A couple of weeks ago, Seth Godin did a nice blog post on why cartoons work, referring to Tom Fishburne’s book This One Time, at Brand Camp on the subject. Three days later, Google announced its Chrome browser using a cartoon strip - either a coincidence or a response even faster than the browser.

When you look at the Chrome comic strip content, it presents exactly what Google wants to say, but makes you read it, too. They don’t do a sort of phony FAQ-style “it’s interesting you say you’re always typing your search in the address bar – because that’s exactly what you can do with Chrome” dialogue. They just illustrate the product history, aims and benefits in real detail in a way that makes you want to read on. As cartoons go, it’s OK: you keep reading, but you wouldn’t buy it in the news-stand. As marketing, it’s brilliant - there is so much here that would take ages to say in prose, and the combination of white paper and user manual would be a horrible structure that few readers would struggle all the way through. To circumvent that problem, Google cleverly uses a tab and address bar structure.

I was impressed by the readability of Google's strip, as it switches seamlessly between visuals and prose and has characters point at features in the graphics and "speak" at the same time. Some of the stuff in there is pretty technical, but I was still happy to keep reading even where it went beyond my knowledge (e.g. the garbage collection page - I still got the point, i.e. no memory leaks and more efficient and faster garbage collection).

The number one advantage, as Seth Godin points out, is that we love dialogues, because folks are talking in front of us rather than at us. I agree. There’s something that reminds me in this of people-watching. It’s plain interesting (though I wouldn’t pay to do it). And I’m not alone. Go to any discussion forum and you will see the number of people reading it is always more than the number actually submitting. For marketers, the beauty of this is that you represent your customer benefit in a way that is interesting and appears authentic.

A word of warning, as always when a medium catches on. You need to do it well, and subtly, otherwise it will be either too “me-too”, funny in the wrong way, or plain cheesy (if plain cheesy isn’t self-contradictory). Just show it to your friends first, and tell them they have to be cruel to be kind sometimes.

The Inquirer has started a genuinely funny spoof series, their Guide to PR on a Dollar a Day. The first instalment at the start of May, on news releases, advises:
Problem is, if you make it sound simple, people won’t respect you. They need to be confused, so they feel a little bit inadequate and inferior. So bulk out your press release with some powerful sounding - but impotent - phrases like “world’s leading” “best in class” and “strategic partnership”.

The second, a fortnight later, is entitled Get a Hack the Sack, and passes on some really useful ways to force journalists to bend to your will, such as:
...always phone every journalist at least 12 times. Each phone call has two important functions. One, you must always break a journalist’s concentration, whatever they’re doing, and make them think about you instead...Call 4. Is it OK to phone you just before we send you the release?
Call 5. Is it OK to call you the moment we have despatched the release?

However implausible their tips may look, you can bet Nick Booth, the author, is speaking from direct experience of what agencies do. I'm really looking forward to more - and not just for fun, but just to make sure I don't fall into any of the traps he mentions. So far, so good (I think).