{"id":1298,"date":"2025-11-26T10:33:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T10:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/?p=1298"},"modified":"2025-12-14T12:32:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T12:32:19","slug":"marketing-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/sarahlethbridgelean\/marketing-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

I often feel like I could have been in advertising.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been glamorous enough to have been able to make it really, but the sparkle of a career \u00e1 la Mad Men first emerged when I had to analyse adverts for Miss Ducroq\u2019s 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\u00a0after Mrs Ducroq left us<\/a>\u00a0and cruelly downgraded me \u2013 incidentally, the same thing happened to my A Level Art coursework when my two lovely Art teachers left mid qualification #notbitter #bothincidentswereanoutrage).<\/p>\n

As a major consumer of romcoms in the 80s and 90s, I got to vicariously experience being part of an advertising brainstorm often.\u00a0 \u2018How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days\u2019 \u2013 Matthew McConaghey\u2019s Diamonds masterpiece \u201cFrost Yourself\u201d, In \u2018What Women Want\u2019 \u2013 Helen Hunt\u2019s ode to Nike Women \u201cNo Games. Just Sports\u201d. Boomerang \u2013 Eddie Murphy\u2019s, unscrutinised perfume for Strang\u00e9 \u2013 \u201cIt Stinks So Good\u201d.\u00a0 Yes, advertising is exciting, so I\u2019m the sort of person who has A LOT OF THOUGHTS about Jaguar\u2019s rebrand, wants to buy some Greggs slippers and loves Aldi\u2019s Manchester store being renamed \u2018Aldeh\u2019 in honour of Oasis.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0 So I\u2019ve got to explore some \u2018Ad Room\u2019 brainstorming sessions when helping to facilitate cross functional teams to align on their purpose. But coming up with a customer value proposition definitely ISN\u2019T the same as coming up with an advertising campaign or a clever marketing strategy.<\/p>\n

The really special campaigns sprinkle magic into the equation, take you off guard and surprise you. We might want to introduce a \u2018delighter\u2019 into a lean service experience, but we don\u2019t generally want to blindside someone or make them go WHAT THE HELL!? the way a genius marketing campaign makes us do.<\/p>\n

In a time of short attention spans, where AI that can literally generate \u2018art\u2019 in seconds and where practically everyone is a \u2018content creator\u2019, I can imagine that devising an ingenious marketing campaign might now be somewhat of a challenge.\u00a0 However, in the last week I have encountered two amazing ones, which I will share with you now!<\/p>\n

The first, for the Timothee Chalamet feature launching on Christmas Day \u2018Marty Supreme\u2019 which takes the form of an 18 minute marketing meeting over Zoom<\/a> (I still miss you Zoom\ud83d\ude14) where \u2018Marty\u2019 spouts forth insane ideas and everyone has to fain approval and support.\u00a0 Its hypnotically painful yet you have to watch every second to capture and enjoy each excruciating aspect. \u00a0I had to laugh and agree with a Youtube comment who observed \u201cnope, nothing wrong with my attention span\u201d.<\/p>\n