Are brands getting it right? Relating and the Future of Marketing

Last week I had the great privilege of picking the brains of some of the most influential marketers out there, namely Seth Godin and Gary Vee (Vaynerchuck), along with a great panel at the Future of Marketing conference. Discussion topics ranged from NFTs to the core of a brand, the Internet, and the Future of Marketing. With a bit of time to reflect upon the several great insights that surfaced, here is one that got me thinking the most.

One point that both guests touched upon, in their very own and different ways, was how brands actually use the web to communicate. Looking back, it seems that one of the age old practices in communication, using a single minded proposition to string together a 360 -integrated communication plan, is being challenged by the abilities of the new medium called internet. At the same time what transpires as new, is really nothing new. Allow me to explain.

At one point Seth talked about Q: “Treating different people differently – the only way to allocate resources properly”. 

Of course this makes sense and resonates with empathy or to put it in his own words: “People like us, do things like us.”

To take it a practical step further into what brands could be doing, I’ll rip a page from Gary’s award winning agency’s process. As described by Ad Age and thus declared on their site: “The 11- year-old shop fires many ideas into the market, then sees what works and leans in”. This can imply that communication might not be tied to down to one singular unifying truth. One campaign may have different facets for different people. When asked about putting out content in terms of quality Vs quantity, Gary replied that quantity will always win over quality. Why? Because quality is subjective, hence different approaches will appeal to different people. I could add to that. Think about something we all relate to: music, one of life’s prime juices. Not everything appeals to everybody, we all have our preferences. Not only that, but consider our own state of being, how we enjoy different sounds at different moments in life, just like media apertures. The internet not only gives us the ability to share many different stories and make the message more personal to various audiences, but it also allows us to target them separately at different times. In other words, we gain relevance, we relate better to our audience. We know that making it personal works, we ‘ve been doing it with performance marketing for a while now. So I'd say..

Perhaps it is time to be brave, dissect that brand message and tailor different renditions to different people.

This is really nothing new, in marketing 101 terms it stems from audience segmentation and in sales it can be found in the technique of mirroring. This does not mean changing a brand's essence or what we stand for but gives us the freedom to communicate and try out different things to relate better with different audiences. This is not about the pair of shoes that are chasing you around the web because you abandoned them in a basket, it is about meaningful content. And meaningful means different things to different people.

Needless to say, digital signals are instant. It is no coincidence that major campaigns first start online and then extend to other media. With immediate online feedback, you can tweak, adjust, pull back or lean in with what works! So next time around it might be worth considering not to put all your money in one big TV production ad! There are plenty of alternatives that might relate better to multiple audiences … especially in the world of the internet and the smartphones we carry around with us all day.

My two cents,

A big thank you to Boussias and well done for getting on board such high caliber participants. Thank you production team, thank you to all panelists and of course our two guest speakers.