I am currently taking a class on Creativity and it’s hard not to think about just how important that is in marketing. If accuracy and efficiency is important in finance and accounting, then creativity is perhaps the number one ingredient to any marketing professional. I thought I’d do a post where I compile the creative marketing ideas that will hopefully get you guys thinking about the out of the box and raise the question of where marketing is headed. Enjoy.
Who did you sit next to the last time you flew on the plane? If it was a stranger who snored throughout or a crying baby ruined your flight, social media can help. KLM, the national airline of Netherlands, is looking to implement a service where you can use Facebook and Linkedin to see if your “friend” is on the same flight. Don’t worry about exposing your personal information. The service only works if both parties uses the service.
While the service is innovative, why wouldn’t you know if your friend’s flying on the same flight as you. You might just need to re-evaluate your “friend”ship.
Learn more:
In this day and age where anyone can post a video to the world through the power of YouTube, the ability to stand out is becoming increasingly difficult. Every minute, 48 hours of videos are being uploaded on YouTube, of that, only a very tiny percentage of videos makes it to the 1 million+ views. In a Ted Talk by Kevin Allocca, You Tube Trends Manager discusses the three ingredients needed for any video to make it big. First is tastemakers. The success of YouTube stars are often propelled by someone famous, otherwise known as tastemakers. For example, the day Jimmy Kimmel tweeted about the rainbow video by Yosemitebear Mountain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI), views of the video skyrocketed exponentially to its current 32 million views. The second ingredient is participation. No video makes it big without public viewing and engagement. Often time, this involvement comes in Facebook postings, Twitter and linkedin updates and remake of videos. Rebecca Black’s 200 million views came about through the public’s engagement. WIthin one week of the video release, there were already parodies for every day of the week. Finally, perhaps the most obvious one, is unexpectedness. Attention is a rare commodity in our busy and overloaded world and being unexpected gives you that much edge on other videos.
While these three ingredients are helpful, there is really no magic formula to getting viral. Sometimes, it just takes a bit of luck. Or a lot.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BpxVIwCbBK0#!
I know I am not alone in my battle against e-mail spam. Even as an avid Marketing student who has extra tolerance and interest on how companies Marketing to consumers, my patience is slowly wearing off. AIr Canada, Gap, Sportcheck not to mention the endless UBC emails I get in my inbox. Informative? Yes. Relevant? 90% not. In an age where proximity to consumers is often the key to their heart – giving out your email and signing up for newsletter is becoming more like handing your number to the opposite sex and inviting them to text and call you where-ever you go. It is like opening your door to a sales representative and letting them come into your home and talk to you about how amazing their products are. Sure, you can slam the door shut before they even enter, but now that they know where you live, they can be more persistent than ever. Sure, Marketers try to address you by name and give you “customized” deals as if they know you, but does anyone really have time for these empty invitations? If there’s one suggestion other than the generic ones listed online, it would be that there should be a question on the newsletter signup where they as you when you would like to no longer be spammed. For example, when I went on exchange in Ireland, I flew a couple times with Aer Lingus, and hence were on their “deal of the week” list. Needless to say, after I got back to Canada, I no longer care about the deals or wish to receive the emails. If only there was an option to notice them when I am no longer interested in the relationship, I wouldn’t have to leave those once a week “letters” on my inbox and sever the relationship once and for all.