Last week I attended Cirque du Soleil’s show Volta. I have long been a fan of Cirque du Soleil’s artistry, creativity, and original approach to its shows. Many parts of this show left me in awe, but one sticks out as a great lesson I can apply to life and to marketing. One of the best moments – with one of the best audience reactions – was a mistake. It made me think about the power of leveraging mistakes and how owning your mistakes can connect you and your message more deeply with your audience.
One of the characters of Volta is a clown. Although there are many acts in the show that are designed to provide moments of “wow” or beauty, this clown is the one who unites the audience with humor. He told us a story every time he was on stage, and through humor he was able to create a link between all of us in the audience, both children and adults.
In the clown’s first act, he told us a story of a trip to the laundromat gone wrong. He got into a war with two different washing machines that kept spitting out his clothes and anything else he put into them. At one point, the two machines united against him, and when he would throw an article of clothing into one, it would pop out of the other and onto the floor as if there was a quantum link between them. The audience laughed throughout, and then the funniest thing happened.
In a moment of feigned frustration, the clown took the basket that had been holding the clothes and threw it into one washing machine. What was supposed to happen was that it was supposed to disappear into that washing machine and pop out the other one. But he missed. The basket ricocheted off the first washing machine back onto the floor for the audience to see. And the person inside the second washing machine couldn’t see what happened, so they still threw the second basket out of the second washing machine.
GASP!!
The entire audience gasped as we all realized the mistake. We were all looking at the two baskets on the floor. The illusion that the two washing machines were magically linked was broken.
And the clown did the best possible thing.
He gasped with us. He visibly alternated his gaze to the two baskets. He gave the audience an exaggeratedly sheepish look as if to say, “Ooops!!” He gave an equally exaggerated, casual walk over to one of the baskets. And he “discreetly” and coyly kicked the basket off stage as if perhaps we might not notice the thing that all of us were watching intently. Then he demonstrated great frustration to the washing machines that had been the bane of his entire act. Then he picked up the act from there.
I was laughing the hardest I’ve laughed in months. And as I listened, I realized the whole audience was laughing that hard with me.
I’ve been thinking about this moment a lot. We all make mistakes. We make them in life and business. And it may very well be human nature to minimize the mistake or cover it up. But you can’t fool your audience. You just can’t.
In business, when we try to fool our audience, we end up making them mistrust us. We disrupt the reputation and connection we were trying to build for our brand. We disrupt the loyalty we were trying to create.
In business, when we try to fool our audience, we end up making them mistrust us. #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smb #marketing Share on XThis clown turned his mistake into one of the best, most memorable parts of the show. He did that by acknowledging it. He stopped everything. His job was to be funny, because that was his brand. So, he stopped everything, pointed to the mistake, and made it funny.
If his brand would have been something else, he could have handled the moment with a different style. What was important was to handle it and to bring the audience with him.
So, when you make a mistake in your business or in your marketing – one that is visible to your audience – what will you do? Make a decision about what your brand stands for and let that be what guides you. Acknowledge the mistake, be on brand, and bring your audience with you as you account for it.
Acknowledge the mistake, be on brand, and bring your audience with you as you account for it. #business #smallbiz #smb #marketing Share on XHandle the mistake with grace, with relatability, with humor, with analysis, with whatever your brand is. And your audience may very well respect you even more for it.