In 1947, a businessman from Idaho named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine strange disks of light in the sky while flying above the Cascade Mountains in the US.
While his experience wasn’t the first time unexplained objects had been recorded, it was the first time that they were recognized as alien craft. The myth of the UFO was born.
In 1934, one of the most famous photographs in supernatural or unexplained history was taken by Colonel Robert Wilson in Scotland.
Showing what looked like the head and neck of a plesiosaur-type dinosaur, it brought the legend of Nessie the Loch Ness monster to the attention of the world.
What do these two stories, and more like them, have in common? Simple – the promise of something fantastic that captures the attention of millions worldwide.
While they may or may not have some grounding in fact, what can’t be denied is that they both sparked conversation, interest and tourism to their relative areas that is still fervent today.
In other words, they built interest and started a huge viral chain reaction before viral was even used. By offering a glimpse and nothing more, they let people’s imaginations take over and built an industry around what was perceived, rather than what was.
Whether you run a business or a blog, have an offline or online identity, the premise of something fantastic can often be better than the reality. The teaser of something that can be unique for everyone depending on their take is the bridge between you and your audience.
What tales of the fantastic are you using?
photo credit: Curtis Gregory Perry
Enjoy this post? You might also like:
More from across the web:
- 3 Ways Facebook is Killing Your Website (Convince & Convert)
An approach that Apple use to great effect Danny. How many user-generated concepts of the iPod, iPhone or iPad did we see before the big unveil?
The promise of something fantastic can generate more noise than the thing itself.
Dan Leach´s most recent blog post …Is your brand the perfect host?
That’s a great point, Dan – every time Apple’s about to launch a new product (or rumoured to be), the fanbase really starts the wheels turning. Who needs creative when your users are the biggest creatives around?
Another great post, Danny. I agree with Dan Leach that Apple has used this marketing tactic quite effectively. This is a very interesting aspect of marketing….promoting the promise of something fantastic. Interesting.
I’m going to think about this concept some more and see how I can apply it into my own marketing.
Thanks Danny.
darryl´s most recent blog post …Let me introduce myself – Video Style
Cheers Darryl – love to see what you come back with.
Twitter: remarkablogger
Legend has it you can make money online…
Michael Martine´s most recent blog post …Video Tour of My Home Office
I heard that rumor too Michael…I wonder…
Those marketing methods can backfire sometimes though…one must be careful…credibility is a difficult thing to regain after a fiasco…
Serge Lachapelle´s most recent blog post …Stratégie internet et réseaux sociaux: Le fossé des valeurs
Twitter: remarkablogger
I don’t know what you mean Serge. These methods are the same ones available to all: blogging, social media, search engine marketing, CPM, email marketing, etc. Out of those, I suppose social media can backfire if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Michael Martine´s most recent blog post …Video Tour of My Home Office
Mind you, that could be said of any practice, guys
Yes, but I think its rather easy to get carried away with this one….
Serge Lachapelle´s most recent blog post …Stratégie internet et réseaux sociaux: Le fossé des valeurs
Well its just that if you cry wolf too many times and don’t deliver any wolf…you get tagged, unfollowed and unsubscribed…You can loose a lot of ground.
Creating a Loch Ness monster is one thing, keeping him alive is another…
Serge Lachapelle´s most recent blog post …Stratégie internet et réseaux sociaux: Le fossé des valeurs
Twitter: worthytips
Fantasy is always a great way to push a thought on others mind and may be that why we see so much rumor about product before its actually release. I think leak information is another fantastic method to get the buzz. I’m blogging on technology over a year and I notice every time some software get leak, they get huge buzz with its pros and cons. That really help the actual developer. I think most of the time leak are intended rather it actually leak.
Arafat Hossain Piyada´s most recent blog post …What will be Steve Jobs’ biography cover? Any Guess?
Leaked information is a great way to build the buzz, for sure – just look at the hype surrounding the new Star Wars prequels prior to launching. Mind you, they failed to live up to that hype rather spectacularly…
Twitter: MrAkashSharma
True,The buzz factor which remains a secret weapon of memes like the ones mentioned above is remarkable.It can always be in something of which people have never heard before.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts…..
I think Google does a good job of creating a canvas for people to imagine what their new product will be like. But I think their follow through has been a bit poor lately. The DROID was a big deal leading up to its release but I think that the sales figures were disappointing largely in part to Google’s execution after the fact. The same goes for the NexusOne.
Jason P McGee´s most recent blog post …Is Twitter In Decline?
I remember seeing the first mock-ups of the Droid, and it looked a heck of a lot better than the reality, like you say Jason. And with the backlash re. Buzz and the apathy to Wave, you have to wonder if they’re simply trying too much now?
For me it’s very difficult to create tales of the fantastic for my foodblog. I expect that people looking online for foodblogs is in search of a kind of entertainment and at the same time of realible indications on how to be succesfull in the kitchen.
