Showing posts with label campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label campaign. Show all posts

Friday, 20 February 2015

Scare Tactics : Why Don Draper Had It Right


Scare Tactics 

 ‘Fear’ as a Successful Communications Tool

fear communications
The value of emotion in selling products, and papers, is more or less indubitable.
Christmas: every advert pulls on the heartstrings. Headlines about fairness and altruism pepper the pages of our newspapers.
February: roses are red, violets are blue and romance is in the air for every marketing campaign and headline that can possible squeeze in an iota of an excuse for doing so.
Yet this is not just a gimmick of once-a-year holidays. It is a strategic part of brand narratives from McDonalds to Nike, Virgin to Jack Wills.
And one of the most effective emotions is fear.
Take as an example the full-sized polar bear released in London this past January. It disrupted tube-commuters’ usual routine of ‘studiously minding own business and ensuring zero eye contact with anyone’ with a potential panic attack.
“Is it real?!” People begged the cameras recording their mixed reactions of fear and curiosity.
Twitter went crazy. Videos and photos spread across the Internet.

 As a stunt it grabbed headlines – partly because a giant white bear on the Jubilee line makes a great photo – but it also embodied the new television show it was publicising, Fortitude, by using a bear that is something of a sinister motif for danger in the show to create a similar threatened feeling in the British pubic.  Moreover, considering Sky’s current adverts saying ‘not all television is created equal’, which suggests their programmes are somewhat more challenging, more intriguing, this stunt certainly seemed to capture hearts and minds with a comparable emotive thread.
An ‘Emotion Factor’ constitutes a central part of helping a consumer to bond with a brand, a business, a product, a person.
Hardly a new concept, Dale Carnegie identified emotions as key for business people who want to appeal to their customers back in 1936 and it has been linchpin in communications of all kinds ever since. There are books dedicated to it, and academic studies.
Those who have never watched Mad Men might be forgiven for wondering then why I’m talking about fear. Almost everyone has been told sex sells as demonstrated by Davidoff cologne or Virgin Atlantic adverts. Many will have experienced how feeling empowered makes that totally unaffordable car sound like a good idea, or how humour makes one website seem simpler and friendlier than the other.
But to quote Don Draper: “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? … It’s freedom from fear.”
The same applies in building a narrative in public relations.
Telling a story for a business is an integral part of PR because it’s all about looking for the story that will bring a brand’s message to life. A story can build or bulldoze a reputation, manage or frustrate consumers. So whether it’s through a message, a logo, a CEO or even a product, telling a superficial tale is not going to win over a busy journalist or capture the attention of a digital audience. Only a quality, sophisticated story can do that. Preferably one that’s succinct and can fit into the required column inches.

This is where fear comes in. Good stories need an element of fear.  Something for a hero to overcome. That hero might be the consumer or the product or the business as a whole. But if all is happiness, simplicity, friendliness, and humour, what’s the point in being a hero, of wanting more than this? How can you feel powerful driving that car, or sexy travelling on that flight, or clever because you chose this brand, if there’s nothing to fear?
Nike do this well, painting the consumer as both hero and villain. Their base, lazy self doesn’t want to wake up, to run, to push up that hill. Can their strong, inner hero win out? Yes they can. Likewise, the anti-bank narrative taken up by new financial technology (fintech) companies often paint themselves as ‘Jack’ characters going up against fearsome ‘Giants’. A traditional story becomes a strategy rooted in the potential to conquer fear.
By identifying what seems scary, the opportunity to expose ways to overcome the monster emerges. This encourages people to believe in the story, to come to their own conclusions and hopefully align their opinions with that of the brand. Since they value this self-made deduction more than those shoved down their throats, the business’ story then becomes their story. Loyalty is created. A reputation with consumers established.
Crucially different from the fear inspired by some political propaganda or scaremongering, it’s important to note that this kind of fear is also distinct from manipulation. Using fear is not a way of coercing consumers into falling for a web of lies.  It is, however, a means of a businesses connecting on a human level with the people it needs to connect with and a way of cohering a brand with both left-brain ideas and right-brain emotions.
So whether it’s by tapping into the fear of missing out, the reality of heart disease, the creepiness of unseen germs, or just the Very Dangerous World – businesses need to really start thinking about what people fear and what story they want to tell in the age of anxiety.

 Je serai poète et toi poésie, 
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Monday, 25 August 2014

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge




Critics are throwing cold water over the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, but there’s something to be learnt from the viral video campaign that’s made more than a splash using social media.

Just when I thought I might have got away with it, when the whole craze looked ready to combust, it finally happened. I was nominated to do the Ice Bucket Challenge.  Meaning: you can now expect me to dump icy cold water over my head, film it, and post it up on my social media with an nifty hashtag #icebucketchallenge or #MND for your viewing pleasure.  

