Moving Myths & A Lost Marketing Opportunity

If you were moving somewhere, would you pack your treasures in beat-up, smelly old boxes?? Well, I probably would, but pay no attention to me… 😊

This post is a mini-case study. It’s about a lost opportunity.

I recently read a post called Moving Myths Busted on the American Van Lines blog. I liked it. It was short and to the point. Not preachy at all. No hard sell. No don’t-do-it-yourself, because-you-need-a-professional-mover, and-you’d-better-call-us.

Here are the four myths cited in the post, along with related excerpts:

Myth 1: Free Boxes are the Best Boxes

“I’m not saying don’t use used boxes, but for fragile items, heavy things, or when you want to fit as much stuff into the largest box possible, go for new. Plus, new boxes (are) designed specifically
for moving.”

Myth 2: Packing at the Last Minute is Best

“Tempting though it may be, it’s the worst idea ever unless you
live in a single room, don’t have more gear than will fit in your hatchback, and are not going to be dealing with a lot strategizing
to make that move happen.”

Myth 3: Friday is the Best Day to Move

“Moving on a Friday (is) the most common day of the week to move… (so) moving company rates can often be drastically higher (on Fridays)… Middle of the week moves… (mean) you may not have to spend your entire weekend unpacking; you may actually be able to enjoy some downtime in your new home before heading back to work on Monday.”

Myth 4: A Marker is a Marker

“No, definitely not… have an available assortment of high-quality permanent markers ready to go. They’re better for writing on cardboard, and you can be sure they won’t be smearing or running if your box gets water or rain splashed on it.”

So what was the lost opportunity? It was a missed chance to take advantage of the humor in the post.

Oh, yes. There’s humor there– definitely. It’s a matter of being alert to it. The post conjures up some funny images– more on that in a minute.

Here’s the header image for the post. It’s a nice shot of an American Van Lines van, and two guys doing a careful job. It’s on-brand (you can see part of the AVL logo), but the image doesn’t really relate to the post. There’s nothing there that references moving myths. It’s a generic image. It could be used for any number of moving-related topics.

I understand the attraction of generic images: they’re cheap, and you can just plug them in. The problem is, they all have a certain sameness– and it registers with people. The images become invisible. We scroll by them. We recognize them as “visual filler.”

A post with some humor offers an opportunity to break out and get attention for your brand. It’s also a chance to humanize your brand: to show people you’re likable, approachable, someone they’d like to do business with. A shared laugh creates a bond. Humor helps people relax and drop the shields we all have up against today’s non-stop marketing and sales.

The humor in the Moving Myths post is low-key, and that’s fine: marketing humor is about being warm and personable– you don’t need to tell jokes or do standup comedy.

I thought the post could benefit from a funny header illustration. I decided to do one.

I spent an hour thinking and scratching out ideas. It’s always a mess at this stage– like so:

I spent another couple of hours penciling and inking some roughs.

One of my many mantras is: There’s a funny visual hidden in
every subject– and in every subtopic. So I did a rough sketch for each of the four myths.

I loved the idea of used boxes that still reeked of their prior contents. I googled “smelly foods.” I’d never heard of Stinky
Tofu– perfect!!

Packing at the last minute made me think of a family frantically stuffing boxes before the moving guy arrived. OK, the dog packing his bones is the best part.

If most people move on a Friday, how about a traffic jam of Friday moving vans? Up above, the Wednesday and Thursday vans have smooth sailing.

I could see someone making faint marks on a cardboard box with a pencil, but how to show a thick marker as a wiser choice?– bring in another dog!!

As you probably guessed, I liked the “stinky boxes” idea best. Here’s the finish again (below). Just click on it to see a bigger version.