Last week, I analyzed a fantastic promotional video from Apple through the lens of Audacious, a book that describes a framework for disruptive and bold marketing. After reading that post, fellow marketer Mandy Edwards sent me another new video — this one from KFC UK — and asked, “What do you think of this one?”

Today, I present a story of audacity that went horribly, horribly wrong! Let’s see what happened when a company tried to create a chicken-based cult …

Why we need to disrupt our marketing

Before I get to this ad fail, let’s back up one step and discern why companies need to focus on bold marketing today. Some of the main points in the book:

• About two-thirds of ads register no emotional reaction with their audience. If there were a CMO for the ad industry, the person would be fired. We wallow in a marketing pandemic of dull.
• Dull has been normalized in most industries. So if you break a norm, you just might find marketing gold.
• Consumers respond to storytelling that is refreshing and new. Young consumers today love quirky content and offbeat humor.
• Finally, if all you need is marketing “meh,” AI can accomplish that. If you’re only competent, you’re vulnerable to job replacement. Competent is ignorable.

The Audacious book presents a framework anyone can use to do this: disrupt the narrative, the medium, and the storyteller.

Now, let’s get to the heart of our story. KFC created a video that certainly broke industry norms. In this ad, UK agency Mother London urges customers in a busy world to believe in chicken as if it were a new gravy-based religion.

Take a look:

You’ll note that this is “Part 2.” Part 1 involved zombie dancers, who received more favorable reviews.

Audacity and gravy

How did KFC shake things up? Three ways:

1. Obviously, this ad broke industry norms. Perhaps there has never been a promotional video like this in the history of fast food … at least not one featuring a lake of gravy!
2. The company was appealing to GenZ’s penchant for quirky humor.
3. There is a subtle connection to “purpose” here. If you feel lost, you can still believe in chicken. Everything in the world is changing, but KFC has always been there for us.

There are precedents for this offbeat, bold marketing approach that have been wildly successful.

• Liquid Death disrupted a boring water market with cringe-worthy ads
• Nutter Butter tripled its cookie sales with fever dream TikTok videos
• Duolingo stood out in an established, dull market of language education with an unfiltered owl.

So if KFC was following the Audacious playbook like these brands, why would it receive YouTube comments like:

• “I cannot possibly imagine how any person thought this was a good idea.”
• “I’ll never eat at KFC ever again, nor will anyone in my household.”
• “They should fire their entire marketing team.”

This video is an unmitigated disaster. They took a big swing and struck out. Here are three reasons why.

1. Too much to lose

There is a common thread among the three successful case studies I mentioned: They had nothing to lose.

• Liquid Death was a disruptive startup going up against Coke and Pepsi.
• Likewise, Duolingo was a new way to learn that had to attack the industry establishment.
• Nutter Butter is an older brand but had no real meaning to consumers. It had been forgotten, so it had nothing to lose by re-introducing itself to Gen Z.

Should an established brand like Coke advertise like Liquid Death? No. Coke has built a century of goodwill in the consumer’s mind.

Would Oreo ever take a page from the bizarre Nutter Butter playbook? No. Oreo is the number one brand in its category.

KFC is the biggest chicken franchise on earth, by far. It has built decades of memories and thrown them away into a lake full of gravy. Instead of building on its heritage creatively and renewing its deep meaning with a new generation, it’s taking a step backward.

“We are being polarizing because we want conversation,” said Martin Rose, executive creative director of Mother London told Ad Age. “Essentially, we’re creating our own cult of fandom.”

But this seems to me like a desperate attempt to be the new cool kid. And besides …

2. Some taboos can’t be broken

My book is a rallying cry for those who will not be ignored. It urges people to break bad rules for good reasons. But I also caution that being audacious does NOT mean you’re doing something illegal, reckless, or offensive.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the U.K.’s independent advertising regulator, received nearly 600 complaints about KFC’s commercial, a spokesperson told ADWEEK.

The complaints include people saying the ad promotes cannibalism, that it glorifies cults and satanism, and that it mocks Christianity and baptism.

Now, a lot of famous ads receive complaints from the easily-offended. Is this really knocking religion or is it just silly?

Language in the company’s description of the ad reinforces the offense:

“Fear not, for salvation in sauce is near. Trust in the thumping sound of the golden egg. Trust in the liquid gold elixir. Trust in the divine dunk. And whisper the sacred words All Hail Gravy.”

The phrase repeated in the Bible most often is “Fear not.” So of course any Christian would be offended when a company compares their salvation to gravy.

And then there is the gravy dunk, where a person turns into fried chicken. No, no, no. Also, no.

3. It’s just gross

The ad didn’t just offend people who don’t prefer cannabilism; it upset just about everyone in the ad industry.

One commentator on Marketing Beat called the ad “disgraceful,” describing it as “degrading and disturbing.” Others labeled it “vile,” “uncomfortable,” and “horrendous.”

One marketing industry observer noted: “I’ve never complained about an advert before, but this is beyond the pale.”

Getting out of the gravy

I don’t want you to be dissuaded from bold marketing and taking risks because of one bad ad. But we should reflect on how something like this ever sees the light of day. When an ad becomes a public disaster, one of four things has happened:

1. Internal political fear.

This is the biggest problem I observe, by far. When a powerful company executive falls in love with an idea and forcefully champions it, agencies, hungry for that next paycheck, nod along like bobbleheads. Corporate minions, fearing for their cubicles, become a chorus of yes-people.

2. Lack of diversity in the creative process.

If the team behind an ad campaign lacks diverse perspectives and backgrounds, they may miss potential blind spots or fail to anticipate how certain groups could perceive the ad negatively. Having a homogenous team increases the risk of tone-deaf messaging.

3. Overconfidence and lack of external review.

Respected brands can sometimes become overconfident in their marketing abilities and fail to get sufficient external feedback before launching a campaign. Big brands often mistake their logo for a shield of invincibility. This insular approach prevents them from catching potentially offensive or controversial elements.

4. Failure to consider the current cultural context.

Ads that may have been acceptable in the past can become problematic if they fail to account for evolving cultural sensitivities and the social climate around issues like race, gender, body image, etc.

In other words, when executives put egos above common sense, gravy happens.

Being remarkable matters. Bold marketing matters.

But not all risks are created equal.

Keep pushing edges, but remember what you stand for.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The Thin Line Between Bold Marketing and Brand Suicide appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

“The most human company wins.”

If I ever had something close to a “catch phrase,” it’s probably this. I use these words to end most of my speeches. It is the central theme of my Marketing Rebellion book. Of the millions of words I have written, this is the only phrase I have trademarked.

But I had to pause this week and wonder if it’s still true. The data is in, and it’s startling. AI isn’t just matching human empathy—it’s now exceeding it. What happens when the AI bots are more human than humans?

