I once had a professor who assigned groups of his students to write an elaborate creative and advertising brief. The document was to include everything from a SWOT analysis to target demographics to a media buying plan. When it was time to turn in parts of the overall plan, each part was 20+ pages when it should have been 2-5.
It was 20+ pages because the students wanted to use big words, repeat themselves in different ways with hopes it would convey their point better, and generally they thought it made them look better and, thus, get a better grade.
Oddly enough (sarcasm), 60+ page documents don’t move people.
Often times it’s one sentence, one page summary, one short video that makes someone move to buy, to research, to book, to subscribe, to hit “like.”
While I agree there are benefits to getting students to have a 60+ page mindset, I’m not so sure it accomplished the goal of what the class was for.
Sometimes limits, ceilings, maximums can work in your favor: they force you to write concise, they encourage big thinking of small ideas, they push you to work in ways that resonate with the target audience you want to impact. No one wants to spent three hours of their day looking over your brief, no matter how good you say it is.
And if you can’t communicate your message in just a few lines, is it really worth communicating, really worth investing in?
The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?
Ecclesiastes 6:11
Stay Positive & Can You Guess Where Those Long Docs End Up? (see pic above)
Photo credit
