How did you spend Valentine’s Day?
If you committed one of these #valencrimes: binge drinking alone, watching Bridget Jones Diary alone or consuming your body weight in Messina alone, then I'm sure you're desperate to change this scenario.
It's simple.
Remember the best campaign you worked on? Now replicate all the steps, but now imagine the client is the partner of your dreams. The first briefing is crucial: let them do the talking and ask as many questions as possible.
Their answers will give you the perfect implementation strategy: threats (potential suitors), budget (how much you need to spend on dinner) and of course channel analysis (is email, text or FB the preferred communication medium).
Think about it. We live and breathe behaviour change every day. Or at least we try to. It’s our job to influence people’s opinion and motivate them to buy or want things they may not really need. The dating game and advertising are eerily similar; the ultimate goal is creating desire for your product.
James Wallman explores a unique paradigm shift in his pun-tastic titled book Stuffocation. Put simply, people are trading in materialism for experientialism.
Perhaps it’s because my age group are maturing beyond the haze that was our early 20s at Greenwood, but the social gravitas towards meaningful experiences is impossible to ignore, mainly because of the notification alerts.
Let’s look at three simple approaches brands have employed to capitalise on our changing social values and hopefully improve our dating strike rate in the process:
Stories worth sharing
Brands play in an intensely competitive attention economy. Sounds like the Backroom at 1am right? The world’s leading brands have perfected the craft of storytelling and making sure that they deliver experiences that we want to share with our social networks. Be bold in your approach, be confident in yourself and ask someone if they want to go for a coffee. You’ll be surprised by their reaction.
It’s extremely flattering and at the end of the day people are looking for spontaneous experiences now more than ever. Give someone a story worth sharing about how you first met.
See the way your audience sees the world
Tinder’s success is largely based on its functionality & design. “The way Tinder works is the way people tell us they see the world,” says Chief Executive Officer Sean Rad. “They walk around, they see girls or guys, and they say in their heads, ‘Yes, no, yes, no.’ Take a unique approach to dating & put yourself in your date’s shoes, see the world in her eyes.
Is she the kind of girl who wants a fancy dinner or will mini-golf and a burrito do? Just like Radio isn’t right for every brief, neither is dinner & a movie.
Have a brutal focus on authentic experiences
Live the stories that you tell. A brand narrative should serve the same role as the product it promotes. Sure Nike tells you to “Just do it”; but it empowers you with apps, fuel bands and experiences that “help you do it.”
It’s been said millions of times but be yourself when you’re looking for love, brands have a personality and a point of view that goes beyond bragging about how great they are, and their audience knows when they strike a false note. Same goes for you. Be transparent and true to your story and you’ll attract the right people.
Instead of looking for status, identity, happiness, and meaning in material things, people are increasingly finding those things in experiences instead. The leading global brands such as Nike & Coke have realised that the conventional model of advertising is being challenged.
Intrusive, interruptive, self-centred marketing no longer appeals to the everyday consumer. Translation – loud jocks with Southern Cross tattoos are out, witty partners with great stories (experience) are in.
The changing advertising landscape reflects society: it’s no longer a focus on the product, rather that consumers are craving a more visceral promise.
Johnny Corpuz
Communications strategist
MATCH Media