The empathetic bots

If you’ve immersed yourself in the world of AI (and I hope you have), you’ve witnessed the inexorable and explosive improvement of these systems on every level.

Recent breakthroughs show that AI can now reason through problems instead of just collating web data, demonstrating human-like logic. And now, AI can express empathy and understanding in a way that is more human than humans.

New research (first reported by Mike Kaput of the Artificial Intelligence Show) suggests that AI may not just match human empathy but, in some cases, exceed it. A team of researchers tested whether people could tell the difference between responses from GPT 4 versus licensed therapists when presented with therapy challenges. The participants struggled to tell AI from human responses, and when they were asked to rate them, they preferred the AI responses in key areas like empathy, therapeutic alliance, and cultural competence.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the AI therapist was more effective in producing results in a patient. In fact, there is evidence of harm coming from bot-therapists. However, the breakthrough idea is that AI can produce empathetic responses that are preferred over highly skilled professionals, and there are some interesting implications for that.

Is it real human emotion? No. But it doesn’t seem to matter.

The leap to the business world

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how scaling soft skills like this could provide immediate value in the corporate world.

Allstate, one of the largest insurers in the U. S., is using AI to generate nearly all its emails for communications about claims. The reason — responses from bots are less accusatory, use clearer language, and express more empathy than humans, according to the company.

Allstate is using ChatGPT to fuel the customer replies, while grounding them in company-specific terminology.

Implications for our human work

Some people have soothed themselves by hoping that we could never take real human empathy out of our jobs. But these developments show that extracting humans from a process can produce results that are more empathetic,  patient, kind … and profitable.

AI might represent perfect empathy. It never tires. It never judges. It maintains unwavering patience and understanding, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It can instantaneously access and process vast databases of human psychology, cultural contexts, and communication strategies. It can read micro-expressions better than humans, understand vocal tone with greater accuracy, and predict emotional responses with superior precision.

If a customer receives better care, feels more understood, and achieves better outcomes with AI, what possible value is there in knowing their customer service rep or account manager is a human who has “real” feelings?

The harsh truth is that in many cases, human empathy will become a liability. Organizations that cling to human-delivered empathy will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage, unable to match the consistent, scalable, and superior emotional intelligence offered by AI.

Right?

Does human empathy matter?

About 20 years ago, I went through the darkest time of my life, an episode I describe in Chapter 1 of my book KNOWN. I would not wish that experience on anyone, but I emerged with a new superpower.

When I meet somebody who is “below zero” in their life, I can look them in the eye and express empathy based on my own experience. It’s not perfect. I’m not a trained psychotherapist. But sometimes, the perfect empathy isn’t based on a database or interpreting micro-expressions. It’s messy. It comes from a hard, lived experience. It comes from scars.

When you’re just trying to get through life hour to hour, you need something more than a bot.

It’s a paradox. While AI can demonstrate behaviors that appear more consistently empathetic than humans, this very fact illuminates something profound about human nature and our future role in an AI-dominant world.

The human advantage isn’t in flawlessly executing empathetic responses — it’s in our capacity for genuine connection, especially when we’re imperfect. We can relate to others precisely because we share the messy reality of being human: we know what it means to struggle, to doubt, to sit in a dark corner and sob. Our empathy comes from going through an existential war, not AI pattern recognition.

What emerges isn’t a story of replacement for human empathy, but of evolution.

The most human company

Yes, the most human company still wins. But the most human company will be the one that thoughtfully blends AI’s reliable, empathetic responses with unique moments when we need our messy, vulnerable, beautiful, authentically human selves.

Those companies will recognize that while AI can handle the day-to-day empathetic heavy lifting, breakthrough human connections — those moments of real understanding, creativity, and growth — still require human hearts and minds.

One time, I had a coaching call with a young man who had a resume-writing service. This is a pretty boring product that has been commoditized. I struggled to help him find a meaningful niche where he could stand out.

“Why do you do this job?” I asked.

He became emotional and animated. “I see people every day who have not looked for a job in 20 or 30 years,” he said. “They are terrified. I know I can help them. I will hold their hand through this process. I will not let them down.”

I told him to record a video of himself saying exactly that and post it on the front of his website immediately. His humanity was his niche.

Sometimes, true human empathy is everything.

The most human company wins. Now and forever.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post When Robots Care More: The Evolution of Human Empathy appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

It was March 15, 2023, and I snapped a photo that changed my life. And I’ll explain how it can change your life, too.

On that date, I was attending the annual SXSW festival in Austin, TX, and enjoying a wonderful late-night meal with my friends Joseph Jaffe and Eric Qualman. Suddenly, people stood up and quietly walked out of the upscale restaurant. It was surreal, like being in a Stephen King movie!

My back was to the door. Where were these people going?

Nowhere. They stood on the sidewalk, pointing their smartphones to the big Texas sky. My friends and I had to see what was going on. So we left our hot food and walked outside.

It wasn’t an alien invasion, but it was close. A dazzling drone show lit up the heavens, telling the story of a new sci-fi television program coming to the Paramount Network. Hundreds of drones were programmed along custom flight paths to depict scenes from the show.

To top it off, the display ended with a sky-high QR code that sent viewers to a website with the show’s trailer.

While drone shows have become a staple of city celebrations and sporting events, this was novel—the first time we had seen such a display.

We all took a photo of the drone-ad to share with our social media audiences:

In that moment, the line between marketing and magic blurred. We weren’t just watching an ad; we were living inside one.

The mesmerizing advertisement became the epicenter of buzz at SXSW, and with more than 300,000 influential people in attendance, that’s a perfect place to make a rumble.

Now, we get to the interesting part. How did this photo change my life, and possibly yours?

The revelation

I’ve spent nearly two decades researching and writing about one crucial problem—how can our marketing messaging become the signal above the noise in a world of oversaturated content?

I witnessed one of the most astonishing examples of a brand becoming “the signal.” Every person in this restaurant abandoned their hot food and cold cocktails to stand on a street in Texas to see an ad—not just see it, but record it and share it with social media audiences worldwide. It wasn’t just a signal above the noise—it was a supernova.

Remarkable.

Unprecedented.

Perfect.

For weeks, I couldn’t get this drone show out of my head. I played this mind-game: If somebody gave me the challenge to create an ad so disruptive that people would leave their hot meals to see it, could I do it? No.

What was the lesson for businesses desperately wanting to be “the signal” to their customers? Was there a scalable process behind this brilliant idea that could guide breakthrough marketing strategies? Was this a clue to the future of creativity and our place in a world dominated by artificial intelligence? I became obsessed with this story in the sky.

One word kept pounding in my brain: Audacious.

Audacious! Is that what it takes to stand out in the world today?

