Life’s For Sharing: Spread The Word
In January of this year, the travelers at Liverpool Street Station in London got surprised when instead of hopping on the trains, most commuters started dancing. We know now that this sudden revival of joined dancing was an advertising stunt by T-Mobile for their ‘Life’s for sharing’ campaign.
‘Life’s for sharing’: another example of the changing advertising landscape
And it got shared: the video spread online through e-mail, blogs and social networks and generated over 21 million views on YouTube alone. Within only a few weeks time the stunt got imitated several times, including one that shut down that same Liverpool Street Station.
The success of the ‘Life’s for sharing’ stunt at Liverpool station is another example of the changing advertising landscape.
Television commercials and print ads were the marketer’s anchor for decades, but traditional mass marketing has been in decline for some time now. Consumers are no longer impressed by the hundreds or even thousands of advertising expression they deal with every day. And just screaming louder has proved not to be the answer either. People listen to and trust their peers, rather than the marketer trying to sell them stuff.
With the credit crunch, advertising budgets have been cut and marketers and advertisers are looking for new ways to reach their audience and spread their message. The internet provides marketers with these new approaches and growing portions of media budgets have shifted online over the past year. Now, the continuous popularity of social media can help in spreading the word. Unilever Chief Marketing Officer Simon Clift said: “The overriding message of the Internet is that you can do more with less”.
Social Networks allow consumers to find peers online and share their experiences, findings and opinions with others. In doing so, consumers can help marketers spread their message: a blogger writing a review on the latest mobile phone, placing a commercial video on YouTube or starting a Facebook group dedicated to a brand or product. What marketers must do is facilitate the message, like T-mobile did with the ‘Life is for sharing’ stunt and people will help spread the message.
Source: NYTimes.com
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