The Lovecraft angle: Fear in Marketing

I’ve been waiting for the moment in the recession when marketing articles start opening with HP Lovecraft quotes:

“That is not dead which can eternal lie / And with strange aeons even death may die.”

Ooops, wrong quote.   But in Anna Papadopoulos’ excellent article this week (Neuromarketing:  Why Fear Sells, Sex Doesn’t ), she begins with one of Lovecraft’s OTHER well-known maxiums:  The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.

It’s an interesting article, especially for those of us who suspect that the practice of marketing is often armchair psychology (perhaps more Jung than Freud) mixed with applied economics.    In personal practice, I’ve observed that leading with the fear (YOU WILL DIE) vs the benefit/aspiration (YOU WILL GET THINGS/BE THINGS YOU WANT) (note: if this wasn’t the Geary blog my language might have been stronger there – we are dealing with primal drivers here, people) can indeed be very powerful – but can also trigger avoidance in your target.  And maybe that’s what horror writers know – fear in general, great.  Anything that makes you scared sticks with you, works on you.  All part of the death drive. Fear applied in a specific way to you – what?  Sorry, I can’t hear you over all the singing I’m doing to not pay attention to you.  Have I been to Perez Hilton yet today?   After all, how the heck did we GET into the economic messes we’re currently witnessing?  Not paying attention to the fear that is our credit card bills is definitely a factor.

Fear is the ultimate activator, no question.  After all, in the survival food chain, survival trumps reproduction (slightly).  But the trick is knowing how and when to inject the activation message in a susceptible moment.  For the ultimate fear card, I’ve sat in research with patients who were candidates for very serious medical therapies – and watched some move quickly into denial and rejection states when advertising suggested that they needed to take (x) action in order to live.  Highly motivating, yes.  But in the presence of true horror – fear made personal – the mind shuts down. Lovecraft understood that well.  After all, isn’t there always the point in his stories where everybody goes crazy with the overwhelming hopelessness of it all?   That’s a total lack of consumer motivation for you.

So how do us marketers use fear effectively (driver) rather than trigger avoidance?

Let’s consider projectability.  Vague horrors (“Is your food safe?  STORY AT 11″) can be considerably more palatable and intriguing than specific terrors (“You will die if you are not driving a Volvo”).  And the solution for the fear must be baked into the fear-inducing message – after all, we’re looking for solutions as consumers, not more things to worry about (with a strong product association).  I’ll argue that Global Warming didn’t ‘catch on’ as a general cause (too big! too scary!  must avoid!) until “An Inconvenient Truth” helped to frame the fear by having America’s favorite high school vice-principal stand-in (you know I’m talking to you, Al) tell us we COULD and WILL solve it.  Scared the hell out of us, sure, but the message of hope gave us the strength to carry on and drive home from the theatre.  And maybe turn off the lights we weren’t using when we got home. Now that’s activation.

So if you’re going to introduce a fear, think about the novel solution you’re proposing for the consumer.  And why they get to be closer to the aspirational self they want by being part of it.  (ah, there’s the sex.  Sort of).    After all, Lovecraft also said:  “I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams.”

Speaking of which, thoughts?

I totally want to do an article about what marketers can learn from horror writers now.  Thanks Anna. 

Sarah

Weekly Fail Whale: Something that Social Media should NOT be used for…..A Pink Slip.

The weekly fail whale is something new to Geary Fresh.  We will be posting a poor use of social media/marketing/general existence/did they really once a week.  A company or person will receive the honor of being the “Fail Whale” of the week.  We will also give some suggestions to ways that the winner could have handled the situation in a better manner

Our first “Fail Whale” honoree: Tesla Motors.

What they Did wrong:

Electric automaker Tesla recently announced the layoff of 90% of its Detroit office through….a BLOG post.  The blog post states “there will be some headcount reduction due to consolidation of operations” and also informs that the Detroit office will be closing.  The brand new HQ in San Jose will remain open and the 10% that did not loose their jobs will be allowed to relocate and work there.  Which makes sense because the cost of living in San Jose is extremely comparable to Detroit?

What they should have known:

Social media is about communication, connection and relationship building.  Using it as the first communication of a sad occurrence like this does not fit the bill of proper uses.  Maybe Tesla will take the stance that the economy and their “green” nature forced them to communicate this news through a public online portal versus an actual pink slip.