Audacity as a strategy

AI is here. Nipping at the heels of our skillsets and jobs.

Being merely competent won’t cut it. Competence doesn’t create conversations. Competence is ignorable. But audacity? That’s the currency of attention in our overstimulated world.

What if the key to becoming “the signal” isn’t shouting louder, bending AI prompts, or spending more, but the simple human bravery it takes to be … a little nuts?

I discovered that Giant Spoon had created this viral sensation, an agency behind many of my favorite marketing success stories over the years.

I called Marc Simons, one of the agency co-founders, and asked him if he and his team would reveal all their creative secrets to me for a new book. “Absolutely,” he said. The opportunity was irresistible, a siren call to a marketing geek like me. I jumped on a plane to visit him in New York City, the beginning of a journey that included meetings with some of the greatest creative geniuses from around the world — and they all gave me their secrets!

They helped me answer this question: In a world where AI is overwhelming our content world, how do we fight back? How do we unleash the uniquely human fireworks of marketing creativity?

And today, my friends, please welcome one answer to this question:

The reveal

After more than two years of research and writing, I’d like you to meet my new book, Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World.

So, you see how the story in the Austin sky truly changed the course of my life. But how does it change yours?

Whether you’re a marketer, entrepreneur, or business owner, you’re longing to be seen, to be heard, to be discovered, and that is more difficult than ever. How do you establish brand awareness in a world where content from bots already dominates more than half the internet?

Here’s a little movie preview of what’s in store for you with this book:

Filled with inspiring stories, hundreds of practical ideas (for businesses with any budget!), and all-new case studies, Audacious describes the essential human elements needed to:

• Disrupt the story narrative
• Disrupt where the story is told
• Disrupt show tells the story

Early readers of the book have been delighted, calling it “a masterpiece,” and “an essential path forward.” This will fill your head with ideas and your heart with hope. And, it’s a lot of fun!

You might have noticed that the book cover is a one-of-a-kind AR experience — the first book of its kind in the world! The cover will display abstract art based on the stories in the book!

Inside the book there is a puzzle, videos, and secret surprises. After all, a book named Audacious better be audacious, right?

Why did I spend all this time writing and publishing this book? I’m desperate to get my ideas out to you. I’m a teacher. I know that people need help navigating this overwhelming marketing world, and I have ideas that will help. I’ve spent thousands of hours bringing this to you and I know you will love it. This is my best work.

And this cool little book does not cost much money. Please order your copy today, and let me know how you like it!

CLICK HERE TO FIND AUDACIOUS ON SALE!

PS I also have an all-new speech to go with my book. This new talk was recently the highest-rated speech at a national marketing event, and I would love to bring it to your company or association. Drop me a line! 

Need a keynote speaker about brand communities? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The photo that changed my life (and maybe yours) appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Last week, a friend asked me to review a new research report he compiled as a lead magnet for his business. But I knew his strategy was flawed before I even saw the report. I had to provide an email address to access the research. I didn’t want to become part of his email “lead nurturing” program, so I never downloaded the report. “Gated content” killed his content marketing strategy.

I know that sounds counter-intuitive. Most marketers point to the high cost of making exceptional content … Asking for an email address seems like a small price to pay for this value. But by making it difficult for people to access your content, you’re leaving the true value of your marketing on the table. I’ll explain why.

The current state of gated content

Here are some points to provide a perspective of our marketing world today.

• People hate gated content. Even marketers who gate their content know this. Research shows more than 90 percent of the people interested in the content abandon the sign-up process because they don’t trust what happens next to the email address.
• Many marketers justify gated content as a fair value exchange but research shows this is not true. Consumers state they are “resigned” to annoying marketing practices and more than half immediately unsubscribe to a site even after they opt-in.
• Acquiring email addresses in exchange for gated content may not be compliant with privacy laws in Europe and many U.S. states.
• We are clearly in an era of Content Shock where the competition for content views is vicious. One of the visible manifestations of this trend is BuzzSumo research showing how social shares on a topic decline precipitously as a subject becomes saturated. In other words, unless you are among the first to create content on a topic, getting your content to be seen and shared is extremely difficult.

A new content marketing philosophy

In my book The Content Code, I provide an updated view of content marketing strategy.

The philosophy behind the book revolves around the practical idea that the economic value of content that is not seen and shared is zero. Therefore, we must develop competency in not just producing content but igniting it so that it is seen and shared by the most people possible. The most economic value of content marketing doesn’t come from the content, it come from the transmission of the content.

Creating great content is no longer the finish line; it is the starting line. The book outlines six possible strategies to remove barriers and give your content the best possible chance to flow and reach the most people possible.

Requiring people to provide an email address to access your content is about the worst thing you can do in this new view of “content success.” In essence, gated content places a stop sign in front of your content flow. It is an anachronistic way of thinking.

The value exchange

The decision to provide a barrier before your content must boil down to this: Are you going to receive more value from a trickle of people providing their email address, or the flood of people seeing and sharing the content freely? Let’s look at a case study to figure this out.

My friend James Carbary provided this example of how the gated content value exchange played out for his own business. He wrote:

“It took five months for us to get 295 people to sign up for the gated opt-in offer on our website. This progress seemed incredibly slow, so I tried something different.

“A couple weeks ago, I published a status update on LinkedIn explaining that I’d developed a list of 67 content topics that work well on that site. If people wanted the ideas, I asked them to leave a comment that said ‘I want it.’ Then I explained that I would turn the ideas into a free PDF if 100 people left a comment.

“In three hours I had over 150 comments. That post has now been viewed more 160,000 times, and 692 people left a comment saying they wanted the content ideas. We turned the ideas into a PDF, and replied to every comment with the link.

“In five days, my content spread to 692 people, compared to to 295 people in five months. We collected ZERO email addresses through the LinkedIn content but I’m beginning to see why un-gated content might be a smarter strategy.”

The case for amplification

James told me that the most tangible benefit of the ungated strategy was a connection with a high-potential customer and a podcast interview with this powerful new connection.

Some implied benefits in this un-gated content example would probably be easy to track down:

• Of the 692 people who asked for the content, how many were entirely new LinkedIn connections for James? He didn’t get an email address, but he did get a signal of interest and arguably these new LinkedIn connections might be more valuable in the long-term than an email address.
• How many of the 692 people responded to a call to action at the end of the report and visited a website, or organically subscribed to receive more content?
• How many shared the free content with more people inside and outside the company? How much additional flow did this receive because it was free?

Even if the percentage of people sharing content is the same whether it is gated or ungated, you will reach many more people with a base of fans numbering 692 versus 295. And that is happening in a matter of days versus months!

Finally, I shared James’s story, and linked to his website. I can’t recall ever linking to gated content that would require my readers to sign-in to something. So the benefit created by this post would have never happened if he hadn’t given his content away for free.

