Why Would I Have What He's Having?

So, I've been noticing a plethora of ads (such as the one above) that feature "real" people. They're cheaper than discredited celebrity endorsements.

The trouble is people don't believe they're average and they certainly don't want to identify with the typical customer. They don't see one of us, they see someone they'd cross the street to avoid.

Far better to focus on your customers' aspirations than some aggregated categorisation that exists in the marketing department and probably nowhere else.

Social Objects Masterclass.

I was roused from my marketing world exile last night by a live performance of the acclaimed MacLeod-Earls double-act. They were discussing social objects in a convivial social setting (well as convivial as a media member's club can muster).

Having known them both for years, it's a subject we've discussed at length, but I never fail to come away with some new nuance. That didn't seem to be true for some of the audience who were still thinking in terms of deliverables despite having been explicitly told not to.

The deliverable may, in fact, be the ability to distinguish between a contrived social object and a genuine one. The former is that produced by those marketers who see this as the latest marketing bolt-on. The latter is that which is shared by those marketers who know that disruption isn't gentle and that it requires you to question all your previous assumptions.