2010 was the Year of Social Media, a.k.a. The Year Companies Pathetically Groveled for "Friends" in the Greatest Show of Corporate Insecurity, Ever.
But in this mad dash for popularity votes, what most companies seemed to forget is that you can't demand consumers to like you.
It's far better to simply be likable in the first place.
A good sense of humor does that.
Four major networks, hundreds of cable channels and thousands of online services streaming millions upon millions of videos.
The problem ain't distribution.
It's content.
Advertising's a funny business.
Ask yourself which commercials are retold at the water cooler? Which ones win the most industry recognition? Which ones get posted, forwarded and viewed so often they actually become pop-culture?
The sad, depressing ones? The really expensive ones? The ones where an announcer insists, “President’s Weekend is your last chance to buy a mattress/guitar/used car?”
Hardly.
The messages that resonate best are the ones that entertain most. Remember, you’re interrupting someone’s leisure time. Better make ‘em smile.
Know what's funny?
That all advertising and marketing firms preach branding, but few actually practice it themselves.
Sure, they’ll tell you to focus your business strategy... insist it’s best to pinpoint one target... demand that you adhere to a singular sales proposition... but ask them about their own finely calibrated area of expertise and prepare yourself for an avalanche of all-encompassing credentials.
Humorous, isn’t it?
At Damn That’s Funny™, we don’t claim to be experts in everything, just the most important thing... that is, making your target consumers laugh.
It’s the best thing you can do for your brand.
Focus on your unique offering.
Own that space in the consumer's mind.
Hammer that point so relentlessly that when your target approaches his/her purchase decision, desire for your goods and services automatically rank higher than all others.
All great advice... which begs the question, "Why are so many ad agencies so horrible at identifying and branding themselves?"
Failing to follow our own marketing wisdom suggests a little fear perhaps, that maybe we don't have faith in our own counsel.
Just poking fun at that.
There’s an epidemic working its way through businesses today… a cunning little monster that beguiles cash-strapped organizations, charming them with low-cost solutions and then leeching them of productivity, creativity and valuation.
This growing malignancy is called the FREE Marketing Tool.
It’s often said that “FREE” is the most powerful word in advertising and given the availability of so many other free tools – free email, free news feeds, free encyclopedias – who could blame organizations for turning to grassroots marketing solutions to attract customers or reduce overhead? Indeed, why pay for anything if it can be had for free?
Frankly, the question shouldn’t be whether a free option to a paid option is available (it almost always is) the question should be whether ANY cost-cutting measure is actually saving an organization money or costing them more in the long run. Companies that have cut advertising here and promotion there only to realize they haven’t saved anything might consider the following five reasons “free” marketing solutions can be more expensive than paying full price.
1. What’s your time worth? Some people will spend three hours looking for a free MP3 song that can legally be acquired for 99 cents. Even if these people valued their time at just $3 an hour, that “free” song costs them $8 more in time than if they had just paid for the instant download. Companies addicted to free shareware, free counsel, free PR or even free delivery are pursuing the same faulty logic as, very often, the paid time it takes those employees to source and utilize a no-cost solution typically exceeds the menial cost savings gained by going this route. For example, is your “free” Twitter feed really cost-efficient if it taxes 50% of a $75,000 employee’s time? Or, would you be better off paying an outside vendor $2,000 a month for this service?
2. The perceived value of free is, well… free. As I wrote in Is Social Media The New Dot Com?, there isn’t much value in something anyone can do, (which is why it’s hard to charge for air) but there is value in things people can’t do, (which is why it’s easier to charge for purified air, scented air or the ability to “Breathe Right.”) One of the great tasks of marketing is to convince potential buyers that you’re offering something of much greater value than they could acquire or produce on their own. While using free tools to market your product makes perfect sense on the books, a reliance on these tools can imply that you’re a business that cuts corners or lacks the resources to do things like a “real” company should. A good magician should dazzle, amaze and leave his audience wondering, “How did he do that?” That allure has great value. Performing tricks anyone can do, has far less.
3. Free costs you control. Whether it’s a free website, free email service or free design template, those who seek no-cost marketing solutions almost always sacrifice quality, visibility or control over their content. Most free marketing services are created for the broadest possible use – and while this may sound appealing to those casting a wide net – the one size fits all marketing solution rarely showcases your unique selling proposition. Your website might look like your competitors… your images, repurposed from another stock library… your headlines, exhumed from a generic vault of advertising clichés… Suddenly, your unique product or service doesn’t look so unique or special after all. Go this route and run the risk of adding to the noise, rather than cutting through it.
