The Fault in Our Deshi Marketing Campaigns
“ভাই একটা ক্যাম্পেইন দেন না! ভাইরাল ক্যাম্পেইন!”
“Brother, please giveth us a campaign! Viral campaign!”
How many times have agencies, brand executives and marketers heard this very statement? With this mantra running in their minds all the time, some crazy things have been done in the scene of Bangladeshi marketing. And more often than not, they were not the “good” kind of crazy.
1. No, tacky, cringy contents are not the answer
Suppose you decide to make something really flashy and eye-catching, which only caters to the “YOLO” young generation. You use some buzzwords like “Josh”, “Hebby” and “Mamma”, believing that this will drag in more views. Probably yes, it would. But hey, remember, even Ali Gstar has a lot of views. The point is, while you do get some traction from some part of the crowd, your brand value will be lowered. Succumbing to such desperate measures will be catastrophic in the long run as your brand will be viewed as a laughing stock. But what about humorous content though? Humorous campaigns can be great if done right, but it must stay away from the borders of disturbing lameness, stereotyping and insanity.
So yeah, even if you do get viral, this would be for the wrong reasons entirely.
2) Boosting is okay, but it is not the secret of your campaign’s energy
A good campaign will never be a great campaign if it never reaches a large audience. Is boosting the answer? Not really. You must keep in mind that paid reaches may not always be viable for you. They may be helpful for your “KPI” and stuff, but that’s not the way to reach your target group, and definitely not the way to get potential customers.
To make a campaign hit, an important requirement is to share and glorify the campaign from the agency or brand itself. If the agency or the client side is not prepared to spread the yummy roshmalai that the campaign content is supposed to be, how on earth are regular people supposed to share it? The major spearhead of the organic reach should be led by the employees in the agency and the client company.
3) Instead of just blabbering, why not tie your campaign up with something for the consumers?
If your campaign is all talk and basically does nothing for the audience, what good is it? In Bangladesh, giveaways, competitions and prizes have almost always worked well. Everybody likes getting something, and smart freebies can sometimes really excite people. The best results are often yielded if these ‘gifts’ are properly in sync with your brand and the latest fad.
4) Don’t keep on following others, be unique!
“Dear Brand Executive, look! Our competitors are making a tear-jerking video on World Potato Day. Tell our agency to come up with something emotional at once!”
Ah well. This is a big problem, too. Sometimes brands come up with campaigns out of a whim, and suffer from horrible results. Firstly, they try to carbon copy their competitors with something just a bit tweaked. Secondly, they usually do it even worse.
Why not go for a different approach altogether? After weighing out the actual necessity of a campaign, think about what the consumers may find interesting or thought provoking. Go for something tied around your tagline. Give it a flavour of your brand.
5) Don’t dump all your money in one pot.
“Okay, so dear agency, we would like to spend 5 thousand on the video, and 50 lakhs on Facebook boosting.”
Stop right there. That’s absolute foolishness.
Instead, focus on other things too. Get your consumers to engage more with your contents. And perhaps try making your content better. Spend a little more dough on the video or activation itself. See if it could be made into something cooler with some extra planning and tweaking. Smooth out the awkward bits and give the consumers something they might actually want to indulge in.
You can also look into investing in e-mail/sms marketing or other social media such as Youtube or Instagram, depending upon the status of your brand.
