Can your marketing be too creative?
July 29th, 2007 posted by Chris HenneghanAdvertising and promotion have become pretty daunting for us marketers. Life used to be so simple – billboards, three TV channels, a handful of radio stations, a selection of magazines and the neighborhood newspaper. Now statistics show that the average American sees 3000 marketing messages per day – from TV, cable television, radio, email, hundreds of specialized journals, newspapers and online advertising. And the ads themselves are full of wow-factor special affects, fast-paced video, breathtaking photography, and high-definition sound. Do we B2B marketers now have to come up with messages with enough creativity and wow-factor to appeal to YouTube viewers? Do we even stand a chance of being noticed anymore? read the rest of this entry
The answer is “yes,” but our messaging must be clearer than ever before. And most importantly, we need to remember that the purpose of business marketing is to inform rather than entertain. Business buyers are looking for information to solve business problems. And they need this information presented in a straightforward way. Marketing videos are a terrific way to convey this information as they educate in an easy-to-digest, multimedia format. But videos should educate, not entertain, lest they loose credibility.
This does not mean that marketing videos have to be boring. Creative ideas and imagery gets attention and can make an impact, but there is a fine line between getting attention and laughs and distracting the viewer from your value proposition. This is a line that consumer advertising continually ignores, as is often evident from the water cooler talk that takes place the day after the superbowl. Would-be buyers all have a laugh about the clever commercials, but can they even remember what it was advertising? Worse yet, they often mistakenly guess a competing company!
Successful advertising and marketing appeals to human nature, which is at the core of business buyers too. The difference is that a business buyers can’t make a purchase solely based on image or because it “feels right.” Once hooked, a B2B video needs to deliver quickly and convincingly on real information that they are searching for to solve their problem. Your video might not be the next rage on YouTube, but it’s a success if it motivates your target prospects to call you or accept the next call from a member of your sales team.
Once in a while one really succeeds in a big way, like this “commercial” for German company, Upuron Energy. See below. It has gone viral, viewed already by over half a million people around the world. All it is missing is the call to action. After all, unless it helps your company move product, it’s a waste of money anyway.