4. Experience is worth something. Seasoned veterans of any business are loathe to offer their stock and trade for free. That’s because those seasoned veterans recognize the value of their hard won experience. Those who offer their services for free are either extremely generous or, possibly, doing so with ulterior motives. Companies (or individuals) who jump at “free” teaser rates potentially expose themselves to the up-sell, alternate-sell or inexperience of those hoping to impress on price, rather than merit. By contrast, hiring a seasoned veteran may appear expensive, but can help avoid potentially expensive learning curves and provide project accountability upfront. For all the handy GPS systems out there, it’s always wise to consider the services of a local guide.
5. What’s your company worth? Of all the possible risks free tools present to business, perhaps the most overlooked is the deflation they can have on a company’s overall value. Bear this in mind when selling your own services, or positioning your company for acquisition. Part of evaluating a company’s worth is a consideration of its net assets. Those with real assets – hardware, software or the human kind – have little to hide from this inquiry. For those that rely on a patchwork of free tools, the question may become whether you, or your services, are really worth much more.
Let’s be clear that we have no vendetta against free marketing tools. Indeed, this very blog costs us almost nothing to maintain. But its purpose is not to drive sales so much as articulate a philosophy and hone our own creative writing skills.
As for building our business, we still take Clients out to dinner.
On Sunday night, an estimated 13.5 million viewers watched the series finale of “LOST.”
If you were one of them, most likely, you’d watched the entire series. Every episode. Because that’s what “LOST” did – it created a series for its fans. They didn’t slow down for new viewers. You were on the bus or you weren’t. You were part of this community or you were on the outside looking in, asking why, exactly, they didn’t just build a raft and leave that crazy island. It’s what made the show great and also why the finale only drew 13.5 million viewers.
By comparison, “M*A*S*H” drew 122 million viewers. Nearly ten times the audience. “Seinfeld” drew 76 million. “Friends” drew 52 million. “Ad Age” reported that each :30 second spot sold for $900,000, a spot that would have cost advertisers $213,000 at season’s start. Seems like a huge investment for 13.5 million viewers. Or was it?
These were 13.5 million “LOST” viewers, viewers who had largely made a six-year commitment to a series as ethereal and esoteric as any in television history. At the outset of Season 2, at the show’s height of popularity, viewership was nearly 10 million more. But these 13.5 million viewers hung around, through flash forwards and flashbacks, through time travel and smoke monsters. These viewers bought DVDs in the hundreds of millions and made “LOST” a merchandising cash cow. And advertisers understood this.
Both Target and Verizon created unique, “LOST”-inspired ads that ran through the evening. Target’s ads were short and clever, tying-in “LOST” iconography with common household products. Smart and funny. Verizon integrated fan goodbye texts into stock footage from the series. Again, smart and simple.
And effective.
Someone arrived late at our “LOST” viewing party (think Super Bowl party for people who don’t watch sports). He’d been watching the pre-show at home.
“Yeah, it’s kind of boring. I’d seen it all before. But hey, did you see that Target commercial?”
The next morning, through email, a friend wrote, “On another note: I also enjoyed the Verizon commercials where fans were able to give thanks (through integrating fan letters into past scenes) to the show for a wonderful 6 year ride and entertainment. I thought that was a very unique way to promote your brand and allow the fans to shine as well. :)”
That’s a direct quote, smiley face and all.
I wonder how many Verizon or Target ads were discussed after the season finale of “The Mentalist?”
How much value does Target get from a $900,000 ad buy? What’s the R.O.I. for Verizon when creating new creative? Perhaps a better question, one that could be addressed to all the other advertisers who didn’t create a smart, funny commercial spot for the finale – what’s the consequence of not being included in this conversation?
When not writing about “LOST”, Will Preuss works in film distribution and marketing. He's contributed to major studio summer blockbuster releases like X-MEN and MOULIN ROUGE, and indie darlings like JUNO and THE COVE. Will produced the documentary CRASH REUNION in 2007, loves bacon and calls his mom every week. She thinks he's very talented and a snappy dresser.
If the late 90’s were the Dot Com Era, then the early 10’s will almost certainly be remembered as The Years When Perfectly Rational Companies Went Completely Apoplectic in Delirious Pursuit of a Social Media Presence.
