When the Lions Club in Sweden wanted to raise awareness they (with agency Volt of Sweden) produced and ad that allowed people to read it in either 15 seconds, 30 seconds or a minute. They were asking for time, and so wanted to show they understood how valuable it is.

I think we can all learn from this in a number of ways:

1. Every brand / cause / company should know their message – and should be able to explain it in 15 seconds. You get extra points for having a 30 second and 1 minute version. I know very few companies that can explain what they do so simply. They all think it’s something that they should do, but never get around to actually crafting the message.

2. It’s beautifully written. The voice is friendly and speaking directly to the reader, it reminds me of the well-crafted copy writing that accompanied early VW ads. It makes you stop and read to the end. This says something about how much the organization cares. Spend time on the words – they matter.

3. They know what they want. The ad is asking for your time – one thing, not a whole bucketload of action points. Knowing what you want from an ad / social media post / direct mail campaign is vital.

4. It got my attention – not through gimmicks, or click bait style headlines. It made me look because it was confident enough not to need those. Yes you can have my time for that.

I’m not suggesting that you copy anyone’s work, but we can all learn from each other. Know your message, use the right words, know what you want, be different.