April 2009

Four new Mac ads launched yesterday. It's amusing to note that Apple's response to Microsoft's recent, relentless attack ads has been no response at all. In fact Apple continues to push the same message, which Microsoft has steadfastly avoided addressing in their ads - that Macs provide a better, more reliable user experience. And while three years may seem like a long run for a single-message concept, the ads are still fun, and funny.

Social media has blurred the line between traditional Marketing and Public Relations.

According to a PR Rep I had lunch with today, Public Relations firms are running into a problem with clients who don't see the value anymore, in a newspaper write-up.

Traditional Marketing and Advertising too are suffering, from a form of consumer fatigue. Many of my contemporaries in the business now think that our audiences hate to be marketed to, and, that they no longer trust the stories we tell them about products and brands. I'm not convinced this is true*, but I'm willing to go along with the idea for the sake of argument here.

Enter social media which is being hailed as the next big thing in brand promotion. Social media firms are sprouting up all over, like mushrooms after a rain, but what do they do exactly? We thought about this and came up with this list, for starters:

1. They champion brands at the grassroots level with viral marketing. Planting "brand champions" or "influencers" who target a demographic on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the like. (This reminds me of a really old shampoo commercial.)

2. They host viral marketing events online (think Skittles), and in real life. In real life these events can be small, intimate affairs with a few hand-picked friends, or full blown Events in clubs with live music, free food and an open bar. By the way, housewives have been engaging in viral marketing and earning modest incomes for decades, selling everything from make-up to sex aids, thanks to Brownie Wise (the woman who invented the Tupperware Party).

Then there's the more delicate blurring of the lines:

3. For instance, if you're tasked to turn-around a dormant or flagging brand, and market it to a whole new demographic, all of the traditional marketing tools come into play in order to research the brand, identify the desired market and figure out how to sell to them. If you want to sell tequila to the male 18-36 crowd,  you'll target places or events that draw your market (say, like, bars?). You'll partner with the bars over a period of time and in addition to offering free drinks, or branded merchandise, you'll host a live music event, or rent the place out and throw invitation-only parties.

4. They find influential brand champions (superstar endorsers).

5. They use one product to help promote another product thereby boosting the awareness of both brands. This is basically sponsorship but subtly and creatively disguised.

6. Pop-up retail. Basically a temporary retail outlet done 'boutique' or gallery style. If a temporary store opens for a couple of months, the cost is roughly equivalent to a billboard campaign, but has the added benefit of providing a venue in which, consumers can interact with and BUY products. Direct access to, and experience with a product definitely trumps looking at an ad... Speaking of which, I got a direct-mail piece from Nivea the other day with three samples of some new beauty cream products - boy was I excited. I love Nivea! (ed: way to sneak in an example of viral marketing, and draw a parallel between DM and pop-up retail)

Anyway, all of these strategies share one thing... they lack a story, or more precisely, the story is created on the fly, by consumers. Though obviously when a giant like Apple uses these tactics, they bring their story to the mix as well.

The way I see it, traditional marketers and PR firms need to start offering some new strategies, or risk losing clients to the new breed social media firms who are essentially Marketers, PR Reps and Event Planners all rolled into one.

*By the way, I strongly believe that a good story is still King when it comes to building brand loyalty. The current wave of advertising fatigue is due to audiences being so inundated with bad stories, that good advertising gets a bad rap, by mere association.