Today’s Marketing Lesson: “Get To The Choppa”

A few days ago I wrote an article about content curation that received responses ranging from agreement to outright disgust. Apparently it struck a chord. One of the points I made – that businesses should repurpose and curate from their existing content – seems to have been widely accepted as a good idea. Given that, I wanted to illustrate a good use of curating from existing quality content.

Enter Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnold is not only a household name, but a global household name. You don’t even need to mention his surname because almost everyone knows who you are talking about when you say “ahhhhhhh-nold.” So what does Arnold have to do with content curation? And more specifically what quality content of his own did he repurpose?

In 1987 Arnold contributed to the American zeitgeist with fours simple words: “Get to the Choppa!” Chances are that at the time Arnold didn’t know that he was creating content that would strengthen his brand, but the fact that we all know those words and perceive them positively decades later bodes well for him.

Fast forward almost two decades and time has been kind to Arnold. For the most part. He went from body builder to action star to reasonably successful politician. But then his life took a sharp turn. The world discovered that he had fathered a child with a mistress and his wife very publicly severed her relationship with him. All of this happened roughly when Arnold was transitioning from life as governor back to life as movie star.

Everyone can agree that it was a public relations nightmare.

But Arnold is smart. And here lies the marketing lesson. Instead of trying to reinvent himself and cast himself in a different light, Arnold has made a science of focusing on and reinvesting in the things that made him a one man genre-maker.

Where does the curation come in? Well, get to the choppa and I’ll tell you.

Arnold has realized that he has a tremendous catalog of quality content. You might say that the quality content consists of blockbuster films, but you’d only be partially right. The quality content that Arnold has created and that strengthens his brand are the phrases that have changed the American lexicon.

Don’t believe me? Take this Arnold trivia test.

“It’s not a __________.”

“I’ll be __________.”

“I eat Green Berets for __________.”

“Get your ass to _________.”

You may not have gotten all of them and you may not even know what films they came from, but it doesn’t matter because each of those quotes goes to reinforce the Arnold brand in a positive way. And I’m willing to bet that as you read through the test, you were even reading those quotes in an Arnold voice in your head. Go on, think the words “I’ll be back” – I bet you said them mentally the same way he did.

As turmoil surrounded him, Arnold dug in deep and went back to the content that made you fall in love with him in the first place. He curated from those treasures and repurposed them for a new generation of fans. From coast to coast, he’s putting those phrases in your face. Arnold recently released a video of him saying all of his famous catch phrases and dedicated it to the armed forces of the United States. How’s that for curating and repurposing existing content?

The end result is that despite the turmoil in his life most people have a positive view of Arnold and are still paying to see his movies. You can argue that his films aren’t the blockbusters of yesteryear, but I assure you that Arnold is still taking very comfortable strolls to the bank.

So what does this mean for you?

What content has your businesses created that has connected with your customers? What content has strengthened your brand and grown your business?

If you don’t know the answer to those questions, you should sit down and do some research. There’s probably gold in them there hills. You may have to dig deep to find it, but doing so can pay off in unimaginable ways.

Once you find your gold, use that content to connect with new customers that you did not have access to before. Then use it to reconnect with customers that you have lost touch with. Find your “get to the choppa” moment and turn it into new content on your blog, via social media and in your email campaigns. Do it because that content has already scored for you once and presents less risk than new and untested content. Do it because you don’t have to spend a lot of money to reuse something you already own. Do it because Arnold can’t be wrong.

Let me know in the comments what you think of this addendum to my content curation article. If you want more then . . .

I’ll be back.