Comments on: A 30-Second Feature Length Film?

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:38:27 +0000

In the interest of balanced perspective, I thought I’d post a link to one of the first thoughtful and articulate critiques of Save The Cat that I’ve come across. May sound odd, but the books can be polarizing, with a lot of readers thinking they’re the best things since sliced bread and a minority thinking they’re the most formulaic crap ever. Here’s a not-so-much-of-a-fan giving a reasoned opinion on his reservations:

http://complicationsensue.blogspot.com/2009/12/self-taught.html

- Jeff

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:06:53 +0000

Hey, Shawn,

Glad you liked this. What’s so great about it is that it has your favorite topic baked into the very structure: transformation!

What marketers should typically focus on is:

Opening Image,
Catalyst,
Debate, and
Break Into Two

It always shocks me to find companies and marketing teams that don’t know the major catalysts and debates for prospects.

Still, the idea of ensuring your content carries the Web visitor/prospect all the way through the arc is incredibly important. A lot of service or recurrent order products — such as Full Strength — don’t bake that into their cycle of touchpoints and end up losing customers post-acquisition. Think e-mail drips, follow-up contact, thank you’s, etc.

- Jeff

By: Shawn Phillips

Shawn Phillips — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:39:51 +0000

Jeff,

This is great! I know about the ARC from movies from a buddy of mine in the biz… he’s always telling me about the arc…

Of course, I also was involved in some terrific ARC in my brother’s classic movie, Body of Work. Powerful..

but I love the tangible translating of this to commercial or viral. I’ve got some great concepts in queue and this is a huge help!

Thanks,
Shawn

By: Shane Arthur

Shane Arthur — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:50:08 +0000

That Save The Cat Tools Download page is probably the most valuable resource I’ve seen all year.

Thanks man,
Shane