Guest: Lulu Cheng Meservey - Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Chief Communications Officer at Activision Blizzard. Lulu is known for her innovative communication strategies, notably during her tenure as head of comms at Substack, where she gained attention for taking bold risks. Key Takeaways: Identify your audience's "cultural erogenous zones" to align your message with their existing passions, making it easier to capture their interest. Use memorable and repeatable messaging by employing jokes, analogies, mental images, or stories to make ideas stick. For underdog startups, focus on building direct distribution channels and engaging with influential individuals to spread your message effectively. Apply the formula: Pressure = Force/Area. Reduce the "surface area" by targeting a specific audience to apply more pressure with the same effort. Embrace going direct by having a founder or senior leader communicate authentically and regularly through a chosen medium, building a direct audience. Topics Covered: Cultural erogenous zones, Messaging frameworks, Going direct, Building an audience, Communication strategies for underdogs, Importance of taking risks in comms.
“You have to make it memorable and you have to make people want to say it of their own volition.”
“Give it away for free to the right people.”
“You want to minimize the cognitive burden on the recipient.”
