A crocodile, a jellyfish and a 19th century steam train
Digital marketing as a platform has supernova-ed. It has become a realm of astounding innovation, creativity and relative anonymity. I say relative because compared to its enormity it is under-utilised and under-explored by its target market. I believe that a lack of a physical bridge between consumers and the digital plains is partly, but not solely, to blame.
Digital is the younger, more exciting child of brand marketing. Physical has become the neglected older sibling whose school plays and flute recitals are no longer as dutifully attended as they once were. It is still there, but the depression has crept in and physical marketing’s performances are looking increasingly lacklustre. The potential positive and the unintended negative impacts of this medium have in my mind been severely underestimated.
One issue is being actively addressed in digital and it’s the invasiveness of brand presence. Someone finally realised that targeting ‘Social Media Users’ as a singular demographic entity was a touch on the generalising side. The result was a relentless barrage of unwanted and irrelevant advertising from brands across the commercial spectrum. It was a classic tragedy of the commons. Social media was the patch of grazing space and instead of each sticking to their target audience slices there was a unilateral onslaught on our Facebook feeds and inboxes. The consequences of their collective defection were the desensitisation, resentment, and then outright hostility of consumers towards them all. We’re currently still living through the post-digital-assault hangover phase. Brands have, thankfully, cottoned on to what was happening and technologies like data mining are finally producing more personalised advertising on social media. At least the assault is now a bit more audience appropriate and interesting.
Physical has fallen to the way side on this front. It has the potential to be a gateway to getting consumers to use the digital marketing machinery that’s out there. Instead, many brands have fallen into the same pitfall again. The anonymous branding powers out there have meticulously researched where we like to go, what we like to do and when we’re going to be in those places doing those things. Then they’re just there with their army of bright eyed, brand sporting, flyer/sample-wielding minions, lurking in their marquees and stalls, whom we all loathe and desperately avoid eye contact with.
I’ll use festivals as a microcosm for their creepy shenanigans. Having extensively investigated the when and where, the why and who concepts feel forgotten. Festivals are intended and attended as a fun, whacky and imaginative escape from reality and they have been polluted by mundane and creatively obtuse product peddling. It is not about blending into the background either; it’s about understanding and leveraging the environment you’re operating in. I would argue that, most importantly, at something like a festival a brand’s aim should be to cultivate a connection to the concept and lifestyle- not to appear antithetical to it. In a sensory overloading festival ground the aforementioned flyer/sample-wielding minions and stalls don’t stand out. Samples are a briefly exploited and almost instantly forgotten form of bribery; they are an inefficient misappropriation of marketing resources.
Their audiences view most of these events, largely, through the lens of their I-Phone cameras. There is an enormous visual element to festivals and an incredible amount of photographic social media content is generated as a consequence. This, to me, seems like the most natural aspect of festivals to capitalise upon then. Produce some crazy, off-the-wall branded thing that will feature in the instagram photos and facebook images of your consumers, and maybe think of a way to get a cheeky hashtag into the mix as well. I’m thinking giant wooden scaffolding Lacoste crocodiles, fifteen foot Smirnoff bottles with jellyfish floating around inside, or a BMW 19th century steam train ferrying people around campsites. I can smell the selfies already. It’s a step towards a transition from the product-centric forms of marketing to the experiential. This kind of strategy is also a fantastic and under-valued means of gaining consumer generated content (CGC) and followers on social media- bridging the gap between consumers and digital marketing content.
Which brings me to my next point. I cannot fathom people’s obsession with email addresses and phone numbers. I am sick of being asked to give my name, phone number, email address, kidney and soul in the return for samples I don’t really want and competitions I know I’ll never win. My inbox is bursting at the seams with over 3000 spam emails I haven’t opened and getting sales calls and texts fills me with fiery ire. We are fundamentally lazy people when it comes to our consumerism. The very act of filling out forms is laborious and irksome. Cultivating a following on social media is far more valuable as digital currency than an email database because it can be more personalised and targeted, and interactive in a far more subtle way. Propagating CGC is even more ingenious because it’s getting your consumers to produce their own tailored marketing content.
A giant crocodile at Reading is just one way of going about it.
