I found myself once again sucked in to Reddit this past weekend and came across this post “ELI5: Why is Picasso considered to be a great artist?” (for the Reddit novice, ELI5=Explain it to me Like I’m 5). The top comment, and perhaps the most succinct and best to answer mentions Picasso’s series of bull drawings. It even links to an article from Business Insider about how Apple employees learn design from Picasso.

The genius of Picasso is in his simplicity. Of being able to break down some of the most complex of images into something so simple yet still definable. He was perhaps one of the earliest pioneers of the KISS principle.

So what did that teach me about marketing?
To be fair, the concept can be translated to many different areas of life. But what really struck me about marketing relates around content marketing and copywriting.

When telling stories, trim the fat. Why use 10 words when 3 will do? When trying to explain to your audience your message, make sure that you write it in a way that makes it easy to understand while still telling them everything you want them to know.

That is the genius of Picasso and is the genius behind a great marketer.