If you subscribe to my philosophy that the company that moves the most content will win, there is no question that un-gated content provides more potential value.

Branding and trust

I was discussing this issue with a colleague and she said “gated content annoys me. Why would a brand want to be annoying? The company is making me distrust them because I have no idea what will happen to that email address.”

A few years ago, I gave up my email address and (shudder) phone number to access a report from a company I loved and trusted. The next day, I was interrupted at a birthday party from a sales rep calling me from this company. My email was placed on lists for newsletters, webinars, and holiday sales.

Even after I “opted out,” of communications, I was still receiving phone calls and spam from this company.

By abusing me in this way, the company ruined its brand. It went from a company I loved to a brand I would never work with again.

A simple thought exercise: If you’re in a hotly-competitive field (like SEO or digital marketing) and one company has gated content and the other gives their best content away for free, which one will have a more positive brand view?

The research supports un-gated content

Roger Dooley is an expert in the field of neuroscience and marketing. In a post, he points out that from a psychological perspective, un-gated content is the undisputed content champ. Roger writes:

Requiring a user to give up his info before viewing good content is a reward strategy – give us your info, and we’ll reward you by letting you see our wonderful content. This is an appealing strategy at first glance – 100% of the people who use the content will have completed the form, and the information should be a powerful motivator for visitors to proceed.

In fact, most users confronted with a form won’t complete it. If they arrived at the site looking for some specific information, they will likely hit the back button and see if they can access it without the aggravation of form completion and without the risk of getting spammed later.

It turns out that a reciprocity strategy works better – give them the info they want, and then ask for their information. The research shows that twice as many visitors gave up their information if they were able to access the information first. It’s counterintuitive, perhaps, but even though these visitors were under no obligation to complete the form, they converted at double the rate of visitors seeing the “mandatory” form.

The neuromarketing takeaway here is that if you invoke reciprocity, you’ll be working with the way our brains are wired and will be more likely to get your visitors to do what you want them to. (And, as an added bonus, your SEO person will be happy that along with your visitors, Google will be able to see your content, too!)

Gated content and measurement

A compelling argument for gated content is measurement. Providing a tangible demonstration of the value of content marketing is difficult. It’s intoxicating to tell a client or your boss that an eBook (or whatever) resulted in a countable number of sign-ups that might be stretched into a claim of “leads.”

Measuring content marketing can be exceedingly hard. Most can’t do an adequate job. I acknowledge that gating your content may be the politically correct thing to do even if the strategy is flawed based on today’s market realities.

However, I think “social shares” is a more powerful measurement than “number of email addresses.” An email address may translate into … nothing. But a social share represents organic advocacy — better than any ad you could pay for.

An unpopular view

I’ve had many negative reactions to the idea of un-gating content. Here is one of them:

I think if you understand Funnels and the importance email still plays in the sales process then you wouldn’t have written this article. It’s not just about sharing good content — it’s also about turning your audience into customers. How do you do that when you never ask for an email address to move the relationship forward?  It’s all about moving folks through your customer journey. 

I would politely suggest this is an anachronistic view of a world that works in “funnels.” It’s not “your customer journey.” It’s THEIRS.

Most marketing today is not your marketing — it’s the sharing of information that’s going on without you. And if you have a gate, that clogs up the information you want to be shared. Let’s do the math and generously assume that 10% of the people who see your post will call for an appointment. We know that 90% of the people who come across your gate will go away. So for every 100 potential customers, you earn just 10 content views, and one call.

If I un-gate the content, I get 100 views and 10 calls. I am 10x more productive. Also, I have 100 people potentially SHARING my article instead of 10 for you.

By the way, what will you do after getting that email address? Spam your way to glory? That’s why people don’t trust gated content in the first place. You’re part of the problem.

I realize it’s a new way to think, but I can’t imagine a business today working hard to get customers to their site and then letting 90% of them walk away. If you ask people for an email AFTER they see the content, research shows it works better.

In any scenario, the numbers work in my favor, not yours.

A simple rule of thumb

One of the themes in my recent writing is that we have lost our way in marketing. Often, those setting the “standards” we follow aren’t marketers; they are SEO experts, statisticians, and IT professionals. I am not diminishing the worth of these resources, but maybe a statistical evaluation is not always the best guidepost for a marketing decision. Perhaps we need to get our heads out of dashboards and spreadsheets and look at what is happening with our customers in the real world.

Just because something seems favorable because of an A/B test or backlink strategy, it doesn’t mean we should do it … especially if people hate it.

So I’ll end this post with a simple piece of advice. People hate gated content. Don’t do things people hate.

Instead, dig deep to discover what your customers love. Now, go do that thing better than anybody else.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney.

The post Why Gated Content Kills Your Marketing Success appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Personal brand on TikTok?

Too short for a blog post, too interesting to ignore, here are some quick thoughts from the Schaefer-verse:

Is it really a personal brand on TikTok?

I’ve been teaching about personal branding for nearly a decade and probably have studied this subject as much as anyone on earth. But a new development has me flummoxed.

Increasingly, “personal brand” is becoming synonymous with performers on TikTok. I’ve seen this connection creeping in, but it slapped me in the face when I saw sessions on “personal brand strategy” at SXSW run literally by teen TikTok stars.

I’m not against teen TikTok stars—go for it. But is this building a personal brand … or achieving personal fame? There’s a difference.

The term “personal brand” was popularized by a 1997 Fast Company article called “The Brand is You” by Tom Peters. He stressed the importance of curating your own professional brand (just like a corporate brand) to succeed in business.

In my popular Personal Branding Master Class, I make the distinction between fame (like Kim Kardashian) and a personal brand, which means you have the

• presence
• reputation
• authority

… to make your professional dreams a reality. You probably won’t be famous (and don’t need to be), but you will be known in your industry, and that’s a HUGE advantage.

By the way, I think you can create a professional personal brand, instead of personal fame, on TikTok just like any other channel. I’ve seen some great marketing and business content there.

But today, TikTok’s meme-merchants with brand deals seem to be lumped together in the “personal brand” category by the popular media. I think that’s confusing. Am I splitting hairs?

I broke my own rule

In many of my books and speeches, I implore marketers to stop doing what people hate — interrupting, intercepting, and spamming, for example.

Here’s one thing that I know people hate: pop-up ads. The research is overwhelming. In 2014, Ethan Zuckerman, the inventor of the pop-up ad, wrote a lengthy apology for his creation in The Atlantic. He called it “The Internet’s Original Sin” and pleaded with businesses to “ditch them.”

And yet, I now have a pop-up on my site. One attentive reader called this irony to my attention, so I thought I would explain it.

