Telling cheaper but deeper secrets
When I was 21 yro, I worked for an incredible real estate company known as Bayleys. Business was booming and marketing was easy, just "leave no stone unturned".
The times have changed but the foundation of marketing knowledge they taught me, I continue to I share with my clients today.
It was a booming time in real estate in Wanaka in 2004, and money to market million dollar listings was not an issue. Print, TV, radio, virtual fly-though videos, glossy information brochures, and I had no issue in designing and executing the marketing campaigns with those budgets!
It didn't matter that there was only a handful of media moguls that owned the newspapers or that the virtual fly-through company was brought in from Singapore, we had no other option.
Then the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) happened and money to dust lightly over unmeasurable marketing became rarer than a pair of hen's back molars!
Ever since the turn of the century new marketing technology has slowly slipped the keys out of the back pocket off the gate-keepers.
When there's not as much money around as a marketing manager you naturally are looking for cheaper solutions that return a better result .
There is always a fear when a new type of marketing initiative rides on into town, such a using social media for business or having a regular email newsletter for your network of clients.
But this brought a whole new level of 'honey' - measure-ability and control.
These new technologies started the renovation on the old traditional media of print & TV stripping it of its choke-hold on the marketing dollar.
Over the past decade, I have watched in particular the rise in popularity of 'video' as it has plummeted in price and made more available to small-to-medium business.
This has been from a combination of equipment costs falling, the large production houses not getting the same 'catering truck' TV commercial budgets and every hairy arse school boy, instead of milking cows in the holidays, is making videos with his drone.
In my honest opinion what has come out of that era is meaningless brand videos with cinematic sound library music - it maybe cheap, but it ain't deep.
What? But it tells my story!
It tells a story of how you want people to perceive you with filters and a tonne of make-up!
A 'brand' video is now getting the flick by the millennial's thumb on the social feed as they are cutting through the perfectly polished bull-shit which we now know as glossy highlights and we want the real, raw, un-cut version.
How many times would someone go on holiday to a beautiful destination, yet we still want our friends honest experience and tips on what 'not to do'?
We don't want the 'destination' we want the 'discovery'. Take us on your ever-changing authentic journey and let us learn through you.
I am excited about the swing in popularity now to podcasts as an excellent source of communicating deeper information with your audience about topics in a format that is easy to consume.
It's the rise of the 'thought leader'; as I like to call it the 'Truthfluencer'. Having a new found influence from the courage of telling the truth.
Many brands are racing to the podcast buzz and not thinking this through!
1. How do I use our brands voice to position ourselves as the expert in this field?
2. What styles of production can I use to highlight the different types of content?
3. Who is my audience and what do I need to do to serve them
The honey of the next phase of marketing is not how far you've come, but how you get there - "leave no stone unturned".
Sarah Perriam is the Creative Director at Perriam Media, following over a decade working across the media specialising in agriculture issues.