CREATING MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES
Growing Connections — through offline marketing
As the world changes, customers are looking for connection. That’s why more than just reaching a customer, the communication and marketing field should transform to provide meaningful experiences for them.
The other day I was confronted by the fact that I couldn’t pinpoint in one sentence what I do for a living. I’ve always consider myself to be a “generalist”, somebody who wants to know it all, who will stay up all night reading about a subject until they feel comfortable enough to talk about it. I have a very hands-on approach and when I notice an “out of the box” approach is needed, where things can be improved or where things can be done differently I will research, analyze, address and plan a course of action.
That’s why I love the field of Marketing and Communications and why I chose to do it for a living.
I’ve been active in this field for over eight years, working for different sectors, and in different type of organizations: from cultural centers, to NGOs, small startups and big electronic manufacturers. I’ve develop marketing and communication strategies from a 360° angle, including project management, implementation and evaluation. I’ve managed social media channels, content creation, events, influencers and pr campaigns. As well as design and produced merchandise, POS and promotional material.
It might seem crazy for some that I could jump so easily from one field to the other, but the fact is that it makes perfect sense. Actually, when marketing and communication is done right, it focuses on taking the time to understand their audience and capture value. In that sense, under-the-surface, customers’ emotions and motivations are the key element that a person in my job needs to get right, independently if you are communicating about a new product, a service or an experience. Lately, I’ve been focusing on a different approach to promote and communicate innovative services and products.
With current developments like the GDPR compliance starting in Europe, the Facebook Privacy breach, ad blocking, and people increasingly choosing lifestyles and services over products; brands need to rethink the way they communicate and the way they seek their customers’ attention.
More and more companies are noticing that people are becoming immune to direct advertising. They mute their TV, they have an ad blocker or they just zone out. Really reaching customers is becoming more of a challenge, and rightfully so. The advertisement industry is transforming, step by step, reinventing itself, increasing the connectivity and understanding that customers want stories: stories of real people they can connect to and experiences they can exchange with their peers, family and friends.
It is evident that the field of marketing and communication should be purpose driven, and that reverse advertisement is settling in as the best approach. Nowadays, customers barely read newsletters or go to traditional websites for content. The content is digested for them through offline- online magazines or social media, by youtubers, Instagrammers, bloggers… They are using their phones for specific apps and some of them don’t even use laptops anymore.
My favorite example of this approach is Patagonia’s Don’t buy this jacket ad. They ran this campaign on Black Friday, a bold move to raise awareness about the bigger topic that resonates with Patagonia’s customers: environmental impact. By explaining the CO2 emissions just a single garment can create and how the purchase of the customer matters to reduce climate change footprint, Patagonia made a statement to its followers, consumers and potential consumers that made them feel empowered. They created a psychological experience that gave their consumers a story to tell: either if you purchased that jacket or not, after this advertisement any Patagonia product would become a storytelling garment.
Source Patagonia Social Media Campaign
This is a great example that customers are choosing experiences over products. Customers are either in the fast moving pace of the app world (Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, HQ) or in the outside world at cafes, restaurants, shops, etc. Yes, they are holding their phones very often, but they aren’t clicking on ads and they aren’t reading long stories. They are looking at their phones but they are barely paying attention; they want 5–7 min reads, they want the headlines, short statements, recipes for success and more visuals.
In my opinion, if customers won’t pay attention to traditional advertisement in the future, they barely will do it now. Not only because they won’t be watching television, browsing individual websites for long, or checking their apps every minute. But also, because I believe if brands want to advertise online the battle to grab their customers attention will be fierce and pricey.
The best example to explain this is the evolution of the Super Bowl TV ads. It started in the 70s with just a few brands buying the spots. To become a big ad monopoly dominating all the live programming with it’s high viewership and wide customer base, with an average cost of $5 million for a 30-second ad.
The same will happen in the near future with the app world advertisement. The app world will reach a point where it will saturate itself. Where one single app will contain features that a user now has to find in a combination of multiple apps. It will be something like what happens in China with Wechat, a sort of app monopoly, where you can pay for services, chat, transfer money, share stories, contact services, call, among many others, in just one single centralized app. As a user you don’t need any other app because that one has it all.
Ultimately this means that as more apps integrate, there will be less space to advertise on many apps, and that the centralized app will have full power of the data of its users. Think of Facebook, Google, WeChat. I don’t want to go through the whole privacy debate in this post but it is indeed something to think about.
THE ERA OF CONNECTIONS
Things are changing. There’s a growing “Human Tech”- “Tech detox” movement. This trend, embraced for now by some early adopters, is using human design to shape technology and shift its focus. People are more aware of the usage of tech and devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops, AI, etc. They are understanding that they might be creating addiction instead of serving society and protect our minds. This tendency is growing bigger and not just with the “Delete Facebook Campaign” back in April and May 2018 (1 out of 10 Americans Deleted Facebook after it to be precise). Now more companies, startups and entrepreneurs are rethinking the way they promote and communicate their businesses.
I believe it is an exciting time for the Marketing and Communications field. Events, campaigns and experiences will be more and more relevant in the future. People will look forward to engaging with the products they buy or support. They will like to know more about them, to support initiatives and projects that align with their values, their purpose and their needs. It is a fantastic opportunity for all of us out there that have been doing offline marketing for much longer. It’s a moment for the development of synergies between various disciplines: creatives, big data, analytics, anthropology, psychology and businesses.
There are hundreds of ways to create meaningful experiences. Here is a list of a few I’ve used in my 8 year experience on the field:
- Live Drawing: Let people engage while content is on the making. It will draw people’s attention and it will create a sense of collaboration.
- Challenges: Let your customers challenge their knowledge of your brand or of your industry. By using gamification and giving them an added value you are empowering them to know more.
- Voting polls: Let your customer speak their mind and vote on different topics, from future launches to new brand approaches. It will create a sense of community and a sense of belonging with your brand.
- Street Intervention: Let the street do all the talking. Guerrilla marketing campaigns are amazing to raise awareness about the issues your brand is trying to tackle.
- Building Movements: Let them feel part of a community. People have a tendency to cluster and gather around topics they love. Use those moments to address your brand values.
- Send Personal Postcards by Mail: Let this type of channel be an amazing source of content. It is indeed old school and some might say it’s a lot ofwaste on prints and paper. But when done right, people will engage with your postcards and you can use this content to promote your brand.
I like to finish by saying that all these meaningful experiences won’t matter if you don’t have a group of individuals that connect on values. So If you haven’t figured out who your product, project or idea is trying to serve and how you can help them relieve some pain, dream or desire. Please invest time in knowing your audience, having real life conversations by engaging with your community through customer support, social media or events. Once you do, your communications and marketing strategy should focus on joining that tribe and on adding value to the conversations your customers are already having. People are trying to look for their tribe, to find individuals they connect and resonate with. Be the brand that stands together with them to change their perceptions, to show them there’s more and to give them purpose.
Discover more about me, my personal projects or my cultural management background. Questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact me at linaruiz.d @ gmail.com
