Matthew Luhn’s Marketing Theory on the Superhero Fallacy

Former Pixar Storyteller and BigSpeak Keynote Speaker Matthew Luhn’s ideas graced the pages of Forbes Magazine this week. His unique sales and marketing techniques, crafted from his years of experience selling the world on tear-jerking animations, were sought out to get to the bottom of common branding mistakes made by top companies.  

Anyone who has seen Up or Finding Nemo knows Pixar movies give you everything you need to become invested into a story and its characters. Matthew Luhn takes the formulaic science behind creating  timeless and loveable Pixar movies and brings it to your brand. 

Among many factors of storytelling Luhn focuses on the Superhero Fallacy. In his recent interview with Forbes’ Senior Contributor Kimberly Whitler, he dove into the issues most companies run into when marketing their brands. The first being the idea that the product is the hero of the story. 

In Pixar movies, the hero is never the protagonist or anyone in the movie for that matter. The hero is you, the viewer. Pixar works to incorporate you into the story through emotional ties, and in the end, the viewer comes out feeling like the winning hero. Luhn claims that the best companies do this with their marketing as well. To read more about the superhero fallacy and other branding do’s and dont’s from Matthew Luhn, head over to Forbes.