Creeper marketing: Why today’s brands must be socially aware
In last week’s mail, I received a hotel key with a vanity URL penned on a cocktail napkin.
The hotel key gimmick is nothing new, but in the wake of the high-profile murder of Mollie Tibbets, the travesty of the Kavanaugh Supreme Court appointment, and the emotional beginning of breast cancer awareness month, the timing of such a suggestive, nondescript marketing ploy from a hotel that has never gotten my business was far from effective. It was downright creepy.
How to avoid creeper marketing offline
The resort that sent the creeper key clearly didn’t do their research before marketing to me. I’m an outspoken feminist and a proponent of tying user needs/actions to pathways that generate meaningful ROI for the user and the business.
I’m also not an avid vacationer. I take maybe one non-work trip every few years. I’m in an agency marketing company – I don’t sleep, let alone slow down enough to take a spur of the moment vacation.
I get that the creeper campaign was probably planned a few months ago – before Mollie was stolen by a violent man; before the controversial Kavanaugh hearing. And clearly, emotional health observance months such as October weren’t on the resort’s marketing radar.
But, even if they realized the poor timing, it’s unlikely that organizations with weak marketing strategy would pause the campaign: they’ve purchased an address list, gathered a ton of room keys, expensed a thousand cocktail napkins, and paid someone to handwrite notes with a Sharpie (let alone the probably expensive splash page I refused to visit).
A smart marketing team would have held the campaign for a more appropriate time. A digital approach makes it easier to replace and refocus.
Digital helps you creep without being creepy
On digital, you can personalize your campaigns and serve ads that attune with a target on a personal level. You can glean information users give you freely, but subconsciously. Then you can give the user what they want without asking, much like a friend who knows you – not a company that wants your money.
Amazon crushes this approach. “Other people who bought this item also bought” is similar to saying, “You could benefit from this product – it will help or delight you.”
Not creepy. Not provocative. Instead, this approach is helpful, relevant, and sensitive to a users’ preferences and known activities. Nothing that could be misconstrued as sexist, misogynistic, or devoid of social awareness.
I get that a little digital creeping can lead to more effective campaigns. But the goal of acquiring new users to become long-term, loyal customers can’t be just clicks to a URL or resort bookings. It has to start with showing that you care enough and know enough to know what makes your target audience tick, not sick.
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