In this blog—I’m gonna break down what you can learn about website design & marketing from Scooby-Doo.
You’ll learn:
- Why your about page shouldn’t be all about you 😎
- Why your business image matters 🪞
- Why your color palette is the most important piece of your branding 🎨
- How you would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids & their dog 🔎
(Never watched Scooby-Doo before or need a refresh? Click here, here,here,here, & here for the summaries.)
(PSA for this newsletter, I’ll be focusing mostly on the OG series, live-action movies from the 2000s & Scoob!—but there will be mentions of some of the other spin-offs too 😊)
Let’s start with the marketing & launch for Scooby-Doo
The OG Scooby-Doo Series premiered in September 1969 (this fall marks the 55th anniversary 🎉)—followed by many spin-offs series & movies throughout the years like: Scooby-Doo in June 2002, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleased in March 2004 & Scoob! in May 2020.
It’s been ranked in the top 5 GOAT TV cartoons—so it’s no surprise why they’re still making Scooby-Doo shows & movies 55 years later. While there have been some flops, the fans (myself included) love it.
That’s why it’s important to make your brand timeless.
While the Scooby-Doo “brand”, the OG series & even first live-action movies have aged really well—Scoob! Which was only released like 3-ish years ago has quite a few moments that already seem dated.
Most of the Scooby-Doo shows & movies (or at least the best ones) follow a pretty simple formula—a bad guy does something in a monster costume & Mystery, Inc. has to solve it by the end of the episode or film. (<<< This would be later changed to include some supernatural storylines, but that’s another newsletter for another day 😉)
Mystery, Inc. (with some exceptions) is made up of the 5 main characters: Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo. All of the characters have distinct personality traits that define as different from them the rest of the gang in the series.
^^^ And some of those different traits mimic the emotions your potential clients will feel before buying something from you:
- Scared & Hungry (Shaggy & Scooby-Doo)—on one level or another your ideal client is scared that your offer isn’t going to help them (or even that it’s going to be a scam) & they’re going to be stress-eating over their purchase.
- Danger-Proned (Daphne)—some of your ideal clients are gonna think they’re not skilled enough to use your offer & that they need to XYZ thing to get them prepared, before they can work with you.
- Overly Smart Leaders (Fred & Velma)—on the flip side there’s another set of your ideal clients that are gonna think that they’re “too good” for your offer—even though it’s exactly what they need to solve their mystery problem.
^^^ And all of these need to be addressed in your website copy in some way. For example with the scared client, maybe you need to offer a $$$-back guarantee.
Fast forward from 1969 to 2002 & the first live-action adaption of Scooby-Doo was released in theaters—and while we can debate about whether or not it was a good movie or not (personally I think it’s one of the best live-action remakes ever made), one thing I think we can all agree on is that the casting for it was perfection.
Another thing the 2002 movie did great was following the formula set by the OG cartoon & dropping people straight into the mystery that needed solving right at the beginning of the movie.
In the deleted scenes included with the DVD release, there was originally going to be a theme song-like intro for the movie but they decided to cut it.
^^^ And it reminds me of how on about pages, you need to start off with about HOW you can help someone solve their mystery problem—not your life story.
I know it’s harsh BUT no one’s going to care as much about you as they’re gonna care that you solve their problem. And about pages are often the most neglected on websites so this is also can make you stand out in your industry.
Fast forward even more & later live-action adaptions didn’t have quite the same spark as Scooby-Doo & Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed—so it’s not surprising to hear that there almost was a third movie planned with the same cast that ended up getting scrapped because of a lack of ROI.
Not to mention that even though fans love the films, the critic reviews were pretty bad. Like so bad that Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed won an award for the worst sequel (obviously I disagree with this, but I digress) 😬
Matthew Lillard who played (and later voiced) Shaggy is even quoted saying:
“The second movie didn’t do as well as it was expected to do…I think Warner Brothers made a mistake releasing it at the time they did [March 2004]…I honestly thought it was going to do ridiculously good at the box office…but we had a bad timeslot.”
People aren’t going to buy your offer until they’re ready for it—but even if they’re ready they won’t buy if they’re distracted.
So in case you needed another reminder…
^^^ The timing & season of when you launch can make or break whether it does well or not.
Here are some notable quotes & plot points from the scripts of Scooby-Doo that can help you with your website design & marketing.
Quote: Scooby-Doo: “Rimage ris everything.” Daphne Blake: “Yes, image is everything.” & Shaggy Rogers: “Oh, we don’t go near any place with spooky, haunted, forbidden or creepy in the name.”
Business Lesson: Okay, no, image is NOT everything—BUT if your website looks like it’s spooky or creepy, it’s going to give off a bad image of your business. AND it’s for sure gonna make people scram-o off your website.
Quote: Shaggy Rogers: “Do you realize where we are?” Scooby-Doo: “No.” Shaggy Rogers: “Look around, man. The clean modern aesthetic. The cool blue color palette. We’re in…” Scooby-Doo: “Ikea!” Shaggy Rogers: “The Falcon Fury! Did you say Ikea?” Scooby-Doo: “Nope. I said Falcon Fury. Just like you.”
Business Lesson: I know it’s a #hottake but your color palette is arguably the most important piece of your visual branding.
Most people aren’t gonna remember what your logo looks like (unless you’re a household name like Nike or Apple)—but they’ll probably remember your brand colors. It’s like how when you first think of Target the color red comes before the bull’s eye logo.
Quote: Velma Dinkley: “It’s time to turn Mystery, Inc. into a real business.” Shaggy Rogers: “What do you mean? Like, carry a briefcase & wear a tie & pay taxes?” Daphne Blake: Wait, have you not been paying your taxes?” Scooby-Doo: “I handle our accounting.” & Shaggy Rogers: “What do you say we get out of Middle Earth…” Blue Falcon: “Copyright infringement.”
Business Lesson: TBH I just added these in here for lols because it’s so relatable as a business owner 😂
Now I could also go into how the latest Velma series doesn’t even have Scooby-doo in it…*sigh*…not to mention the other obvious problems with it—but that’s gonna quickly turn into a rant so I’ll spare you that newsletter 😜
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