Jack Blog
February 23rd, 2012 By Jack Morton
We recently had an internal meeting discussing the success of campaigns we have worked with over the past year and some received a ‘Jack Award’ for the reach that they had to consumers across the world.
During that meeting I heard a lot about the “impressions” these campaigns had – the number of posts via Facebook and Twitter and most importantly the number of ‘views’ these campaigns had within YouTube or their respective websites. All fine and dandy and we all feel good about the traffic we received. Although it did reminded me of the web a few years ago when we actually thought ‘hits’ mattered (they do not in case you were wondering).
An ‘impression’ implies that we have left a mark within our viewers, something they will remember for a period of time. Unfortunately that’s not the case in this day and age. Ultimately an ‘impression’ is something that a person found good enough to forward to a friend. I can’t tell you the number of things I’ve forwarded to a friend and then immediately forgot about. You know that picture of a dog that was kind of phallic? That was pretty funny so we forwarded it to a friend. You know that web site that was about doing weird things to chickens – it was a legitimate campaign for a legitimate product but i haven no idea what it is was, I just remember it was funny…
“Where’s the beef?” is a great campaign until you realize that people didn’t relate it to Wendy’s – they knew the joke, they just weren’t connecting it to the company that presented it.
If you really want a consumer, you need to engage them.
It’s like a party, you can tell a funny joke and people will remember the joke but they won’t remember you. You meet them a few months later but all they remember about you is the joke you told. Ultimately you have become the joke. No one wants to become the joke within marketing.
If you engage somebody and challenge their mind, they will remember you beyond the conversation. Treat your base as an equal (or even higher than equal), try to impress them, and most importantly get them involved in your products and your brand. Once they feel a connection (or more importantly committed) to your brand, you’ll be surprised how that relationship can work both ways and each can improve the other.
Don’t sell to your customers. Get them involved and engaged in what your brand is, get them to believe your mission statement and the loyalty (and sales) will follow.