Marketing Magic

I often feel like I could have been in advertising.  I’ve never been glamorous enough to have been able to make it really, but the sparkle of a career á la Mad Men first emerged when I had to analyse adverts for Miss Ducroq’s English GCSE coursework. She gave me 20/20 for my ability to get under the skin of what the advert was about (fear not, my big head bubble burst when a new teacher re-marked my coursework after Mrs Ducroq left us and cruelly downgraded me – incidentally, the same thing happened to my A Level Art coursework when my two lovely Art teachers left mid qualification #notbitter #bothincidentswereanoutrage).

As a major consumer of romcoms in the 80s and 90s, I got to vicariously experience being part of an advertising brainstorm often.  ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’ – Matthew McConaghey’s Diamonds masterpiece “Frost Yourself”, In ‘What Women Want’ – Helen Hunt’s ode to Nike Women “No Games. Just Sports”. Boomerang – Eddie Murphy’s, unscrutinised perfume for Strangé – “It Stinks So Good”.  Yes, advertising is exciting, so I’m the sort of person who has A LOT OF THOUGHTS about Jaguar’s rebrand, wants to buy some Greggs slippers and loves Aldi’s Manchester store being renamed ‘Aldeh’ in honour of Oasis.

I do think that lean does lend itself to marketing in that lean wants us to constantly think of the customer – what they want, and perhaps unknowingly, what they need from us.   So I’ve got to explore some ‘Ad Room’ brainstorming sessions when helping to facilitate cross functional teams to align on their purpose. But coming up with a customer value proposition definitely ISN’T the same as coming up with an advertising campaign or a clever marketing strategy.

The really special campaigns sprinkle magic into the equation, take you off guard and surprise you. We might want to introduce a ‘delighter’ into a lean service experience, but we don’t generally want to blindside someone or make them go WHAT THE HELL!? the way a genius marketing campaign makes us do.

In a time of short attention spans, where AI that can literally generate ‘art’ in seconds and where practically everyone is a ‘content creator’, I can imagine that devising an ingenious marketing campaign might now be somewhat of a challenge.  However, in the last week I have encountered two amazing ones, which I will share with you now!

The first, for the Timothee Chalamet feature launching on Christmas Day ‘Marty Supreme’ which takes the form of an 18 minute marketing meeting over Zoom (I still miss you Zoom😔) where ‘Marty’ spouts forth insane ideas and everyone has to fain approval and support.  Its hypnotically painful yet you have to watch every second to capture and enjoy each excruciating aspect.  I had to laugh and agree with a Youtube comment who observed “nope, nothing wrong with my attention span”.

If you can’t bear to experience the full meta 18 minutes, then TL:DR – Timothée Chalamet’s Viral Zoom Call For ‘Marty Supreme,’ Explained. What was even more genius however is how some of the demands made in the call, then started to manifest in real life. Behold! The “hardcore” “corroded” orange blimp, making its appearance over the Hollywood Hills!

The circle was complete and we had been invited to be a part of it at every stage from inception to reality. I now definitely know that Marty Supreme is out in the cinema on Christmas Day.

Cut to a regular November Monday night at Everyman Cinemas.  Me and my friend Kim (When you’re an Everyman member Monday is bring a friend for free fyi!) are about to settle down to watch ‘The Choral’ when this advert begins.

Mmm.  Chocolate.

Within minutes our ordered lattes arrive, COMPLETE WITH THE BOJANGLE TRUFFLE THAT WAS JUST ON THE SCREEN.

WHAT STRANGE VOODOO WAS THIS!?

WHAT APPEARED ON FILM JUST BECAME REAL LIFE, FOR ‘FREE’, AND IS ON MY SAUCER READY TO BE EATEN.

How sweet and delicious was that truffle……… we had experienced the anticipation of it mentally … pondered for a second or two what it would taste like …. and lo….. suddenly, without request or demand, there it was ….. in front of us …. in 4D and ready to be savoured.

Kudos to the Bojangles Marketing Head… you broke the 4^th wall and made magical mental connections between my eyes, ears and taste buds.

Yes, I will be buying some Bojangles truffles for Christmas.

As we know, I like to muse on things and draw sweeping conclusions from seemingly unrelated phenomena … these two experiences demonstrated the power of repetition but critically, repeating an idea, from different perspectives and within different contexts. The Marty Supreme blimp was a drawing, a discussion, then a reality.  The Bojangle truffle was a flat image, a chocolate smear on a face, and then a real life edible offering.   Critically, by opening up the meeting so that we were participants, and then the cinema giving us a truffle as a gift, we aren’t bystanders, we are participants, actively involved in what we are collectively experiencing.

We know change is hard, we know repeating and communicating key messages regularly and often is key, but perhaps we should look more to marketing magic, breaking 4^th walls, trying things out from different perspectives and in different contexts, ensuring that we aren’t making people bystanders to the change, but that they are actively involved within it.