Why murder mysteries are the key to marketing

When I was growing up, my family used to love nothing more than a little late-night S.V.U Crime show for family bonding – “Svooo” we call it. Oh! The drama of the setup, the clues that are magically found and pieced together in the space of a 23-minute melodrama. At the end of the day, my siblings and my parents would all place down our emotional daggers that we were intent on using on each other, and instead direct our attention to the literal daggers onscreen. Ahh family bonding.

These days, I’m soothed by Agatha Cristie and a midsummer murder on a cold night. I can literally fall asleep to the sound of a gentle poisoning.

As a marketing professional (I’ve been in the game for 20+ years), I’ve seen it all. Every brand pyramid, every content strategy – from the early days of direct marketing, right through to “The Year of The Cookie” and “that time privacy laws kicked in and made it impossible to sell anything online”… and nothing has slapped me in the face harder than the revelation that my murder mystery shows and SVOO had the key the whole time.

Clues.

If you’ve made it to this part of the page dear reader, and you’re feeling a sense of “oh hell yeah, I feel like I can relate to this message”, it’s because I’ve left you a couple of clues.

A sweary reference in the heading, a story about family dysfunction, followed by the word “murder” within the first scroll. If you’re my people, you would have read onto this point. The plant was deliberate. Kind of like the time Detective Hoyle planted that crackpipe inside the jacket of that drug dealer. A deliberate act, designed to be deliberately found. Are you still with me?

Here’s what I know for sure. The only unique selling proposition you should ever follow is your own authentic being. You are wildly interesting and intriguing. And after a long stint in the game of marketing, I’ve come to realise that I’m too old, and also far too interesting to not be able to talk about murder mysteries, swear a bit and have a deep chat about mediums whilst telling you literally everything I know about marketing.

So I got my favourite people together (Dara & Tal…you’ll meet them soon) and with the lure of a good time, I made them also tell me everything they know about branding & psychology. By our powers combined, we have crafted what we think is a pretty revolutionary take on marketing, specifically for stylists.

Because it just so happens that I love the sh*t out of styling, so you’re my chosen people to impart this information onto. I can’t wait to chat!