What they could have done better:

We would suggest that a company never use a public forum as a way to announce a lay off/closure before they address the employees.  If a personal session by the company (be it in person or in a webcast) cannot happen an email is still a widely accepted form of business communication that is private.  Addressing the employees in this manner will help to support internal morale (as much as possible in a lay off) and also work to minimize Online Reputation Management issues.

Social Media Rules SXSW ‘08

Pulling down the window shade to shield my particularly-sensitive eyes (and head) from the intense Austin sun, I write this entry on the flight back from the 2008 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference. Albeit a massive event with endless panels, events, and parties parties parties – there seemed to be one theme in particular that I encountered repeatedly over the past several days: social media. Most of the panels I attended revolved around these topics in one way or another – and pretty much 9/10 people I met from the conference were somehow involved in social media. Most were start-ups offering niche social networks or aggregation of social media (social networks, blogs, and video). I was pleased to encounter social media in a multitude of different situations as it is becoming a core interest and marketing concern for many Geary Interactive clients.

I attended one SXSW panel titled, “Social Marketing Strategies Metrics, Where Are They?” lead by Tom Parish of Tom Parish Inc, Brian Magierski of BSG, Michael Smith of USAA, Ynema Mangum of BMC Software, and Rohit Bhargava of Ogilvy. The only conclusion that I was able to leave the room with was that there basically is no consensus as to social media metrics should even be. The perceived value of social media is user engagement from a qualitative perspective rather than quantitative. Rather than counting number of visits, we should be considered with amount of time spent on the site/blog. And not only that, but what is the level and quality of user contribution? Are they generating content that adds to the value of the site? Therefore “traditional” online analytics methods and metrics are inherently flawed for social media measurement.

Although social media currently resides at the periphery for most online campaigns — I see it rapidly approaching the center. And as it does, there will most certainly be new and different analytics methods developed to better capture the essence of what makes social media efforts a success — or failure. I’m also curious to see how all of the social networking aggregators come into play here and how they effect analytics numbers for the sites they are pulling from.

However the issue of getting C level executives to even consider entering the realm of social media dominated the panel discussion. I was surprised and simultaneously grateful that at Gearyi we have such progressive clients, whom give us the opportunity to utilize newer and more innovative online strategies like social media. While social media might not make sense for all industries or clients, it’s going to be tough for most organizations to ignore the impact that social media is having on how users interact with each other and the web. That interaction may be the very thing that the C level execs find most intimidating — suddenly the users have a voice, and a very strong one at that. Therefore transparency and moderation now surface as primary concerns. This brings us to another consideration for social media ventures: moderation.

In the process of developing community sites, one resource that is often overlooked is a community manager/moderator. At least one, living, breathing human being will be required to manage the community site. But who is best fit to take on that daunting role? SXSW panelists Miles Sims and Jake McKee explained several options: You could hire someone internally (or with your agency) who does this as part of many other job requirements and responsibilities. But, chances are, that unless the resource can be fully dedicated to managing the community, you can rest assured that moderation on the community will be very minimal.

This might work for more some communities, however, there are many others that require constant moderation to keep things from becoming unruly or even illegal. In the case that intense moderation is required, it’s best to allocate more than one, full-time dedicated community managers to the site. These managers can be internal employees, agency reps, or even volunteers from the site itself.

There is also the option of having the community platform provider manage the community. For example, Small World Labs offers community management among their many other services at different levels and pricing depending on the requirements and size of the community. If it were my community, my top concern in this situation might be the level of brand knowledge that can be provided. Agencies and clients work hard to build partnerships based on a solid, mutual understanding of a particular brand. It could be quite risky to bring in a third party for community management when that party may not have such intimate knowledge of the brand’s identity.

One way or another, it’s crucial to have a community deployment AND management strategy in place early-on. You can help steer the community in the right direction and pre-empt extensive moderation is to provide community members with a clear understanding of what the purpose and/or mission of the community is. Users are more likely to contribute (and contribute quality content) when they feel as though they have a “job” to do as part of a greater effort or movement. Let them know what you are hoping to achieve with their content and why their voice matters. It’s not enough to simply create a community for your website and to hope that users will figure out what it is they are supposed to be doing there.

