Last week during the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada’s breakfast event, Sponsorship Resolutions, I spoke of the need to “Get Real” in 2015 with our marketing campaigns.
I don’t intend to be dour, but with unending conflict in Iraq and Syria, massacres rampant across Africa, terrorism in Europe, planes mysteriously dropping from the sky in Asia, civil war in the Ukraine, an accelerated return to the U.S.-Russia Cold War, and oil prices plunging daily; consumer confidence is going to take a hit. When times are difficult….witness 9/11 and the 2008 recession, consumers respond to marketing in new ways. They seek more inspiration and less aspiration. They want more community and less celebrity. They expect more thoughtfulness in communication and less senseless humour.
Understanding the pulse of consumers requires more than just online polling and social listening. It requires marketers to connect the dots between what’s being said, what’s happening in-store and online, and what’s attracting attention.
The marketing event also known as Super Bowl advertising has lept well beyond the crafting of a brilliant sixty second spot. It’s become a multi-channel contest of innovation and creativity. The stakes have never been higher. The potential return also soaring to new peaks.
Not surprisingly this year’s Super Bowl advertisers scored with a smarter, more realistic tone in their messages.
– P&G reprised their #likeagirl spot from 2014 proving that tackling a significant seemingly never-ending issue is timeless.
– The Canadian Armed Forces shocked me with their recruitment spot, striking a chord of confidence and inspiring patriotism, with a dose of pragmatic reality, at a time when our military has never been more needed since 1945.
– Bud Light’s Living ads tap into great insights about twenty-something’s ranging from the boss who thinks you’re Mr. Responsible at work, to the dad providing napping advice to his daughter who just completed her first triathlon, to the friend who doesn’t want to sleep on the floor at a cabin party. Beer ads will always be aspirational, but when they are also relatable they really sing.
– Nationwide’s Make Safe Happen doesn’t promote a product or an offer, but sells something much more valuable. The safety of your family.
– While I cringe every time I hear an ad agency suggest “random acts of kindness” as their big idea, McDonald’s has created a potential ground breaker with their Pay With Lovin’ campaign. It’s brilliance, is that the random acts must happen in store thereby driving tons of traffic, and the genius is in its simplicity. But what makes this program even more perfect are the hilarious rules this corporate behemoth has signed off on. Kudos to their lawyers and senior executives for realizing that most contest rules do nothing but piss off valued consumers.
– I had never heard of Michael Hill until I saw their Super Bowl spot which trumpeted all sorts of society challenging love (across gender, race, etc.). The campaign was crafted from live on the street conversations with over 1,200 people. When was the last time a marketer talked – not surveyed, not creeped on their social feeds, not had them interviewed while they hid behind glass! – with 1,200 people!!!
The Super Bowl ad slate presents a roadmap for marketing in 2015.
The roadmap XXIL provides is one that shows we must work harder as marketeers to connect with our consumers. Family. Faith. Community. They have never been more important. I think the plethora of marketing channels and noise makes this even more a challenge.
Heroism can’t be manufactured. Yet it exists all around us on a daily basis. Good deeds aren’t random acts, for many they are routine. Commitment isn’t sexy, yet it’s the most powerful sales driver since the original sin was committed.
Take time to unravel your key messages for the year and ensure the threads that connect you to your stakeholders is as thick as rope.