Review: Save the Cat
Recommended?
General readers: Maybe [see the aside below]
Writers: Absolutely
Marketers: Absolutely
A book about screenwriting might seem like an odd choice for a marketer to review. But in a world where attention is scarce and choice approaches infinity, I'm prepared to steal effective strategies and tactics, regardless of where they originate.
If your goal is to create engaging content (and as a marketer your goal IS to create engaging content), you should emulate creators of engaging content. In modern culture, few things are as engaging as a good movie.
In Save The Cat, Blake Snyder divulges the formulae, tools and techniques he and other successful Screenwriters use to create content that sticks in our mind. The book is streamlined in its approach, but dense in solid, useable advice, breaking down his "rules" (my word, not his) into distinct categories.
[As an aside, as with studying The Hero's Journey, this book will kind of lift the curtain on storytelling, making it harder for movies to surprise you. Think of this book as a giant metaspoiler. Read at your own risk.]
Many of his offerings are directly applicable in the context of marketing materials. Like relaying a lot of dry, boring material (exposition, in film parlance) in a way that is engaging and entertaining, not trying to force a piece to do too many jobs, establishing rapport with the audience so they will trust what they are seeing, and removing elements that create distance between the audience and the action on the screen. Regardless of the medium you happen to be working with in any given piece, being aware of these common pitfalls and how to deal with them will come in handy.
He clearly delineates the story into a series of "beats" that must happen in a particular order and at a particular pace, which are common to almost all blockbuster movies. As marketers we are trying to tell such a story, of the customer moving from the place where they are now to the place where they truly want to be (with the help of our product or service). These beats provide a roadmap of specific touchstones that we want to have in our marketing materials, even if we're not producing a 2.5 hour feature film.
In the end, Save the Cat is a primer on commerce. On the surface, it's a how-to manual for creating a screenplay for a film that people will want to see, will give their full attention to, will identify with and will recommend to their friends and family. As a marketer, substitute the word "film" for the word "ad," and you will instantly see why this book will be a worthy addition to your bookshelf.