Subscriptions to my blog had been stagnant. Long story short, I am fighting the math of large numbers (the bigger the email list, the more I need to grow to keep up with natural attrition).

I needed to upgrade my email strategy, and one recommendation was to add a pop-up to gently remind people to subscribe. I resisted the idea for years but finally succumbed.

I hope I have done this in a kind way. It only pops up after you have been on the site for a while, so it’s not on your face, and it only happens once. Bottom line, it worked.

So I have a “gentle pop-up!”

No sugar-coating

In my last roundup-style post, I had a number of sobering observations about AI and our future. One reader chastised me for not being more positive.

I do think positivity is important, but the truth is even more so. If I don’t tell you the truth, I am cheating you, deceiving you in the long term to make you feel good in the short term.

If you believe projections from Accenture, Deloitte, and McKinsey, between 40% and 70% of marketing tasks can be easily automated. My friend Paul Roetzer, who studies this more than anyone, ranted in his podcast this week that job displacement is coming fast, and he’s worried that nobody is prepared for it.

I do not think mass job displacement is inevitable, at least in the short-term. There are many financial, legal, ethical, and political hurdles for AI to overcome. And, as I wrote recently, I believe is always a place for human creativity.

But change is coming. That’s what’s real right now. We can’t see the truth through a sugar-coated lens. Let’s grow together based on truth and lift each other up along the way!

Word-of-mouth marketing is where it’s at

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is probably the most important marketing genre. But it has been relegated to a marketing sideshow because it’s difficult to execute and even more difficult to measure. And frankly, it’s just not as sexy as a celebrity-filled TV ad.

But I’m convinced in this deep fake age of mistrust, WOMM will emerge as an incredibly important strategy. It’s not that hard. Give people something cool to talk about!

It can be this simple. I dined at the wonderful Oasis restaurant on the Caribean island of Saint Martin a few weeks ago. At each place setting, there was a little card to give you a fake smile. Donning the fake smile was irresistible of course. Don’t you think kids would love this?

The simple word-of-mouth marketing idea becomes complete with unique stories on the back of the card. About 10% of the population are “super-sharers” who will take a cool story and share it with family and friends. That ignites WOMM. So, feed them the stories and it will spread.

Don’t overlook visual prompts like the smile card to remind people to talk about you.

What are the stories you’re sharing about your business? How are you getting them out into the world so your business becomes conversational?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Are you really building a personal brand on TikTok? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

The topic for this blog post came to me in a dream. I woke up from my dream thinking, “Yes, it’s true. There really is one big mistake content creators make. I should tell others about it!”

I’m sorry this dream wasn’t more exciting or titillating. Maybe my other dreams will be a story for another day. Or not.

Before I reveal my dream-truth, I need to review a basic content marketing philosophy:

Content must be unleashed.

It doesn’t matter if you’re creating epic content or the best work of your lifetime if nobody sees it. The power in your content doesn’t from the content. It comes from the transmission of the content. We want our work to move, which leads to awareness, fans, subscribers and people who will buy things from us.

The biggest mistake content creators make

OK, let’s think this through.

You create great content. You post it everywhere. Somebody bites. They click on the link and what do they see when they arrive at your website?

A blog post? A video? A podcast episode?

Of course … but what else? If you’re like most people, the answer is … nothing. And this is the problem.

When I visit most blog posts or other web content, I can’t even tell who wrote it. I don’t know what this site is about. I don’t see a place to subscribe. I don’t see a place to share the content on social media if I like it. It’s a marketing dead end!

When people click on a link to your content, they don’t arrive at your home page. They arrive at your content. And if all you have on this page is your content, you’re missing a massive opportunity. In fact, this is by far the biggest mistake content creators make today.

In essence, your content page needs to be a mini-landing page for your business. You spend all this time bringing people to your business, but it’s not your business—it’s just a piece of content. They read it and leave. TRAGIC!

Here is your goal: Keep them on your website. You should put as much thought and design into your standard content page as your home page. The longer you keep them on the page, the bigger the chance they will subscribe to your content, share it, or even buy something from you. So don’t miss this opportunity.

Let’s learn how to do this …

The mini home page

If I were sitting with you over coffee, I would pull out my laptop and give you a demonstration. I would probably even buy you the coffee. But since we might be thousands of miles apart, I’ll walk you through it and owe you the coffee when we finally meet. Deal?

As I give you this lesson, it would be helpful to look at how I display my own work, the result of many years of testing. If you like, open up this blog post as you read the rest of my tutorial so you can visualize the lesson.

We’ll start at the top and learn how to make your content into a mini home page.

On my post, what’s the first thing you see under the headline? Social sharing buttons. I can’t believe how often I go to a site and have to work to figure out how to share the content.

Research shows your content will be shared 400% more if you simply add social sharing buttons. The total social shares displayed on my buttons isn’t accurate. It’s sort of a long story why they’re not, and it’s frustrating that nobody has worked that out, but put the buttons up there anyway. No excuses.

Next: An eye-catching graphic. If somebody sees your content shared on LinkedIn or Twitter, the first thing that grabs their attention is the graphic. Maybe you can stop them long enough to read the headline and get a click. The image that goes with your content is also an SEO boost because you can add meta tags to the photo to help Google figure out your content.

Let’s start looking at the right-hand column. You first see a call to action to spend time with me. Cool.

However, the next field, an invitation to subscribe, is the most essential item on the entire page. Why? Because a subscriber is opting in to you and what you do. They are volunteering to hear more. They are becoming members of your email list and possibly future customers.

You might be asking yourself, if the subscribe button is the most critical part of the page, why isn’t it at the top of the column? Heat map studies show that the top right corner of the web page is invisible to many people. I don’t know why, but the conclusion is consistent. So, the top of the column is sort of a throw-away item to get people to the next block which encourages them to subscribe.

As you go down the rest of the column, you’ll see:

• An opportunity to buy my book
• An invitation to attend my marketing retreat
• News about a class I am teaching
• An ability to search the site
• A little welcome message so people know who I am
• Boxes to search my posts by topic, date, or recent articles.

These are all things you might expect to see on a homepage. But most visitors who click on a link never see your home page. We need to fill that gap and give them lots of things to do. Remember, we want to keep them on the website.

Now let’s skip to the very bottom of the blog post. What have we here? A photo of me and further invitations to engage and connect. 

You might note that this page has lots of reasons to buy something from me, but I never sell within the content of the post. Some content gurus insist that you should sell something on every blog post, but I say phooey. I think that’s annoying and disrespectful. I wouldn’t want to subscribe to a constant sales pitch, would you?

But we’re not finished. Under my bio is another opportunity to share the post on social media because we want to get this content to move!

Next, there are a couple of prompts to send you to similar posts on my site. These are free WordPress apps that increase your time on my site by 18%. Huzzah!