At the moment my tales of the fantastic for the entertainment-side, is telling what’s going on in my kitchen, how I decided to cook that recipe, how I adapt it to my fridge, and the reactions of my “guineapig”.
I think that tales of the fantastic couldn’t loose the connection with reality and that different tales of the fantastic work for different audience. And a blog attracts different audience at the same time and here there is the difficult part of the job. The difficult part is to find your tales of the fantastic and adapt it to your public.
Hi Rossella,
Perhaps the fantastic can be the “normal” as well? It may be that other food bloggers are concentrating on the food side, but you’re also offering an extended user experience beyond the food? Something that readers can adapt and fit around what’s going on in their lives with the food?
Danny,
I really enjoyed this post and your point about how the byproduct of the Loch Ness photo and the UFO photos were huge bursts of conversation and imagination for years even though both of those photos have (presumably) played out to be hoaxes. Is this because there were no ‘deliverables’ – no ‘thing’ that upon actual discovery would let people down? Those photos still let our imaginations run wild.
Not so with ‘product’ like the Droid or the iPhone. We can imagine but there is a definitive end to that speculation – the product itself. Rumors with an end in mind can get really out of control and then lead to a letdown when the final product doesn’t live up to expectations (iPad anyone?).
For business in particular, I think you need to let enough light in to build buzz but at the same time prevent that buzz from getting out of control.
Definitely, Ryan. Business history is littered with over-hyped products, some successful, some not so much (still curious about the Segway’s actual success rate!).
UFO is a very mysterious topic of discussion because those who have seen it are in its favor but the rest who have not seen it completely disagree with this idea…..Hence in that case its truly impressive to be a part of such an impressive post.The concept of few green men is very wel narrated in this post.
Dear Danny:
I enjoyed your point. Sometimes the fantastic does draw wonderful attention to a site.
Since you are very much involved with SEO, I would like your input on an issue that has us puzzled.
There is a movement afoot that I’m afraid does damage to bloggers across the board.
It has to do with WordPress bloggers and their use of Akismet.
One of the things that has made it impossible for a majority of our students to have their blogs seen is using the Akismet plug on a WordPress platform.
What happens is, if just one person from a class (one home page) leaves a comment on the blogger’s site that the blogger doesn’t like, and the blogger reports that home page to Akismet, then everyone using that particular home page is blocked (white paged) from the blogger’s site. That is, one blocked commenter’s home page = potentially hundreds of visits that that blogger could have had, many of them profitable.
You can check with Akismet at support@akismet.com to check this. We hope you will. It would be a way to save open communication.
We are almost certainly going to have to ban WordPress themes from our campus because Akismet is actually fighting against not just spam, but innocent commenters who just happen to use the same home page as someone else in their class.
I would very much appreciate an e-mail from you.
If I am not being clear, I’d like the opportunity to clarify.
Dr. Ann Voisin, Provost
Linda Christas College
http://www.lindachristas.org
avoisin@lindachristas.org
Hi Ann,
This is the “problem”, if you like, with multi-access sites. Obviously a blogger chooses which comments are made available for public on their blog, and how the comment approval system works. For example, I generally have an open comments policy.
Akismet remembers the ISP or IP from a visitor, and acts according to the blogger’s actions. I’m not sure why one of your students was blocked (I’m guessing you’ve asked so you know the reason), but it may be that you need to look at a comment policy of they’re all coming from one location?
It’s not ideal – it’s be perfect if individual users were highlighted instead – but it’s understandable from a blogger’s point of view, as well as a security one.
Hi Danny:
Have you blocked the page I used as home? (www.ToysPeriod.com)
Just curious.
My comment disappeared.
What happens to the comment when that happens?
Sincerely,
Dr. Ann
I have filters in place that put comments with more a set number of links into moderation. It’s usually the way spammers work (not saying you’re a spammer), so ensures comments are more relevant.
Cheers!
Twitter: Pragmatist
Improving Reading, Writing, Study, Thinking and Aesthetics in the Wired Classroom
Anthony Manzo, Ula Manzo, & Julie Jacksons Albee
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (2002; 46/01 pp 42-7)
[(Revised: Aesthetic Annotation added: 6/3/09]
iREAP is a proposition for improving reading, writing, study, thinking and aesthetics. It has been waiting in the wings to be discovered for over a generation. The REAP system (Read, Encode, Annotate, Ponder) for responding to text has been in use in elementary through college classrooms for two decades. The “i” in iREAP represents its currency and connection to Internet community building, to several validation studies and to developmental extensions noted ahead. The core REAP system is based on a scaffold form of writing that invites creativity, much as does haiku, or any other such disciplined form of art. In addition to structuring response to text, or the discipline of REAP Broad Spectrum Thinking, the system invites readers to respond to others’ stored responses. It is in some ways similar to developments such as “threaded discussions” – as are found on Amazon.com and BlackBoard.com. Such asynchronous discussions and synchronous chat may have incidental learning outcomes, however, they are not school. They are unstructured interactions, whose discourse tends to follow a personal-social agenda. iREAP contains provisions for converting chat and asynchronous submissions into several goals of school-based learning. For example, it provides a context for “virtual inclusion” and “virtual integration, step-wise solutions to social and legal mandates such as providing every student with a “least restrictive” and non-segregated environment. It also attains some efficiencies for over-burdened teachers in the form of some new levels of assistance with guiding reading, writing and thinking as never before available. (There even are options in the offing for new software that automatically requests different phrasing when inappropriate terms are used.) What is more, iREAP offers the possibility of bringing further organization to the web, a virtual place that also can be characterized as virtual chaos: pieces of library books, homework assignments, family albums, literary masterpieces, tawdry material, and fiery political pamphlets piled in a random heap.
