What Does Occupy Wall Street Mean for Marketers?

I just read a very interesting article on Ad Age about how the Occupy Wall Street movement affects marketers. Very insightful!

Read the article here.

Excerpt:

At the same time, Occupy and the saga of the 99% has become a bona fide international-social-movement-as-meme, infinitely malleable and clearly tapping into some, to put it in marketing speak, cultural insights.

A survey by the ad agency network Euro RSCG discovered that some of the issues at the center of the protests are weighing heavily on Americans' consciences. Euro's Prosumer Report found that 41% of women and 39% of men were either very worried or extremely worried about the income gap between the rich and poor, while fear of running out of money was also high, vexing 46% of women and 31% of men questioned. To get a sense of how intense these worries are, consider that these rates were roughly comparable to concerns like terrorism and "diminished physical capacity."

Moreover, Occupy does seem to distinguish between financial institutions, who are the clear villains in all this, and other kinds of companies. Many protesters have gone out of their way to explain that the protests are not anti-business, but rather against a particular way of doing business that's fattened up a tiny chunk of the populace, the 1%.

I See Dead Ad Jobs

Wow, here's an insightful and inspiring article by Luke Sullivan, author of "Hey Whipple, Squeeze This."

Click here to read.

Gone Fishing

No, I don't mean the AMAZING movie from the 1990's featuring Danny Glover and Joe Peschi, I'm talking about companies fishing for ideas outside of an agency. It's time to discuss the crowdsourcing debate.

I just read another interesting article on crowdsourcing on AdWeek. Check it out.

It's now a classic argument. How dare companies go to the public to do our jobs? They don't have a clue what's going on right? They need to come to the professionals, after all, that's what we're paid to do! Come on guys, really? Now I don't mean to stir anything up, I can understand completely where you're coming from. But, at the same time, times are tough, and companies are looking for new ways to get the job done cheaper and more efficiently. I can't blame them. Well, I'm going to throw it out there, so here are my thoughts on crowdsourcing:

I completely agree that crowdsourcing is quickly being overdone, but I do however believe it can be an effect part of a campaign. A lot of companies incorporate it in their marketing, but don’t use it as a core piece of their campaign.

Take Mountain Dew for example. They still have their flagship brand, but they also have created a movement that many look forward to each year. “Dewmocracy” keeps growing and people love the idea of being able to taste the next newest flavors. It also creates a sense that they’ve had a part in it’s creation, which is a powerful asset.

I feel that when companies do projects like these it works best. To go through an advertising agency and tackle it together. It remains on target, and can many times be quite effective. OMD’s Doritos Superbowl contest was what allowed two Ball State alums to create one of last year’s most popular ads of the entire game. It stood out from all of the others, and didn’t cost them anything to make.

So I while I do believe that crowdsourcing is becoming, well, crowded, I do believe it can be effective if done correctly. But yes, don’t lose the ad agencies and fly solo, come to us and let us do what we do best.

I now ask you, what are your thoughts on this heated debate?

"You Will" 1993 AT&T campaign

Wow, well that wasn't too far off. Here's something that's quite interesting. It's a campaign for AT&T forecasting the future from 1993. We've come a long way.

Voluntary Engagement

There was a term in the June 29th issue of AdAge that I found quite fitting for the way advertisers will have to reach their consumers. David Lubars, chairman-chief creative officer of BBDO North America said, "The way the world is heading is voluntary engagement. The work has to be like a magnet."

Consumers just don't care about your generic advertising message anymore. Their must be more. Some external driving force that interests them to go out of their way and search for it. It is here however that a deeper connection can be reached, for they are already interested in finding out more, and are heavily involved in the entire process. They will continue to return to learn more or show their friends, and this is all because you've created something they want. It's not just about throwing a creative message out in hopes of someone hearing it and it resignating. It is important to create this offering, that in the end, will pay off in ways unimaginable to previous conventional methods.

Read more about my thoughts on this previous post: http://insidethetoybox.blogspot.com/2009/04/future-is-now.html