And we wrap things up with another opportunity to connect with me on something like buying a book.

Just copy me

I just gave you some ideas for overcoming the biggest mistake content creators make today. My guess is that you have almost none of this on your page today. These ideas are easy to implement and can elevate your content immediately.

Everything I’ve covered here is free if you have a WordPress site. Nothing custom. Ask your web person to review my blog posts and copy my format. I’m happy to help you in that way.

It’s upsetting that so many people put their heart and soul into great content, only to have it languish on a boring, useless page.

I hope these ideas will give your content and business the boost they deserve.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post The biggest mistake content creators make today appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

This week marks the fifteenth anniversary of my blog. Crazy, right? I realize that nobody cares about an anniversary like this … I don’t even care, honestly … but I thought I would use the milestone as a teachable moment because blogging changed my life. And here is the main lesson of the milestone:

To stand out in this world, you have to be known. To be known, you have to show up consistently. Consistency is more important than genius.

Unfortunately, this is where most people fail. They stop and start, or perhaps they never start at all.

In my Personal Branding Master Class, I show a slide depicting my personal income attributed to “being known.” My income grew steadily over time (except 2020!) because the more I am known, the bigger my audience, the greater the opportunities, the higher the book sales, and the more valuable the speaking and consulting engagements. This progress can only come through consistently showing up with helpful content.

Creating meaningful content is hard work, and at low times, I wonder if it’s worth it. While I’m working on a blog post, my friends might be reading, hiking, or cooking a great meal. Blogging is a sacrifice.

But when I emerge from this introspection, I return to the same conclusion: Everything started from the blog, and every business benefit comes from the thought leadership I’ve built from this space. In fact, without a doubt, blogging changed my life forever, in these five ways:

1. Deep emotional connection

A few years ago, I received an email from a blog reader: “I’ve been reading your blog for three years. It led me to buy your latest book, and it is the best business book I’ve read in the last ten years.”

It was signed by the CMO of a Fortune 100 company. Two years later, he hired me for a consulting project to transform his content marketing department.

Let’s dissect what happened:

• A stranger built an affinity for me through my blog.
• Over time, the affinity became trust … a strong enough bond for him to hire me, even though I had never met him.
• To earn his business, I didn’t have to apply for the job or bid against competitors. I was simply awarded the work, and I named my price.

If I didn’t have a blog, how much would I have had to spend on advertising to have a success story like that?

Brand marketing is about building an emotional connection that differentiates you from the competition. What a wonderful world we live in where a guy like me has the opportunity to build relationships — and a business — through my content. You can do it, too.

2. The introvert’s revenge

I hate networking. I am the worst networker in the world. I’m an introvert who loves a quiet dinner with friends, but put me in a room with a lot of people, and I want to crawl into a hole.

I know that sounds weird coming from a person who delivers keynote speeches in front of thousands of people, but it is different. I come alive on a stage because I can teach and entertain, and I’m really good at it. But shaking hands all night at a cocktail reception is my idea of torture.  I am a mingler misfit.

But through a blog, I can build business friendships with people every day without actually meeting them!

3. The fuel for a legacy

When my blog hit its tenth anniversary, I wrote that my biggest accomplishment was that over all those hundreds of posts, I never humiliated myself. My record still stands!

I have not made a major stumble because blogging forces me to clarify my ideas. Before I put something into the world, I think it through deeply. Is it thorough? Have I considered all sides? Am I being kind and showing up in a way I can be proud of?

These clarified blog concepts are later used in my speeches and books. The seeds of my legacy are planted here.

4. Personal reward

When I was in the corporate world, I would get an annual performance review (if I was lucky!).

Although I generally had an idea of how I was doing, there always seemed to be a zinger in there. Nobody gets a perfect performance review, right?

The cool thing about blogging is that I get a performance every week. Here is a comment posted on LinkedIn recently by Jim Hunt.

Isn’t that awesome? It makes my heart soar. I just can’t believe how lucky I am to have an audience of people who appreciate my work.

That’s the fuel that keeps me going. When I create a blog post, a podcast episode, or a book, I have only one mantra in my head: “I will never let you down.”

5. Personal healing

In the first chapter of my book KNOWN, I wrote about the darkest time of my life. This was so difficult for me to reveal, but I did it to show the reader that when I started my personal branding journey, I was a mess. I was below zero. I wanted to encourage people — If I can do it, you can too.

In those dark days, the stress of my life was killing me. When I went to see a doctor, my blood pressure was so high she would not let me leave her office. She was afraid I was about to have a stroke or worse.

The doctor demanded that I monitor my blood pressure every hour of the day. And this is when I witnessed something miraculous. There was one hour every day when my blood pressure was normal. It was when I was blogging.

There is a zen about blogging that sends you to a different place of focus and peace, even when the world is terrible.

Even more importantly, when I started posting my ideas online, I received feedback from people who didn’t know what I was going through. It was so nice to connect with people who didn’t know of my suffering. I was so tired of being sad.

Perhaps it is too dramatic to say that blogging saved my life, but mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially, I am transformed from creating these words on a screen.

Thank you, friend

I will never forget the moment 15 years ago when I received the very first comment on this blog. It was a moment of awe. Somebody read my work and spent their precious time commenting on it.

I have never forgotten that feeling. I re-live that sense of awe every day when I get feedback on my work.

Whether you have followed me for 15 years or this is our first meeting, thank you for being here. I’m just getting started, and I will never let you down.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post 15 Years On, Five Ways Blogging Changed My Life Forever appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

The world is going bonkers over a bombastic claim implying that AI is the doom of marketing.

On a recent episode of the Artificial Intelligence Podcast hosted by Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput, the hosts referred to an interview of Sam Altman on a site called Our AI Journey.

The interview is behind a paywall, but Paul relayed this specific quote about the doom of marketing and Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Paul noted that it is unusual that Altman would comment on something so specifically. Here it is:

“Oh for that (marketing) it will mean that 95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly, and at almost no cost be handled by the AI. The AI will likely be able to test the creative in real or synthetic customer focus groups for predicting results and optimizing. And free, instant, and nearly perfect images, videos, campaign ideas — no problem.”

You can see why a quote like this would twist your shorts.

The quote went viral and spurred some heated online discussion. Is this true? Will we be losing 95% of our marketing jobs?

The answer is no, and I’d like to tell you why.

Human-based marketing success

Over the years, I’ve worked with many different companies and featured their tales in my books and blog posts. Here are a couple of my favorite marketing success stories (I promise, this is leading somewhere!) …

To launch the second season of WestWorld, HBO hired Giant Spoon to re-create the set of the TV series in an abandoned town outside of Austin, Texas. More than 60 actors enacted scenes from the show as guests from SXSW posted more than a billion impressions on social media. This required a collective collaboration across dozens of disciplines from design to set-building. Here’s a video glimpse of the project:

Yeti rapidly became a major U.S. retail brand, but for the first five years of the company’s existence, its only marketing tactic was word-of-mouth marketing. The company partnered with trusted outdoor guides to tell the story of Yeti and drive sales of its premium ice cooler. Today, Yeti is a $4 billion brand with a wide range of products.

