Over the weekend I got out quite a bit to do some shopping. Well, more accurately, I was suffering through a few shopping trips so I could get a new grill while we were out...
Anywho. We ended up at several different places and a few things really stuck out.
1. Walmart has started using QR tags on a lot of their products, especially their flowers. I didn't stop to take the time to find out what the tags led to (my grill was right there!) but I can just imagine it popping up information like maps of growing areas, videos on proper planting techniques and great flower combinations.
2. Marsh has started using a new visually based system to help consumers identify the nutrition quality of the foods they're buying:
At the bottom of the sign there are also several icons to represent lo-carb, organic, etc. I'm never sure how accurately these things are (especially since there's a conflict of interest in selling their own products) but it's a pretty awesome step forward to meet the demands of the market. This is a great way to help people make informed, quicker decisions without needing to do a bunch of homework to figure out what will be best. It's not always as easy as choosing between frosted donuts and grape nuts.
3. The redbox machines have a QR code on them now to direct your phone to an app download. It's a great way for instant gratification and to increase downloads. If you like redbox (we netflix) it's a great app for finding redboxes around you and knowing what you want to rent before you get there.
I spent a good portion of the last few years studying two things: design and propaganda. During that time I learned a thing or two about influencing people and getting action from that influence, and the role that images play in that. Over the course of my lifetime, marketers have been pretty good at taking those principles of design and propaganda and employing them to move products off shelves. Over the last couple of years, however, a few problems have presented themselves:
1 | Marketers have quit being creative in favor of banking on the creativity of other people.
2 | Marketing students have learned business models, and have not focused on creativity.
3 | The market sees the greatest influence from creative, private citizens.
Those problems, of course, are a vicious cycle. Marketing students, focusing on business instead of creativity, need to find creative solutions to promoting their products. A lot of times they work with firms to control the image and visual promotion of a product. Lately, however, it seems that they forego finding creative, unique, solutions to their problem and instead opt for the "viral thing". Facebooking works, right? Well. It can. And viral marketing can be successful when done well and when unique to the product. Of course, the whole viral concept is best evidenced with the spread of random, quirky videos. Of course, not all videos are as... cruel... as that one. But the interesting point to make is that the video has been watched nearly ten million times. What about that low production video makes it worth viewing ten million times? It's not particularly well done, it's not useful. It is, however, interesting, and there's a demand for it. And that's where marketers, lacking creative training, turn so often to promote their products. It's worked before, right? So it must keep working, right? And that's where it falls apart. Creativity isn't recycled, it's reimagined. Recreated. Remade. It's not something you can copy, but something you can learn from and move in a new direction.
That said, I find myself continually impressed by the Obama campaign, and tonight's "infomercial" is perhaps the most compelling part of it. When was the last time that something like this came from a candidate? (other than Ross Perot... the answer is Kennedy) It's huge, and despite the criticisms Obama has faced for making this move, I find it a particularly meaningful and creative approach to solving a problem in his campaign. So far, there's been a clear difference in the visual vernacular of each campaign. One asks for patriotism (country first), and the other plays on the thing Americans seem to want most (hope and change). Artists have continually supported Obama and created compelling images which have become part of the campaign. The debates painted a calm, cool, collected image in contrast to McCain's aggressive, time-to-fight attitude. And tonight, it seems that the image has come full circle as Obama takes the time to address the nation as a whole, for a period of time, focusing on what he has to bring to the nation. It's moving, and it takes an otherwise divided nation and joins them through stories that all of us can relate to and offering solutions to the problems we face. It sends chills down my spine, and I applaud it as a great, creative marketing solution.