Make Marketing History

The views of a marketing deviant.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Marketing's Next Trick.

David Blaine is a magician but he claims his performances as an endurance artist involve no trickery - this despite the fact that he inhaled pure oxygen for 23 minutes before claiming a world record by breathing underwater for over 17 minutes on the Oprah show. Are we impressed and, if so, for how long? Or does the niggling doubt of deception minimise what might or might not be a great achievement?

The whole thing reminded me of Iain Tait's Under The Influence musings about what sort of "magic" works best in the marketing arena. Does a Blaine extravaganza impress me more than his close-up street magic? Frankly, no. Both involve technique, craft and expertise but the more incredible your claim such as David Copperfield making the Empire State Building "disappear", the more you're asking people to suspend disbelief.

For sure, you can make an impact with big extravagant promises, but I'm with Iain in thinking that a succession of smaller, more intimate moments of delight will ultimately cast a deeper and more enduring spell.

1 Comments:

Blogger nikoherzeg said...

I do agree with this statement. with the net the way it is, the next big thing is a few clicks away. Where as a small intimate experience that breaks your daily routine a bit stays with you longer.

My first thoughts went to the ads that CPB did for Burgerking where they pulled the whopper from the menu. this made more impact then any large gesture could..

2:38 AM, May 02, 2008  

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