Having fun online isn’t enough
As consumers we like to be entertained. And as the online world has opened up the possibilities as to how we can be entertained, our expectations are higher than ever before, to the point that we now expect brands to employ the same mechanic in how they market to us. But at what cost to the brands themselves?
Recent campaigns which have applied the creative entertainment factor to help us engage with their brands – and get media pick-up – include Old Spice, which gave us Isaiah Mustafa suggesting men could smell like him, Perrier which invited us to flirt and play with Dita von Teese and Tippex which asked us to write the end of a film.
You’ll notice in all cases, digital is rooted at the center of the communications with a view that consumers enjoy the experience and share it with their networks. If viewing figures are anything to go by, we are certainly enjoying these type of campaigns and definitely sharing them – total video views on Old Spice’s YouTube channel alone are now over 117 million, Tippex’s nearly 21 million and Perrier’s website has been viewed thousands of times.
The question is what we are taking out of these campaigns. Have sales of aftershave increased, do people now think French bottled water is sexy and are all our written (you mean people still do that?!) mistakes now corrected?
Brand awareness goes a long way but it is our responsibility as creative communications experts to manage the expectations of consumers to the benefit of our clients. Entertainment, whilst it can certainly play a role, can be no substitute for understanding and relevance if brands are to build the right emotional connection and loyalty with their followers.