that you're listening to on this show, give us a DM to the Right Business Results LinkedIn page, or you can DM my personal page and we can spark up a whole new conversation about any of this stuff. We love having conversations about content, so I'm more than married here, guys, thanks again for listening and I will see you next time.