I love Ernie. I’m not afraid to say so, either.
This morning I read Good Night Gorilla to my daughter. If you’re not familiar with the story, Mr. Zookeeper says goodnight to all the animals as Gorilla (and Mouse) quietly release all the animals from their cages.
Here’s the thing: Armadillo has an Ernie doll in his pen.
Ernie, and pretty much all of Sesame Street, is ubiquitous. They’re everywhere. And they got there by being symbols of good, reliable, interesting, helpful content.
Do you remember life before the internet? Well, there was this invention called television, and on this invention they showed shows. Every day, you could tune in to Sesame Street and get songs, games, goofs, and smarts. Every. Day. And here’s what happens when you create quality content every day for 40 years: You win.
Your brand becomes synonymous with quality. Here are the principles behind doing that:
Be Unique Sesame Street is known all over the world and is instantly recognizable because they do one thing: make Sesame Street. What are you making that instantly recognizable?
Be Consistent Sesame Street delivers great content every day. Whatever your schedule is, make sure you stick to it. Your fans are expecting you- if you’re only there for them sometimes, you’ll lose their trust.
Be Excellent It’s not enough just to stand out and do it regularly. It’s got to be good. Make worthwhile content that’s informative, passionate, beautiful, helpful, or personal. Don’t suck, don’t write just to write. Sesame Street was excellent when it launched, and still is.
Be Confident You can’t write for everyone, so don’t try. You know who you want to help, just like Sesame Street does. the difference between you and the others is the confidence to speak only to those people. It’s talked about on the writing blogs all the time, but cutting out a segment of the market to connect better with another segment takes bravery.
Sesame street would have failed if they tried to teach all kids from birth to 18 how to read. Luckily, they just talked to 3 year olds. And they dominated the world with good content.
You? You don’t have to dominate the world. Just your business. I think Sesame Street’s a pretty good model for doing that.