How Marketing Is Getting More Creative This guide is going to show you some of the ways this is happening.
By AJ Agrawal Edited by Dan Bova
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Young people have always been a problem for marketers. They don't respond to traditional advertising and they have little interest in listening to brands. Therefore things like TV and radio are off the table. You need a certain cool factor, but when companies try to do this with millennials it often comes off looking awkward and forced.
StickerRide is one brand that has changed this around through issuing a marketing strategy designed to attract younger people. The concept is simple. Put branded stickers on your car, drive around, and the app will track how many miles you've covered. This is how you earn points and rewards.
Marketing is getting more creative. This guide is going to show you some of the ways this is happening.
Use Social Power
What makes StickerRide work is the fact that it's an extremely social way to market and to earn rewards. There's so much potential to use social media to leverage this concept. And that's something other businesses should take note of.
With so many people using social media networks, it's absolutely essential that you focus on thinking up something that will resonate on social media. Developing a multi-platform approach will enable you to increase your reach and enhance the likelihood that you're going to convert millennials into paying customers.
The Concept of Mass Individualism
The idea behind mass individualism is that millennials refuse to be defined by logos. They don't want to be placed into a box. Their goal is to be defined as individuals. They want to be in control. That's why getting creative and thinking up something new is key.
Once you hit on something that works, you can be sure that millennials will be the first to take it up. They want to be the trendsetters. And that's going to improve your social power as well.
Let People Market Themselves
If you want to make your marketing campaign personal and customized, you have to allow your targets to do the marketing for you. As previously mentioned, they have little interest in listening to brands talk down to them. They don't want to be told what to do.
Allow things to just happen, with a little prompting. Peer-to-peer word of mouth marketing is extremely powerful and has the potential to make your brand go viral overnight.
StickerRide has leveraged this concept through allowing people to market for brands when they want, wherever they want. Nobody is telling them what to do, so it's not like a normal job. And that's an essential part of the process because participants feel like they are in control.
Begin a Conversation
See marketing differently. Marketing shouldn't be about advertising it should be about beginning a relationship and starting a dialogue. Your brand's marketing campaign should be marketing and engaging. It should be designed to have people talk back to you.
And this same principle applies to how you act on social media. Go out of your way to engage in a two-way conversation on a social platform. More engagement will improve your visibility and make it more likely that people are going to engage with your brand.
Be Everywhere
Be in as many different places as possible. While you shouldn't try to create brand experiences for millennials on every available platform just for the sake of it, you must create an Omni-channel experience. In such a hyper-connected world, you have to be able to create a brand experience that operates in multiple locations.
This is why traditional and digital marketing must be combined together. Brands have to think outside the box if they are going to get the success they want.
Last Word – The Landscape Has Changed
The world has changed in the last five years, and brands have to be prepared to react to that. StickerRide uses a dedicated app to bring together digital marketing and traditional marketing. Using traditional sticker advertising, they have modernized it in order to encourage people to get with the program.
After tests throughout Europe and the recent launch in the US, the numbers haven't lied and the campaign has been successful. It goes to show that brands have to be able to change and they have to be able to engage.
What do you think is the most important part of marketing today?