Although Sephora has stores in nearly every major city in the world, 80% of their sales come through the company’s online community. Their most important metric is human “engagement” with customers, demonstrating that new ideas, products, and content are relevant — a leading indicator to sales.

When I was with a Fortune 100 company, my team worked with an anthropologist to observe how people used different products in their homes. We discovered that most people don’t use the back of their refrigerator shelves—this is where the scary stuff lives! With partners, we designed and patented the now-famous long “fridge pack,” which productively used this space and became one of the most important packaging revolutions in beverage industry history.

Another company innovation I helped lead was spurred by an off-hand customer comment at the end of a “listen to the customer” visit. Responding to the casual idea he expressed led to a multi-million-dollar development project and a long-term competitive advantage for the company. We never would have found that idea through an online survey.

Thanks for obliging me on this trip down memory lane.

I needed to briefly showcase the variety of marketing possibilities and the importance of human beings in the mix. How many of these success stories could have been eliminated by AI?

The answer is obvious: None of them.

AI is not the doom of marketing

Let me be clear. AI will replace many jobs, especially those based on repeatable patterns, such as data analysis, creative treatments, content development, and formulaic sales pitches.

But marketing is specifically about creating and keeping customers. And human customers do not necessarily follow patterns because they are emotional, irrational, and ever-changing.

Sam Altman is a smart guy. He’s in the middle of the AI world, and I am not. But I am in the middle of the marketing world, and he is not. And while he is correct that AI will replace a massive number of marketing tasks, most marketing jobs will not go away for these five reasons:

1. Importance of human connection

The subtitle of my Marketing Rebellion book is “The Most Human Company Wins.” This is undeniably true. In a fragmented and disconnected digital age, we value more authentic human interaction, not less.

Marketing often involves building relationships and trust with customers. Human marketers are better equipped to understand and respond to the nuances of human communication, empathy, and personal connections that are crucial in many marketing roles. Altman isn’t considering this important aspect of marketing.

As I showed in the example above, YETI is a $4 billion brand because of human connections, period.

2. The mandate for weird

Great marketing isn’t about conformity and following patterns. It’s about non-conformity and breaking patterns. When it comes to non-conformity, humans have the edge because we love to be weird. Great marketing is weird. I mean, have you looked at TikTok lately?

I hired a creative director once because she sent me a box of homemade cookies. Is that marketing? You betcha. And the reason it worked is because it BROKE a pattern. She stood out because she didn’t just send me an email or a resume, she sent me cookies. AI is amazing because it helps us detect patterns, but we often create customers by breaking patterns.

Perhaps the king of viral marketing is Who Is The Bald Guy (aka Michael Krivicka). His videos are warped and demand our attention. Here’s an example:

These elaborate videos are possible only by breaking patterns through an intense amount of …

3. Human collaboration

Great marketing almost always involves collaboration among team members with diverse skills and perspectives. Human marketers are essential in fostering teamwork across the organization, facilitating complex communication with agency partners, and overseeing creative problem-solving.

Hundreds of people were involved in the Giant Spoon Westworld activation. AI will make these interactions faster and more effective, but we’ll still need the human collaboration. Breakthrough success doesn’t come from thinking out of the box, it comes from combining the boxes. AI will help that but not replace it.

As I look back on my career, every major success story was achieved through collaborative, cross-disciplinary human efforts.

4. Insight beyond a database

I provided the example of discovering a crucial customer idea from a random comment at the end of a live meeting. There is no database in the world that could have delivered that idea. How did it happen?

1. I was in a live meeting
2. The people in the meeting trusted me enough to be open and honest
3. My experience and specific industry knowledge allowed me to realize that off-hand comment was important
4. The trust I earned within my company allowed me to get a multi-million-dollar project approved that created a new, profitable product.

Similarly, the breakthrough idea about the back of the refrigerator came from detailed human observation. That is a profound marketing success and 100 percent human.

Think about it this way. Do you have a competitive advantage because your business is on the internet? Of course not. Everybody’s on the internet. Similarly, everybody will have AI integrated into our key marketing tools and that AI will be mining (mostly) the same historical datasets.

In the short-term, you might establish a competitive advantage if you apply AI in a creative way and achieve first-mover advantage, but in the long term, AI will be an enhanced business tool everyone will access. Competitive advantage can still come from human insight.

5. Ethical considerations

Marketing decisions often involve ethical dilemmas, such as respecting consumer privacy, avoiding deceptive practices, awareness of evolving cultural sensitivities, and promoting social responsibility. Following the law is easy. Doing what’s right is not always so obvious. Human judgment is essential in navigating these complex issues.

As I write these words, there is news all over the web about AI companies indiscriminately breaking the law to bring copyrighted content into their insatiable data machines. There is a historical pattern of recklessness in the tech industry and it will take ethical, human business leaders to use AI in an appropriate manner.

Where do we go from here?

If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you know I’m a realist. I do my best to tell the story of marketing in a fair and truthful manner. I’ve been immersed in the world of AI. I study it every day. I’m not naive and I certainly have a healthy amount of fear as I consider our AI-driven future.

This post is not meant to sugarcoat a threat; it’s simply a more holistic perspective of how marketing works. The fatal flaw in Altman’s comment is that he’s considering a small subset of the marketing world —a number of tasks he might observe from a relationship with an outside marketing agency.

Will AI impact your career? Absolutely, no matter what you do.

AI, and especially AGI, will transform the marketing landscape and automate many tasks. It will eliminate many entry-level jobs dedicated to copywriting, video production, social media management, research, and more. A recent WSJ article projected that college graduates hoping to get a knowledge worker job must be prepared to step into middle management positions because the low-level jobs will be gone. Huh? How is that going to work? Probably worthy of a separate blog post.

However, AI is not the doom of marketing. It is unlikely to eliminate the majority of marketing jobs, at least in the foreseeable future. Instead, the role of human marketers will evolve to focus on higher-level strategic thinking, creative cultural insight, and human connection. That’s how customers are created.

The Most Human Company Wins. Don’t lose sight of that, and you’ll be OK.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

The post Why AI does not mean the doom of marketing appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I was recently talking with a young influencer and I offered to send her one of my books.

“I don’t read books,” she said.

“OK, how about an audiobook?”

“I don’t listen to books either. The only content I consume is YouTube. I have the ad-free version and that is all I watch all day long.”

