First Things First
I, like many marketers love the Marketoonist. These cartoons are relatable and usually hit the nail on the head in a painfully funny way.
I bring this up as I was browsing LinkedIn and I saw this image and my initial chuckle quickly turned into a long sigh.
A sigh because of how real it is, and how as marketers we have lost our way. We look to improve every metric other than what matters most. We jump on bandwagons at a ridiculous pace. Shiny ball syndrome so bad it rivals the squirrel from the Ice Age movies.
It is embarrassing and is one of the many things wrong with the industry. Whether that is agencies selling something intangible to a client, or a brand focusing on an initiative that is simply a waste of time and energy.
We need to get back to focusing on what truly moves the needle and has an impact. Giving the customer what they want and improving that on a continuous basis. It is the only thing that matters. Instead we are too worried that we are being left behind for dead if we do not adopt or post about how we’ve adopted a new trend.
But let’s be honest. Are we helping customers and driving sales? Or are we just performing for other marketers on LinkedIn, collecting congratulations like Pokemon cards?
We’ve built an echo chamber where peer approval matters more than the bottom line.
The Trend Marketing Era
One thing that is amplifying this is the trend era of marketing that we are currently in. We’ve adopted and adapted social media trends to the world of marketing strategy and implementation. Core strategies that would once be created based on deep research and rigorous A/B testing have now been replaced by flavour-of-the-month marketing.
Let me show you what I mean:
Metaverse / NFTs
I am a big believer in the future of digital assets, but the “gold rush” that took place between 2020-2022 was pure hysteria. Brands and the entire marketing industry took something that was growing organically and pumped it full of steroids until it exploded.
You had Nike launching digital shoes that were going for $4,000 to $9000 on the secondary market. You had digital collectible platforms such as VeVe partnering with major IP holders like Marvel, Disney, DC Comics and Universal generating millions of dollars per drop. I even had a client in the lingerie industry ask us to create an NFT project for them. I mean…..a lingerie NFT. Let that sink in.
So let me ask my fellow marketers:
- When was the last time you thought about the metaverse or NFTs?
- When was the last time you created a deck on it for a pitch or for a meeting?
- When were the decks on those topics last opened?
Go ahead and look at your company’s SharePoint.
An example of brands taking something organic, that was on its way to mass adoption, twisting it and turning it into a flash in the pan.
Influencer Marketing
I call Influencer marketing, affiliates 2.0. Or more aptly put, affiliates who learned how to work a ring light.
When content consumption habits shifted from websites to video and social, it made sense. Consumers were jaded by traditional advertising. They craved authenticity. Early influencers provided that as it was real people giving honest reviews. The influencer at that point in time was like a breath of fresh air. Someone the end user could identify with. Someone they felt would tell the truth, and review the product properly.
Then marketing dollars flooded in and “influencer” became a career aspiration. The result? Influencers promoting anything for a paycheck (and fair play). The thing is that audiences noticed and as a result, trust is evaporating and ROAS is dropping.
Now we are back to where we started. Jaded consumers and diminishing returns. Except now everyone wants to be an influencer. If we are all influencers, who’s left to influence?
Generative AI
Now we are in the AI era – the current flavour of the month, where suddenly every brand “needs” an AI strategy. Not because it solves a customer problem, but because everyone else is doing it and it looks good in a deck. LinkedIn is filled with AI-powered everything. Tools are being built that add friction, not value.
You’d think the conversation would be: how can we improve our processes with AI to enable us to better serve customers. As it is the current flavour of the month, it remains to be seen, but so far this gold rush has brought about chatbots, tools that no one asked for, and waves of redundancies.
It’s still early days, so we will see how it plays out, but if the other trends are to be used as evidence, then it doesn’t bode well.
I know I sound angry and jaded. Maybe I am. AI has legitimate applications, but watching brands force AI into every touchpoint reminds me of 2010 when everyone needed an app, whether it made sense or not. We’re solving for FOMO, not customer needs.
Back to Basics
The reality is that the best marketing isn’t marketing at all. It’s building something people actually want and making it easy to buy.
So here’s my challenge: Before jumping on the next trend, as marketers we need to ask ourselves:
- Does this make my customer’s life easier?
- Will this directly impact sales or retention?
- Am I doing this for customers or for other marketers?
If the answer isn’t yes to the first two and no to the third, its a problem.
The next time you see a trending marketing tactic, resist the urge to immediately adopt it. Instead, talk to your customers. Look at your data. Focus on what actually works.
Because at the end of the day, the marketers who win aren’t the ones with the most LinkedIn likes or the ones that win these marketing “awards”. They’re the ones with customers who keep coming back.
Let’s stop performing for each other and start delivering for the people who actually matter. The ones paying our bills.
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