If you have ever been a part of the Theme Team Extravaganza with Craig McClurg then you know that our theme every year must be “sticky”. He uses that term throughout the week to make sure to keep us all in line with what our end result should be. But, what does this mean exactly??

Well, if you have been around the Theme Team, you know that there is a book about making ideas successful called Made To Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. There was a study done on why different ad campaigns and catch phrases work. The results were that each successful campaign had the following things in common:

They were Simple; easy to grasp, basic concepts that anyone could understand.

There was an element that was Unexpected.

They were Concrete & Credible; solid information, totally made sense because of your experience.

They were Emotional in their presentation, it bonded you to the concept.

And lastly, there were Stories that could be derived from that simple phrase.

An example that Craig likes to use with this is the Razorblades in the Halloween Candy one. Think about it. It is Simple, Unexpected (razorblades), Concrete & Credible (we live in this type of society), Emotional (Halloween Candy is for our kids) and you can just imagine the Stories your mind comes up with about the creepy neighbor that just might do something like this.

This story shaped the way our children celebrate Halloween and the entire candy industry in North America. No more homemade goodies handed out, now it is all individually wrapped candy bars and caramels.

So, next week, when we officially announce the 2012 Mission Adventures theme ask yourselves, “is this made to stick?”. Use SUCCES as the guideline; Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional & Stories.