Not everything that shines is gold

In the current marketing world, where lots of technologies and platforms emerge every day, it is very tempting for marketers to jump on random choices just because it sounds interesting or because it is trending. Not everything that goes out there will work and not everything is right for all brands.

The fact that it may be working for somebody else, doesn't mean it will work with you. This is no different than any other type of marketing channel. In the past, brands tried to replicate the same media strategies (outdoors, print, etc) that their competitors where using, and in many cases that didn't work.


Same thing happens in the digital and social world, the difference is that there are more and more options coming up everyday, and a lot of them sound quite exciting at first. But the risk is higher because in the multichannel world, audiences are more spread than ever before.
Media is just a way of getting to them and getting reach for your message and content, but with the wrong strategy, user journey and assets, you can use any type of recipe and that will not work.

As I mentioned in my previous post "Where are my audiences?" you have to start from understanding the audience and what it does, want, look for, etc. It is only then that you can get the right content in the right place, and therefore maximize the impact. Furthermore, as I mentioned in another previous post, sometimes less is more. Shiny design, gadgets and stunts may work once creating some awareness, but in the long run, simplicity is better. Great examples that I mentioned was Google's basic and plain user experience. There is nothing sexy about it. Bing tried very hard to change that and create a very visually interesting experience, but the only result has been Google maintaining their search share position and increasing throughout the world.

So it's definitely worth thinking through next time you see something flashy and shiny that sounds great. Going back to the basics of audience understanding will help guide your thinking and decide if it's worth the risk.

Finally, I would like to ask for more examples of shiny and flashy that doesn't work as I think this will make it more interesting for future readers. I can say that there are two that come to mind: Groupon and Foursquare. Great ideas and exciting what they set up to do, but shortly, everyone else was doing the same and for those brands who invested heavily in them as a new platform, they would have been better off waiting and analyzing their choices.