Facebook. Twitter. YouTube… and perhaps hundreds of other free digital networking tools have all but promised completely unrestricted access to any aggregate of consumer on Earth. The implications are endless… the statistics, unfathomable… the skeptics, marginalized as tragically out of touch. The future is here. Woe to all who fail to embrace the new technology.
Now, let me be the first to admit I am a true believer. Companies do need to embrace this social media revolution, if only for the reason that lacking certain friend finding channels marks them as square, démodé or otherwise behind the times. But is having a Facebook page, Twitter feed or MySpace profile really going to replace the need for broadcast, print or outdoor advertising? Didn’t we hear exactly this about a decade ago… that the Internet was going to destroy television? Since then, haven’t televisions gotten bigger, better and the amount of original programming available on them, increased?
Let there be no misunderstanding. If you’re a company that thinks you might need a greater social media presence… you probably do. And it would be foolish to ignore such clear and massive trends as these. But before you start pillaging your print budgets to build your facebook Shangri-La, consider the following five reasons companies that fail to maintain their traditional marketing initiatives as well, do so at their own peril.
1. Traditional media is expensive and that’s a good thing. Of all the benefits of being on television, on radio or on every billboard across the nation, perhaps the greatest of all is that not everyone else can afford to. For with the higher cost of print and broadcast advertising comes membership into an exclusive club… companies with credibility. Proponents of social media often point to the relatively low cost of microcasting as an advantage (why pay TV rates when you can reach your consumers for free?) but the very fact that anyone can have their own fanpage, microblog or video channel greatly reduces the value of these media. Any business can have an online presence, fewer can be on television. To be there suggests you’re a real entity with significant resources… and that’s notably more impressive than having a free Twitter account.
2. Size matters. Sorry, but it does. Of all the CPM statistics advocates of social media readily share, one they tend to brush over is the actual physical dimensions of those impressions. Often, the area of those messages are measured in pixels… not inches… not yards… but pixels. Say what you want about 48 sheet billboards – they’re old fashioned, they’re not trackable, they don’t spiderweb out across associated networks – their sheer mass is still more likely to get drivers to STOP NOW FOR GAS than any status update from Exxon Mobil’s headquarters. Or, say what you will about newspapers – they’re slow, filthy and static – but a full page ad in the New York Times is still going to command more attention than the most seizure-inducing animation on nytimes.com. Of course, this is not to say the statistical reach of social media is overrated, rather, the quality of a single print impression often underestimated.
3. The Internet is only on the Internet. Champions of social media suggest previously elusive customers can now be reached anywhere, anytime a marketer chooses. More accurately though, social media can only reach previously elusive customers when they are online broadcasting information about themselves. And while this may be often (studies show many people spend more time on social networks than in front of their TV’s) it hardly represents ubiquitous access to consumers of every kind. Commuters, for instance, are far more likely to be listening to news, sports or talk radio than exploring your facebook page during rush hour traffic.
4. Traditional media gives you more freedom. When the internet first came out, it promised virtually unlimited forms of expression. Your website could be anything you wanted it to be… you just had to imagine it. Today’s social media networks, prolific as they may be at connecting users, require those users to operate within the confines of their applications. 140 characters… Your logo goes here... Your profile there… This is the place for your photos… Where once you had total control over your content, the parameters of each social media platform now require companies to reshape their business model to fit into proprietary templates… big trouble if you’re a company that professes to be unique and think outside of the box.
5. Traditional marketing is low maintenance. As any company that’s embraced the Twitter phenomenon knows, your bucket has a gaping hole in the bottom. The infinite need for more content in social media, and the hefty effort required to generate that content, can often exceed the great savings social media promised as a “free” tool. As many marketers are now learning, having a gaggle of avid followers is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you have your consumer’s attention. On the other, it’s a bit like being chased by a flight of starving pigeons. No matter how many french fries you throw their way, their insatiable appetite will inevitably exhaust your supply. Unless you’re getting something from these pigeons in return, maintaining this flock can be more effort than it’s worth.
In conclusion, let me reiterate that I’m no social media hater. For many businesses, it’s probably the best way to reach their targets. But if we’ve learned anything from the Dot-Com-Dot-Bust Era, it should have been this – a reactionary stampede to reserve a URL merely for sake of having one won’t necessarily drive sales. And when this feverish infatuation with the latest virtual ad space begins to wane, you’d better have a backup plan.
John O’Dwyer is a syndicated columnist and owner of Damn That’s Funny Marketing™ the only creative communications company that specializes in the strategic application of humor to connect advertisers with consumers.