More importantly, it will hopefully add to the chain and bring that little bit more attention to ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Motor Neuron Disease in the UK. As a progressive neurodegenerative disease, ALS/MND leaves many sufferers completely paralysed, incapable of feeding themselves and eventually unable to breath on their own. It is a truly devastating condition and whilst it affects relatively few people, only half of those diagnosed survive the first three years and only 10% the first ten. Dumping ice water on our heads is meant to remind us of the paralysing effects of the disease as the cold instigates a similar albeit much, much smaller and short-lived physiological response.

Anyone paying attention will have followed the challenge’s tidal sweep. Gaining momentum after personalities from US show, Morning Drive, took part live-on air, the campaign quickly earned massive celebrity shout-outs from Jimmy Fallon, Will Smith, Victoria Beckham and Benedict Cumberbatch (dowsed five times in his video).


After that it rolled over to everyone else, hopping the Atlantic with a conspiratorial wink, encouraging social media uses worldwide to take part, donate and nominate.  It’s definitely made more than a splash. It’s swept across the globe in a tsnami of chilly, damp munificence.

Since becoming a social media phenomenon around three weeks ago the ALS Association has raised nearly £50 million (circa USD$80 million), roughly 500% more than it raised in the same period last year. It’s become so popular Macmillan Cancer Care and other charities have attempted to appropriate the campaign for themselves, to varying degrees of success.  As Dan Diamond wrote in Forbes, ‘the #ALSIceBucketChallenge—is everywhere. It’s annoying. But it’s working.’

However, as Diamond notes, many are growing tired of seeing the same videos over and over, those taking part have been accused of flagrant self-promotion rather than charitableness (aka: Slacktivism), and recently there’s been a sense of internet one-upmanship that has not always ended well.  It’s no longer enough to simply toss water over your head and shudder at the cold, now it’s necessary to endure several bucket loads, maybe even a forklift full – or an aeroplane – in order to gain the respect of your online buddies. The challenge itself should not be dangerous, and the number of funny, incredibly honest ‘fail’ videos could probably generate an entire episode of You’ve Been Framed but some people really have taken it too far. Reckless behaviour has allegedly been linked to the hospitalisation of one man and the death of a teenager in Inverkeithin, Fife. Part of the issue seems to be the peer-pressurised element of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Once you have been nominated, not performing can lead to criticism and even online abuse from ‘friends’ and followers.

Moreover, one of the risks is that the longer the campaign thrives, the more likely it seems to generate negative attention. The Guardian commented on this by suggesting that the social media that birthed the craze could also kill it. After all, there’s #droughtshaming to remind you that in places like Henan, China and California ‘taps have dried up, lakes and reservoirs are emptying and water wastage is being fined’. Plus some celebrities are refusing the challenge on ethical grounds. Pamela Anderson’s decision to forego the challenge because of reported medical testing on animals has already generated a following. The question of how much money is actually spent on salaries and publicity instead of research has similarly become a point of contention. 


But as we’ve already noted, the death knell could sound in the form of accidents and fatal injuries. Becoming associated with deaths and foolhardy egoism was the beginning of the end for Neknominate, which required participants to down alcohol and led to five UK deaths. As more become disillusioned with the plethora of soggy friends posting their videos the more likely it is for the negative press to take over the positivity and humour that has largely dominated thus far. Yet even Neknominate led to a more positive counter-campaign: ‘Donate-Nominate’, which asked participants to leave the beer and donate blood instead. It seems people want to use social media for good causes, even when posturing attempts to subvert it. Perhaps this is what we are seeing when people react against the participants who fail to mention the charity or cause.

Viral chains and popular organisations are not new. Ever since the Civil Rights Movement contemporary media (in particular television and radio) has been used to emphasise mass protests and popular causes. In 1986, Hands Across America instigated a benefit event in which 6.5 million people held hands in a human chain across the continental US. And in 1989, 2million people created a ‘Chain of Freedom’ across 600km to draw attention to the popular vision of Baltic independence from the USSR.  With so many involved, these human chains symbolised unity within a nation, gained international attention and like the Ice Bucket Challenge, emphasised the power of mass communication when the message was both emotionally captivating and visually stunning. The ALS Challenge may not be ‘emotional’ or ‘stunning’ per se, but it does tap into the desire to be part of a larger cause and there has certainly been some heart-wrenching content mixed in with the humorous and downright hilarious.



What is poignant, is that it has appropriated Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to generate the perfect media storm. To make a disease and its charity personal as well as global. 

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has done everything right. Timed perfectly to coincide with summer sunshine, it took a niche plight, mixed in some celebrities (which led to more A-listers than probably ever anticipated), made it a personal challenge that everyone could interact and engage with and they kept it simple. They let it grow and take on a life of its own and here we are in the present, wondering where it might go next.

Whatever the verdict, be it a health risk or a meaningful act of charity, I will tipping a bucket over my head this evening.

Thank you for the nomination.



Je serai poète et toi poésie, 

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