At the risk of sounding too much like Mark Ritson, I fear we’re approaching peak bullshit.
Marketing and branding has long been a world all too easy to lampoon. Awash with pretentious sounding jargon, wheel reinvention and (to paraphrase Ryan Gosling in The Big Short, albeit in reference to bankers) “…people who use confusing terms, to make you think only they can do what they do.” (sorry your honour… guilty as charged)
Hardly a cutting edge observation. But it feels we’re stepping it up a notch, at risk of being swallowed up by our own self indulgence. Tech has been the primary instigator: AR. Blockchain. NFT’s. The goddamned Metaverse.
But it cuts deeper. Our distraction with these shiny new things has become attitudinal — spurred on by talking head influencers of Gary Vee’s ilk. Flooding social media with supposed hot takes such as “What can brands learn from <insert latest cultural fad here>?”
The real answer to that particular, proverbial question often leads us back to our real purpose. One that has remained central to our noble practice since time immemorial. Getting noticed, making an impression and achieving fame for our brands.
The tactic has more commonly become the focal point. Once the trusted navigator to strategy’s rally driver; helping to steer a business through the winding, muddy roads of market volatility. Now tactical thinking is sliding into the driver’s seat to veer it off a cliff edge of our own making.
So many marketers seem worried, with the fabled pace at which tech mutates and trends gather pace on social media, that if they don’t jump on the bandwagon at the beginnings of the early adopter phase (of the red adoption curve below), they’ll already be playing catch-up to competitors, and held over the coals for their shortsightedness. FOMO has well and truly gripped the marketing community.
While I would never argue against general awareness or horizon scanning (it’s a healthy practice to know what’s coming and assess the opportunities), surely it should accompany a healthy dose of cynicism. Wired’s write-up on the metaverse, for instance, is an acutely observant take on the voices behind ‘the conversation’ which cuts to the often absent caution — big tech’s motivations for hyping this great virtual utopia are, at best, born of self interest.
It is more often a simple idea that captures the populous imagination, rather than a revolutionary one. Creating cultural moments that most marketers could only ever dream of, but should never the less aspire to. From the ice bucket challenge, through Squid Game, to more recently, Wordle. Executions vary, but each started with a simple ‘what if…’ and creativity did the rest.
Far be it from me to profess to having a magic formula. But maybe rather than examine how we shoehorn ourselves into what might be the next big thing, we instead focus on cultivating a small thing we find curious. You never know what it might grow into.
