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If you’ve seen any drama show on television, you’re probably familiar with the “walk and talk” technique.
The West Wing is famous for it. So much so that viewers began to recognize it and expect it.
Why keep repeating the same tactic? Because, well, it works: it gives dialogue-heavy scenes motion, implies the urgency behind a situation, and introduces multiple locations in a short span of time.
So walking and talking became a recurring storytelling technique for the show. Characters walked, characters talked. It was expected, and it was great. But then, in a rare moment: they walked and didn’t talk.
It happened when two characters, Donna and Josh got into a relationship-altering argument. Rather than their typical banter, they walk stretches of the hallway in complete silence.
As a regular viewer, you feel the friction—the body language, the side glances, the tension in their jaws. It captures attention.
The entertainment industry doesn’t have a monopoly on tropes. In digital design, we call ours “best practices.”
Here’s a few that come to mind:
- White space is better than crowding content
- Navigation shouldn’t surprise users, it should help them easily find things
- More images = more engaging content
Tropes become tropes because they work, but deviating is one of the most popular ways to grab attention.
As a marketer, this might sound great—attention is harder and harder to gain in the crowded world of billboards, display ads, and promotional emails. But deviating merely to get attention isn’t how you should think about it.
The West Wing didn’t choose to deviate as a way to “disrupt audience expectations.” That was just the result. It deviated to support the purpose behind the story.
So, when you’re thinking about the “tropes” of your industry, think about your purpose: are the tropes serving it, or is there an opportunity to differentiate?
Because when it serves the story, breaking the rules can capture attention in a way that “following best practices” usually can’t.
~ Natalie, and the Team at Clique Studios
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