Home Runs
Marketing is fun but it's not easy. Not anymore. Marketers are now constantly challenged to generate sales and create brand awareness amongst a tsunami of noise and clutter. This is one time when it was not "harder in the good old days".
The statistics are out there. Customers are bombarded with hundreds (if not thousands) of advertising and marketing pitches per day. And they have become very adept at tuning them out. Once fool-proof forms of advertising such as television are showing their Achilles heel.
This is not a negative thing per se, just a consequence of technological advancement. To quote an old '80s song - video killed the radio star. And now the Internet has killed the television star. Call it the marketing circle of life.
So what is a marketer to do? I think it goes back to the whole push versus pull marketing theory. Why shove something at a customer and hope they will bite when they can come looking for you? That is why I believe so strongly in SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimization). If I had to choose one type of marketing activity it would be search marketing, closely followed by email marketing.
Naturally, one can still use traditional forms of advertising such as print, radio, television, direct mail and billboards. However, you are then also under the gun to develop something that is so outstanding, it allows your message to rise above the clutter. And that is no easy task today.
Yes, that pressure does also apply to search and email but less so I would argue because they are much more cost effective mediums. So one tends to get much more mileage out of their advertising and marketing dollars.
Below are some incredible examples of advertising from around the globe that are making the rounds in cyberspace. The agencies that created these deserve much credit.
However, part of me wonders with increasing amounts of clutter does the bar not keep getting raised higher and higher? And at some point does it then become no longer attainable? It be argued that we have already reached that tipping point.
One could certainly hit a home run with creative such as those below but part of me wonders, "Is it still not interruption marketing?" And secondly, in an era where marketers must constantly justify ROI, "How much did the creative below cost to create and execute?" (Yes, I have been hanging around finance lately. Is it that noticeable?)
Yes, you could certainly hit a home run as others have but you also risk striking out. And for all the grand-slam home runs below, how many strike-outs were there and at what cost? Maybe it's time to consider trying a new bat...
A print of a cup of Folgers coffee was placed on top of manhole covers in New York City , USA . Holes on the print allows the steam to come out. Wordings around the cup reads 'Hey, City That Never Sleeps. Wake up." from Folgers.
This is a creative ad by Mini Cooper placed at the Zurich , Switzerland train station. It gives the perception that the Mini Cooper has a large space.
An advertisement for a job recruiting company in Berlin , Germany . Depicting people working in the vending machines, ATMs, it delivers the message that 'Life is too short for the wrong job'.
