ICYMI – According to Whiteops: Methbot a Russian run ad scam has made over USD $3-5 million per DAY over the past month amounting to over $200M in fraudulent ad revenue by tricking algorithms and mimicking legitimate US web traffic. Though this is an expensive and temporary hiccup (some advertisers who have identified the fraud traffic have gotten their money back), it is one that has gotten the attention of the big players and will hopefully lead to a stronger online ad bidding system with greater transparency and increased efficiency. That said, one of the key takeaways for me is the over reliance on automation and the lack of relationship based selling in the ad space. There will always be imposters when the transactions are automated and the players are not vetted. Not to mention that automation is an oft used reason to explain away poor due diligence.
From making Logos bigger to hiding them all together
How many times have we heard clients scream these words.. always hoping that some day they’ll understand that having the logo bigger doesn’t mean you’ll get noticed.
Soft Marketing or Marketing Sideways.. Is the art of being helpful instead of being pushy, being indirect rather than direct in your persuasion. Good sales people have always known the benefits of soft selling (you catch more with honey…). Native Content Marketing is soft selling for the marketing realm where for too long clients have insisted “make my logo bigger”, well that’s never convinced anyone to buy or try a product/service and the shift towards content marketing (where it’s about helping vs selling) where seeming unbiased is crucial, is proof of it.
Click here to see some of the best content marketing work of 2016
How Social Media Killed the Testimonial Route
Testimonials were a common route used by creatives and marketing departments to legitimize the claims made by a product in the consumers mind. Dove’s entire campaign was built on testimonials, Banks have tried to soften their image using testimonials, Car companies, Consumer Packaged Goods every category has been sold with testimonials.
But consumers today are savvy and though they are gullible in other ways (reality Tv and the kardashian’s come to mind) they no longer trust positive content put out and paid for by companies.
Social Media means a brands testimonials can be met with consumer’s negative testimonials.
Now that doesn’t mean you can’t do testimonials.. Let’s call them reviews and it becomes clear that those reviews have to seem unbiased. Amazon’s entire business is built on the testimonial / review model and it’s still effective but a company cannot be perceived as being involved in the positive reviews or it negates the review altogether. They can and should address the negative ones, but thats where it needs to end.
Look at Dove .. did we ever see a Negative Dove Testimonial ad – I’m sure plenty of women who tried it, didn’t like it.. but would dove pay for those testimonials to be aired? With the advent of social media and the fact that those testimonials could now be easily available to anyone who choses to check the validity of a claim.. well it meant a change in route. Hence GoodBye Testimonials .. Hello Real Beauty
Why we’re all taught to like the same thing, Or at the least within a range of things.
From early childhood we are made to aspire towards the same goals and covet the same things. Individuality is encouraged but within confines. It is a false acceptance of Individuality because in reality true individuality is discouraged and sometimes literally beaten out of people.
The Mantra can be rephrased as – Be the best that you can be (do the most that you can do) vs. do whatever you want to do.
The individual self is a threat to the mass produced nature of the corporate complex. Individuality means variety, but the systems of mass production can only profit on large numbers of the same objects — A limited range of desire is required and hence a conformist desire is projected.
E.g. Forget getting to design your own car you can’t even pick any color. You can only pick colors from those offered by the car company. Now sure you can get it painted in any color you like.. but why not then sell a blank car at a discount. Do I hear the universal echo of “economies of scale” being shouted by business people everywhere, not to mention law enforcement that might need to describe the color etc.
This seems practical and it is.. for products though not for people. The thought that a range of options is the same as true individuality when made towards a lifestyle and choice of career is what is truly stifling for the human condition.
This is the case because if we did not in some way confuse conformist desire with true desire we would see through the mirage that is consumerism and its promise of fulfilling our inner desires with products.
Hence we are confused into thinking we are individuals when in reality we are being cajoled into conforming to pre-molded roles that can then be categorized, segmented, marketed to and finally capitalized on.
Think Differently
A government that Bullies!
Ever tried asking a cop, Why the Nakabandi? or Why the search of your personal belongings? Or even a clerk at a government office: Why the Delay? Why the extra fees?
If you haven’t, You’re Smart and/or Lucky. If you have you noticed that it was, to say the least, Ill-received.
Governments are like brothers -They can be helpful in times of need, aspiring in their accomplishments, protective towards their loved ones Or they can be bullies and everything negative that comes with it.
Sadly what we have now in India is the latter. A governement and it’s employees that is such a mafia organization that they will punish and make examples of any who question their authority. They wish to work with impunity and in order to continue doing so they silence all calls for transparency.
How long can we have a government that bullies us, that steals from us, that wants to be a controlling influence and not a calming and supportive one.