Never get stuck for content ideas ever again

“Bored…

Bored…

Bored…”

It's pretty much me looking at the latest cinema releases and all I see is sequel after sequel.

Don’t get me wrong, get the sequel right. 

Take the characters in an unexpected direction, dive deeper into the mystique that made the first movie so watchable, or introduce a new character that helps the story and I’m all in.

But the current trend for rehashing the same old, same old leaves me bored and disappointed.

And don’t get me started on the remakes and “re-imagining” of a classic…and this is from someone who’s top 20 movies includes a few remakes.

Films like -

The Departed - a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs (which is also pretty good). One of those rare occasions when Hollywood remakes a foreign movie and does a great job.

True Grit - The Cohen brothers didn’t so much make a remake of the John Wayne movie, but they used it as inspiration but stuck more to the book it was based on. 

The Thing - a remake of The Thing From Another World. Carpenter took the idea from the original 1951 movie and made a visceral, claustrophobic movie that surpassed the original by a country mile…and also the best remake ever.

These movies all differ from the majority of remakes in that they’re not carbon copies of the original. 

The directors and scriptwriters have used the original as a jumping-off point to make their own movies.

But what does all this talk of movie remakes have to do with marketing your business?

Well, if nothing else it highlights that you don’t have to come up with original ideas to create something that’s compelling.

You can borrow ideas from other people.

I mean, if it’s good enough for the likes of Martin Scorsese, The Cohen Brothers, and John Carpenter then I think it might be good for you.

And the great thing is that your day to day life is filled with miniature movies you can borrow from. 

Two of my favourites are my social media feeds and my inbox.

If I’m scrolling through social media and I see an advert I like I save the ad. But I don’t stop there.

Ads will often get taken down so as well as saving the ad I suggest taking a screenshot and saving that to a folder.

I then go a step further again. 

If the ad was good enough to make me stop and read then I tend to sign up to whatever freebie they’re giving away. After all, if the ad was solid then there’s a good chance the landing page will be ok and the emails too.

Though I don’t sign up with my personal or business email…that’d turn my inboxes into a shit storm of material I don’t want to read day to day.

Instead, I have a Gmail account just for these which I can dip into if I’m looking for inspiration.

I then take things a step further and create a folder for anything that comes through that I particularly like. 

Did the headline grab my attention? Goes in the folder.

Did I read the whole email? Goes in the folder.

Was the CTA great? Goes in the folder.

You get the point.

To turn this idea into a game-changer but make it as effortless as possible check your inbox daily...for 5-10 minutes.

Anything that jumps out at you gets saved.

And if doesn’t it gets deleted to avoid inbox overload.

Do these and you’ll have an endless list of inspiration at your fingertips anytime you’re trying to come up with a new advert or idea for an email.

Later ‘gater

Colin