I’ve just watched James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke featuring Paul McCartney, and it blew me away. I smiled. I got a lump in my throat. And by the end (spoiler alert), when Paul and James are singing Hey Jude to what has to be the luckiest group of British pub patrons on the planet, I had tears welling in my eyes. And I’m not a weepy sort of a guy.
Wow.
What was so powerful about this video, this story, that triggered such a strong emotional response in me?
And I think part of the answer is meaningfulness.
Being meaningful taps into people’s brains in ways that triggers strong emotional responses. And those strong emotional responses can be significant in building bonds of trust and loyalty (at a brain chemistry level, the neuropeptide oxytocin plays a key role in this, but that’s a whole different blog post for a later time).
And for many people, across generations, there has been something universally meaningful about the Beatles’ and Paul McCartney’s music.
Now, this is the point in this blog post where I’m supposed to pontificate what this means to brands and marketers.
And I think it boils down to this:
It’s no longer enough for brands to be trustworthy, they need to be meaningful, as well.
So, if you haven’t already, watch the video. It’ll be the best 23 minutes of your day. And be cognizant of how it makes you feel. Can you make your customers, your employees, feel the same way about you? How can you be more meaningful in your storytelling?
And I’ll let Paul’s own words close this post out, with his story about how Let It Be … came to be.
“I had a dream in the ’60s where my mum, who had died, came to me in the dream and was reassuring me, saying, ‘It’s going to be OK – just let it be.’ I felt so sort of great and like, ‘It’s going to be great.’ She gave me the positive word. So I woke up and was, ’What was that? She said, ‘Let it be.’ That’s kind of good.’ So I wrote the song ‘Let It Be,’ but it was her positivity.”