In marketing, rhythm is everything. It defines how and when you launch a product; how you advertise it and when you schedule events. Rhythm drives how you edit commercials for radio, television, and online. Rhythm has soul. Throw grammar out the window! Say goodbye to good spelling, proper pronouns, and celebrity endorsements…
It’s all about rhythm.
If you dig history and social behavior, it’s not a stretch to argue that our tenacious grasping of good rhythm could have something to do with natural (and inescapable) cycles in life: birth, death, the Earth’s yearly orbit, and its off-axis daily rotation. The sun comes up over yonder and we wake up, then it goes down over there on the other side and we go to sleep (except in Vegas and anywhere below 23rd street). From these natural cycles, then, every child ever born apparently develops the instinct to bang the drums. Go figure. We might as well use the rhythm instinct to our advantage.
Rhythm is in our DNA. It’s in the order and pace of our waking rituals, to the way we drive, how we walk and slice our celery. Rhythm is movement – and in marketing we want to move people. The driving tempo might be the school year cycle, the holiday loop, or the running-outta-groceries groove – in the end they all have a tempo. A pace. A rhythm. Babies banging on pots and pans, or cavemen hitting rocks (while checking their insurance rates), no matter what our background people seek rhythm. Why would we not give it to them?
Alas. I have stressed the importance point; now we must look at how to use it. You don’t need to be a drummer to put rhythm in your marketing strategy and materials. You simply need to consciously include it to your development process – top to bottom: concept to production – by never forgetting that even the most crotchety of old men often gets caught tapping his toes on a hardwood floor.
Full disclosure: I used to be an audio geek. Editing and mixing was a big part of my daily rhythm, so I am biased on this topic. However (and whatnot), that bias has helped me notice rhythm and tempo decisions that editors make in marketing media. Never underestimate the power of the dip to color edit to add a beat, and embrace the power that a downbeat cut can add to a sequence. The space between the notes can add effectiveness to marketing materials and strategy just as much as in music.
Like any good song (and even many bad), video and strategy benefit from keeping (and sometimes disrupting) tempo. A campaign has an into, a build, a breakdown, and a climax just like anything else. Tempo helps people anticipate change in the same way a catchy melody in a jingle makes a new product somehow feel familiar and trusted. It a person anticipates something, and they’re correct in their assessment, they naturally feel bound or connected to “the thing”. Use that to your advantage.
Edit with you eyes closed. Employ deadlines and small (or large) windows of opportunity. Plan with structure and tempo, not just content. Let your campaign schedule be a story just as much as the content of the stump speech. Force people to anticipate what comes next so that you can reward them when they’re right.
Stories have an arc, but they also have a rhythm. We need both to successfully tell a story… otherwise you’re left with 60’s French movies or Icelandic poetry about the weather.
