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I’m not sure if this is “legal” in the eyes of Facebook, but regardless it’s frigging brilliant. Even if Facebook ends up blocking the campaign, this YouTube video is enough to go on now as it circulates for eternity. 1 day and it’s already up to 82,000 hits. LOOOOVE IT!
If you would like to be inspired, look to the most coveted brands of our day – Mac, Google, Virgin. They have all built outstanding love affairs through their sensuality, mystery, tenderness, and their quiet confidence.
As our lives have seemed to become more complex, it is odd that we tend to ignore our senses rather than let them guide us. It is our senses that lead us to emotion. The beauty of a Technicolor prairie sunset. The pop of a champagne cork. The taste of dark chocolate and red wine. The crisp smell of the forest after a rain. The soft touch of another human being. Since the beginning of time, our senses alert us, enflame us, warn us and fill our hearts with joy. Without sensuality our existence would become unbearably bland and ultimately impossible. I cannot imagine the world without light, food without taste, or days without sound.
I love music! I listen to it all the time. At home, in the car, at the gym; and when I’m not listening to it I usually can be found singing, whistling or humming a tune. Music for most people, builds the soundtrack to their lives.
Think of a special time in your life – a ski trip, a summer holiday, a birthday, the purchase of your first car. When the right tune drifts into your life, it can open the floodgates to moments and memories like these. And it’s not just the music or the tune of the song that plays this powerful role. The lyrics too give us phrases that are so strong they can set our course in life. The greatest poets and lyricists can give us a voice when we don’t have one. They can articulate our feelings when the words just don’t come out right. Armies have been rallied; lovers have been bound closer together.
Take a look at the YouTube video above. At about 1:21 you’ll probably agree that not many brands connect better with their audience quite like U2. Whether you love them or hate them, they are one of the greatest bands of all time. There aren’t many greater voices for the masses of our pop culture. Sunday Bloody Sunday, (Pride) In the Name of Love, With or Without You; no matter what the song, you can probably hum the tune and likely cite the words.
Where am I going with this? In many studies, around 70% of both sexes said that music was important to them because: 1. It elicits emotions and feelings, and 2. It’s ability to alleviate boredom. For the most beloved brands in our world, music is taken literally. It provides us with the well-worn phrases; it gives voice to the product and more importantly it speaks the voice of the consumer and the voice of our time. To hear and to speak are 2 of the most powerful forces in creating deep emotional connections with anyone. The greatest brands are into sound and you should be too!
Music isn’t just for those that can afford the big budget TV commercials – it’s for everyone and can be put into almost everything – retail environments, phone messages, brand signatures, radio, and the Internet.
I often get asked the question “What is marketing?”
While most people will instantly think of brochures, websites and ads, I believe marketing is listening. Plain and simple. And regardless of whether the company is a small ‘mom & pop’ or a large international corporation, for the most part companies do a pretty shitty job at listening.
In my 9+ years of meeting with countless business owners and corporate executives, a great deal of them view dialogue as unproductive. Employees should be ‘working,’ not talking. They would rather send a memo throughout the office, informing employees of the latest facts, figures and stats, hoping that the employees relay this information to their customers. Their thought with this approach is that information and logic will cut through the clutter. Instead what they find is it does the exact opposite; their customers end up more confused and less engaged.
When you think about it, how can this approach possibly work when the competition is doing the exact same thing? When a customer has too much information doesn’t it make it even more confusing for the them to decide what is best?
I feel it’s our job as marketers to simplify the consumer’s life. Messages should be so simple and so easy to understand that a 6 year old can comprehend them.
The only way you can truly listen is to ask your customers what moves them. What are they passionate about? What makes them happy? What makes them feel accomplished? What makes them laugh? Cry? Angry? What can you do to help? Listening means you have to genuinely care about your customers; it means you have to be curious about what makes them tick. Forget the ‘corporate’ speak and what your company ought to sound like. Engage people with meaningful dialogue.
With the evolution of the web, people have access to more information than ever before. Because of the amount of information people have to sift through, consumers are now turning to peers, blogs, and online communities to make their decisions for them. You may have heard the term “Web 2.0,” which is the evolution of interactive websites that maintain themselves through user-generated content. Websites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn & Digg, as well as blogs are exploding in their popularity because people are finding that someone out there in Cyberspace can help them make sense of all this information.
And while these mediums may be cool, they are only useful when they have a purpose. With a kabillion bloggers out there in the Blogosphere, many often forget what it takes to have a conversation. It involves listening. The better you listen (by probing and asking tons of questions), the more there is to talk about. Listening leads to conversation, conversation leads to meaningful long-term relationships; and in the end isn’t that all we’re trying to achieve with our customers – meaningful, deep, loyal and long-term relationships? Communities help companies shut up and really listen to their customers.
Yes another plug for the guy who doesn’t need one, Seth Godin; my bono of the marketing world. The guy you almost wish you could hate but he’s some damn cool and so damn right you can’t help but love him.
In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Seth spells out (in this old but awesome speech) why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. Being remarkable is more relevant now than ever before.
For those who know, you know how amazing it is. For those that don’t you soon will. This online video crack is ridiculously addictive as it is choc full of the best key-note speeches out there, and I guarantee you it is one of the easiest ways to spend an entire day avoiding work.
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