Influx

It’s interesting to see how the mood is subtly shifting.

Campaigns
planned months ago based on research conducted in the summer of 2007
are in danger of seeming woefully out of date and touch.

There
was a mood of hope and there were lots of ideas about change a few
months back, but this have changed and we heard it in Obama’s speech
yesterday.

It was not the impassioned speech of old and all
about new possibilities, but instead, a realistic summation of the
scale of the task ahead.

The messaging had shifted from the hopeful to the practical and pragmatic.

Brands jumping onto the hope/change bandwagon do so at their peril for two reasons.

1. The danger of appearing out of date as highlighted above

2.
The danger of the obvious comparisons with political leaders especially
one who had promised much change, but is even scaling that back. While
the political leader has the power to make things happen, most brand
communication doesn’t have the same power.

So what can brands do?

1. Understand where the conversation is at...monitoring
and predicting would be good skills to have here…Then there’s also
responding, brands have the potential to re-frame the conversation in
real-time if they want, but too often they stick to rigid plans drawn
up months back. Brands have to become more responsive.

2. Don’t just say it, do it. Jumping
on the coat-tails of the hope bandwagon is really old-school marketing.
Making something happen and doing something is C21st marketing. Brands
need to challenge themselves to get beyond just shouting out their
chant and instead create something that makes a contribution. Something
that really makes a difference, instead of just using the timeliness of
the moment to capture attention.

Posted by Ed Cotton