REAP: Background and Backbone
The basic idea for this reader-writer exchange system was proposed some time ago (Manzo, 1975) as a means of improving and supporting a national content area reading and writing project essentially for urban schools. Shortly afterwards it was collected into a teaching-learning approach called REAP – Read, Encode, Annotate, and Ponder (Eanet & Manzo, 1976; Eanet, 1978, 1983). From the beginning, it was anticipated that REAP might be an appropriate formatting system, or disciplined semantic platform and backbone for the tsunami of words that would be channeled from one “computer terminal” to another, on the then-developing intranets that were being formed by colleges, and promising to provide new technological options for the K-12 education. As such, it appeared that REAP should be a part of an evolving grammar of, and school curricula for, the electronic age.
REAP primarily is a cognitive enrichment approach that teaches students to think more precisely and deeply about what they read, by following the four-step strategy symbolized by its title:
READ to get the writer’s basic message;
ENCODE the message into your own words while reading;
ANNOTATE your analysis of the message by writing responses from several perspectives, and;
PONDER what you have read and written – first by reviewing it yourself, then by sharing and discussing it with others, and finally by reading the responses of others.
At the heart of the approach is a set of annotation types that range roughly in hierarchical order from a simple summary of the author’s basic message to various perspectives for higher-order critical and creative analysis. The first few REAP annotation types require “reconstructive” thinking – understanding and perceiving the essence of the author’s meaning. The remaining ones require “constructive” thinking – going beyond the author’s intended meaning to form the personal schema connections, applications, and variations that permit the learner to transfer information and ideas from one context to another. This hierarchy aids assessment and gives guidance to students in reaching “up” to higher levels or “down” to more basic ones that may not yet have been mastered. Descriptions and examples of some of the basic annotation types are provided in Figure 1. Other types can be customized and created. For example, several teachers have had rewarding results using a “Humorous” annotation (also in Figure 1).
Guided Reading, Writing and Thinking
For classroom use, the annotation types are introduced either singly or a few at a time, with the nature and pace of instruction geared to the grade level, but without aiming at “mastery” before moving to another annotation type. Children tend to learn to write best by struggling to express their own thoughts about rich literature selections, guided by mindfully written models that scaffold reading and entice emulation. As soon as the class has the basic idea of a few annotation types, they begin to write annotations of things they have read, and to read annotations – perspectives – that others bring to response writing. They are reminded to write several annotations on a reading selection, as a means to crosscheck their initial understandings and reach for higher-order insights and questions. Exemplary annotations are stored for other individuals and classes to read before reading (i.e., frontloading), during reading (as discussion points), or after reading (as a review) and also serve as models of well composed written responses.
Figure 1
Sample Reading Selection with Examples of REAP Annotation Types
“Travelers and the Plane-Tree”
Two Travelers were walking along a bare and dusty road in the heat of a mid-summer’s day. Coming upon a large shade tree, they happily stopped to shelter themselves from the burning sun in the shade of its spreading branches. While they rested, looking up into the tree, one of them said to his companion, “What a useless tree this is! It makes no flowers and bears no fruit. Of what use is it to anyone?” The tree itself replied indignantly, “You ungrateful people! You take shelter under me from the scorching sun, and then, in the very act of enjoying the cool shade of my leaves, you abuse me and call me good for nothing!”
Reconstructive Annotations
Summary: states the basic message in brief form
Travelers take shelter from the sun under a large tree. They criticize the tree for not making flowers or fruit. The tree speaks, and tells them that they are ungrateful people for taking shelter under her leaves and then criticizing her.
Telegram: briefly states the author’s basic theme with all unnecessary words removed — a crisp, telegram-like message
Travelers stop for rest and shade under big tree. Travelers say tree is useless. Tree tells them off.
Heuristic: restates an attention-getting portion of the selection that makes the reader want to respond
In this story, a tree (remove “that”) talks back to people. The tree says, “You ungrateful people! You come and take shelter under me…and then …abuse me and call me good for nothing!”
CONTINUE AT: Professional Teacher Blog Sites
http://anthony-manzo.blogspot.com/2010/05/race-to-top-accountability-leaves.html