All Around Great Mac Ad

There is a new Mac vs. PC ad that is only being released online. This series of ads have been very entertaining and I would assume have had some very positive results for Mac. This new ad currently resides on the CNET Microsoft Vista page and is extremely targeted, relevant, and entertaining. They talk about all the problems users that have switched to Vista are experiencing, and offer Mac as an alternative to going back to XP. Kudos to the creative team that came up with this placement…we should all strive to create compelling advertising of this caliber!

Internet Killing the Radio Star

As the online channel becomes more and more prevalent among users of all ages, we are starting to see the same trend across the board – people turning on their computers as opposed to dialing the radio knob, flicking on their TV, or flipping the page in the magazine.

According to eMarketer, online advertising spending is projected to outweigh radio advertising spending for the first time. This doesn’t mean that people are going to completely shut out radio as their form of entertainment or resource for information, but the Internet is quickly providing more and more alternatives to the traditional channel.

One example of traditional radio crossing over into the online world is online streaming, which many radio stations now provide. Some local San Diego favorites are Smooth Jazz 98.1 and Channel 933 FM.

The Simpsons Meet Reality

“The Simpsons” is already a popular television show amongst people of all ages, but with the looming Simpsons movie opening in theaters July 27, promotional efforts have caused quite a stir. Starting July 2 and continuing through the end of the month, a dozen 7-Eleven stores have been re-decorated to mirror the cartoon show’s convenience store, the Kwik-E-Mart.

In addition to re-designing the stores’ appearance, Simpsons characters, store products and even a comic book from the show will be added and available for purchase in all the locations where the promotions are taking place. The question marketers are asking, though, is whether this is a risky move or a way to have fun with a big opportunity.

Yahoo! Ads Get Smart

Yahoo! has taken the next step in contextual advertising practices by launching a new application called “Smart Ads.” The search engine giant’s new display ad units use everything from behavioral to demographic to geographic targeting to identify the user’s interests and behavior. Smart Ads account for users’ age, gender, geographic location and search activity to serve specific ads that are in line with the user’s information, making every campaign completely customized.

Of course, with Yahoo! taking this initiative, it is only expected that Google will follow in their footsteps. As long as Google offers more inventory; however, they will continue to lead the race. Smart Ads will provide advanced targeting potential for advertisers and marketers across the board, making it a great innovation, whether it is Yahoo! or Google that is taking the reigns.

Strange Craft

Strange Craft

Halo 3 or TRANSFORMERS Movie Viral Campaign? Alternate Reality Game?

Check out this very elaborate story and photos explaining details about these “strange craft” posted by Isaac X.

More about these strange craft:
Strange Craft on Message Boards
Strange Craft Google Search

Amazing attention to detail, great copywriting, great renders, great seeding, nice work!

Is this really a campaign, or is it really real?

Update. These craft have also been spotted on youtube:

Public Views on Paris Hilton

The astounding amount of news coverage surrounding Paris Hilton’s journey in and out of jail throughout the past few weeks has journalists both online and offline collecting the true opinions of the public. One survey conducted by Greenfield Online shows what people really think, not only about Paris herself, but about our justice system as a whole.

According to the survey, 86% of respondents believe Paris Hilton’s trial and early release from jail undermines the credibility of our justice system. The same poll shows that 65% of people think that the media coverage and public response was responsible for her return to jail. In addition, the survey shows that 86% of people believe that Paris will not learn her lesson during her time in jail.

I think the big picture here is not to put blame on the United States Justice System, but rather to take a look at our celebrity-obsessed society. The American public is so wrapped up in celebrity lives that they are neglecting the true issues that are facing our world today. At any moment in the day, some network is interrupting an update on Iraq to give the latest news on Paris’ situation, making me wonder what is truly important to our society…

Clear Channel Radio will Launch Free Mobile Service

Clear Channel Radio has announced a new mobile phone initiative that will be rolling out over the coming months for more than 100 radio stations. The new application will be free for users (with standard text messaging rates) and incorporate mobile advertising.

New York radio station z100 will be the first to launch the mobile phone application. By using SMS test features, users will be able to access text messages to participate in contests, receive music news, request songs and much more. Access to the mobile service is supported by a WAP site wap.z100.com. Additionally, listener will have access to station logos, ring tones and wallpapers.