The first time I came across the concept of the “hot crazy scale”, it was while reading a discussion of a supposedly “crazy” Hollywood starlet who apparently ranked “crazier” on the “Man Institute” Hot Crazy scale (or Crazy vs Hot scale) than most other actresses.

You know I had to click on that link!

I expected to find some cheesy, semi-corny blurb with the type of self-congratulatory, tongue-in-cheek humor that some of these niche websites online are so good at. I was wrong.

What I ran into was a masterful piece of work that motivated this piece on thought leadership marketing and how to create branded ideas that can communicate your value, accelerate your sales cycles, and help you justify higher prices on your services and information products.

Background
The “Hot Crazy Scale” comes from an episode of the TV show “How I met your mother”, and is supposed to help guys make the sometimes hazardous decision of whether to date a “hot” girl, or whether to move on.
It places these young ladies on a graph of “hotness” vs “craziness”, under the assumption that more craziness is permissible the hotter the girl.

The video below explains:

 

Now, you might be saying to yourself:


What Does This Have To Do With Thought Leader Marketing?

Everything…

In the video above, the question (or problem) is fairly familiar and straightforward. That is,

“How do you know when the benefits outweigh the costs of a dating relationship?”

Obviously, the answer above is a very subjective one, one that is likely to resonate with the intended target audience for Barney’s message (single guys driven more by lust than by common sense). And that’s the first principle.

PRINCIPLE #1 – Thought Leadership That Sells Must Be Intuitively Accessible. It must be commonsensical to its intended audience.

But that’s not all. It’s not enough to be both target audience-friendly and commonsensical. That’s just the price of entry.

It should also be somewhat analytical or seem to be analytically derived. So…

PRINCIPLE #2 – Thought Leadership That Sells Must Include Analytical Tools that flesh out your frameworks.

This step is what takes also-ran books, workshops or frameworks, and turns them into higher-priced, premium-valued packages.

Even better if those analytical tools include branded ideas and language like “the Vicky Mendoza Diagonal” and the “Shelly Gillespie Zone”.

PRINCIPLE #3 – Thought Leadership Marketing That Sells Must Include Branded Language with which your audience can speak in code to each other, and co-create new original experiences.

As evidence of this, just take this show “How I met Your Mother”. Fans of the show have conspired both to edit and share tons of episode clips on youtube, but have also edited many of these to create brand new pieces. Since I only occasionally see the show, I can’t actually tell how some of the YouTube clips are tampered with.

PRINCIPLE #4 – Be prolific with new problem-solver tools, new ideas and new frameworks.

In the Academic field, the professors who publish the most often get most of the perks. Think that same way. Continually wrestle with the frontiers of your field to come up with new ideas, or new ways to frame the issues. Barney, the prime character in the TV show examples above, is absolutely prolific at developing new stuff – his own “days”, “rules”, “theories”, “analytical tools (i.e. graphs)”, “codes”, etc.

 

Here are some more examples of Branded thought leadership from the aforementioned “Barney” character (also see “Barney Stinson Quotes” and how they have leaked out into a broader entertainment sub-culture).

1. The 3-Days Rule

A crazy argument (by Barney) that connects guys “post-date” communication tendencies to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry about this desecretion, but the principle (above) applies.

2. Barney Stinson Quotes – The 10 Awesomest

An online magazine collects its list of the “10 most Awesome” Barney Stinson quotes which include some from the videos and links above.

3. Barney Stinson’s “The Complete Playbook”

A sometimes-inappropriate list of tactics and strategies that Barney pulls out of his hat to impress girls. I find the “Von Matterhorn” tactic (0:35 in the video) to be particularly instructive of how branded authority and thought leadership can be accelerated online through strategic application of online marketing.

4. Barney Video Resume Builder Course

This video from CBS channel on YouTube, featuring “Barney”, is truly a masterpiece from a “thought leader marketing” standpoint. Video resumes are really a powerful new device, and very few businesses are using them to their potential. Of course, this is funny; read between the lines and you’ll hear echoes of my lessons above like “branding your language”, etc.

5. The Lemon Law Theory

Here Barney decides that he’s just come up with a concept that’s really “going to be a thing”! (As in a “hot thing”). If on a date, you decide you it’s not going to work, everyone can walk away as long as it’s within the first 5 minutes. I’m not sure about the idea itself, but take a cue from this character – you should always be thinking about coming up with the “next hot thing” in your niche.

6. The Bro Code

Annotated list of rules and responsibilities for dealing with your (male?) friends. They include such gems as “A bro shall always say yes” (to every lie his “bro” has just concocted). And of course, the most important of the “Bro Codes”, “Bros before ho’s”. Um,…As you can probably already tell, these codes could be harmful to your health, relationships, and sanity if applied in real life. But on TV, and as thought leader branding examples, they work brilliantly.

7. Barney Stinson-The Platinum Rule

In trying to demonstrate why his friend Ted should “cease and desist” from an intended date with Ted’s doctor, Barney explains the 8-steps of the platinum rule. I also found this on a Youtube “Fan” video.

8. Desperation Day
Apparently the day before Valentine’s Day, February 13th is “Desperation Day”. This, Barney insists, “is a thing”. And that it goes back over thousands of years to Rome. Taking their audiences on cognitive leaps from the familiar (Valentine’s Day) to the unfamiliar but plausible, is a favorite tactic of many marketing heavyweights from the worlds of finance, religion, relationships, real estate and personal development.

9. 10 Millionth Facebook Fan

In this video, CBS and “How I Met Your Mother” arrange to reward the 10 millionth Facebook Fan of the show with a personal appearance. This illustrates the extent to which this show has leveraged (and celebrates) social media and the engagement of their fans. How are you reaching out to your following? Take a page from their book.

One of the most powerful ideas in small business is that you can leverage new media to improve customer acquisition through thought leadership marketing.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...