Organizations struggle all of the time with how to best attract and keep their audience. Why do people need you and why should they stick around once they do find you? What do you offer them to keep them interested?

There's an axiom in retail, which is that the longer you're in the store, the more likely you are to buy. Buc-ee's, here in Texas, has that axiom down cold. Everyone knows that it's the one gas station where just going to the bathroom costs you a minimum of $20 for the purchases you'll inevitably make.

Think of politics... the draw is the drama, is it not? Nobody goes to X to watch movies. They go there for news and occasionally short and interesting videos. We crave influence and to catch the latest.

A really great book I read that changed my thinking long ago in the mid-90's was a book that was mis-marketed, in my opinion. It wasn't about games and puzzles, although it has some of that. It was about how to conjure up a multiplicity of ways to imagine something. It helped you become more creative. From the book:

Here, on Opinion Paper, I try to make the experience as interesting as possible. The life tiles that appear throughout the website give a kind of retrospective of where I've been and what I've done. They tell a picture story, in snippets. I offer the game in the menu. The news aggregator. Art. Music.

Think of political websites. Other than wordy, sometimes provocative content, what fun reasons do they give you to stick around?

Why not a crossword puzzle? A series of memes? A trivia game? Interesting videos that explain our government? A place where you could tell your story and read the stories of others impacted by policies?

What if you went to a candidate's campaign website and found lots of reasons to stick around? "The longer you're in the store, the more likely you are to buy." Can that work with campaigns?

I know many people who look forward to Rand Paul's Festivus every year. It's his creative way to "to alert the American people to how their federal government uses their hard-earned money" - and by "uses" he means "misspends." It's informative. It's different. It's interesting.

A bit of creativity can draw attention. Step out of the box. Buc-ee's could have been just another convenience store. But by focusing on what customers really wanted - clean bathrooms - they got people into their stores and then made it an experience by loading the store with as much as they could. Shazam! Mega-success.

Politics and campaigns needs to do the same. It's how you would stand out from the crowd.