This story is not unusual. Younger people are moving away from traditional media, burrowing themselves in private communities, and moving out of reach of marketers.

So if you’re a brand … how do you reach her? How do you market to young people who seem unreachable?

I posed this question to the smart marketers of the RISE community and thought I would share their insightful and creative answers!

1. Short form and influencers

Brian Piper, Content Consultant, Author, Speaker

To market to young people, you have to learn how to deliver your message on the channels where they are. Repurpose your content into short-form videos for social and get your expertise into places being scraped to build AI data models (sites like Reddit and Quora, featured snippets in Google, and guest blog/vlog appearances).

Engage and collaborate with influencers and participate in online communities where your audience finds trusted answers. By participating and getting involved, you can establish yourself as a go-to resource.

Research shows that 37% of consumers trust influencers over brands, with Gen Z and Millennials being twice as likely to do this compared with their Boomer counterparts. Further, 32% of Gen Z rely on social media influencers to help them discover brands and products.

2. Stickers rule

Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, Bilingual Marketing Consultant

I recently spent time with several 12-year-old Girl Scouts; they are still too young to be joining social media platforms.

I asked them this question — if they needed to market a hypothetical friendship bracelet business for an entrepreneurship merit badge, what would they do? They said this:

• Billboards/posters (in the hallway in school, bathroom stalls, and in theaters)
• Ads/ sponsorships on Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Pandora,
• Stickers on desktops, phones, and their Stanley mugs

I guess you’ve really made it if your sticker is on their precious Stanley cup!

3. Solve their problems

Emiliano Reisfeld, MBA, L’Oreal

These generations will not seek brands with AI or search — they are seeking solutions to problems. Therefore, for the case of ChatGPT, a consumer from this group might ask, for example, “What perfume would you recommend to dazzle at a party?” To which the AI will search for information across millions of pages. Consequently, presence in recommendations, brand mentions, press releases, etc., will lead people from these groups to find your brand.

I think the same will happen for social search in terms of search behavior. Consumers inquire about solutions to problems. In the case of TikTok and Instagram, I understand that the algorithm sorts content based on the impact of the generated content. Therefore, to market to young people, it will be highly relevant for a brand that content generation focuses much more on the solutions or needs that your product satisfies: content about usage rather than product functionalities.

4. Get with the memes

Aaron Hassen, Chief Marketer at AH Marketing

Instead of talking about commercials around the water cooler like past generations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are more likely to share short videos, GIFs, and image-based memes that reflect their perspectives and values with friends. Brands have an opportunity to create entertaining and thought-provoking assets that include subtle product placements and have those assets distributed by trusted influencers.

5. Explore the world of gaming

Anna Bravington, Marketing Strategist

I recently received an email from a UK brand called Clarks, a shoe shop not known for its forward-thinking nature. The email shared pictures of their latest kids’ shoes and mentioned that they had a Roblox game with characters from the shoes.

Gaming and kids’ shoes might seem like an odd combination, but let me share some figures with you.

• There are 3.32 billion active video gamers worldwide, that’s about 42% of the world’s population. In places like the US and the UK, over half the population plays games.
• Around 60% of those gamers are under 35, mainly encompassing Gen Z/Gen Alpha. That sure is a lot of people! Now, when we say gaming, remember this doesn’t just include playing on the PC or console; mobile gaming is huge, too.

Yet many brands don’t see gaming as a marketing channel, even if they’re aiming at the Gen Z/Gen Alpha audience. But there is so much opportunity to engage with this audience on a channel they love and spend a lot of their time on.

There are so many ways for brands to interact through gaming:

• Branded games, such as Clarks Playprints and Walmart Discovered on Roblox
• Custom DLC (digital content) such as clothing, accessories, and items.
• In-game events. DJ Marshmello’s event in Fortnite had 10.7 million attendees.
• If you want something that’s a bit more like traditional advertising, then sponsorship, product placements, and ads. London-based startup Bidstack allows brands to have dynamic ads in video games, such as the banners around the pitch in FIFA, the popular football game (think of it a bit like a digital version of out-of-home advertising).

Instead of brands expecting the audience to come to them, it’s time for them to go to the audience and interact with them in a way that feels comfortable, builds trust, and brings value to their lives.

6. Immersive experiences

Joeri Billast, The Web3 CMO

Diving into the world of AR and VR to create experiences that blend the real with the digital is like inviting Gen Z and Gen Alpha into a story where they’re not just observers but active participants. For example, letting them try on clothes virtually before buying or taking them on a virtual adventure that starts in their living room but feels like they’re exploring another world.

This approach builds engagement, and moreover, it builds a bond between them and you, making each interaction more memorable and personal.

7. Win AI search

Joanne Taylor, Professional Editor

To earn awareness and be discovered by AI search, you need to be an excellent communicator who understands your audience. Double down on meaning because semantics are coming to the fore.

AI is increasingly good at interpreting user intent due to its ever-growing understanding of the semantics of natural language. So, word-specific search terms are becoming less important than the meaning and context behind those words. This is particularly relevant to AI voice search as queries become longer and more conversational.

Expertise, authority, and trustworthiness still matter for AI search, but don’t get sidetracked attempting to jump through hoops. Earn awareness by answering the questions of your specific audience – and do it better than anyone else. Meaningfully address their genuine needs. Get your message across clearly by being a great communicator, whether written or otherwise. Excellent writing, for example, often lies in clarity of expression, depth of human insight, and ability to engage and move the reader.

Keep in mind that the people you want to serve come first. You can win AI semantic search by clearly conveying meaningful value to your specific audience, and AI will tell relevant users about you!

8. Meet them where they are

Zack Seipert, Marketing & Communications Specialist

How do you market to young people? Let’s look at where these individuals hanging out. Where do they spend their time? Who are they with? What interests them?

Now, this undoubtedly means digital spaces such as TikTok, Instagram, etc. But it also means meeting them where they are in real life.

Recently my coworkers and I were contemplating this exact same question. How can we get our important messages seen and heard by this young segment of our audience? One potential solution rose to the top of our list — host a trivia night!

We called up local pubs and asked if we could host a trivia night. We would provide the necessary equipment, run the trivia show, and supply awards for the winners.

We prepared trivia questions in advance on a variety of topics, but they all revolved around water and conservation (our message!). So we created questions about water in cinema, water in music, water in pop culture, and we even threw in some questions about our organization (who we are, what we do, etc).

QR codes made it easy to follow us on social media and our website.

9. Re-mix, re-create, reimagine

I’ll conclude this post with an idea of my own.

Nearly all social media and content strategy up until this point has been about broadcasting a message.

But if you look at the culture of TikTok (the culture of youth), the space is about appropriating ideas, messages, memes, and music to create something new. There are entire genres of content re-mixing commercials for car companies, movies, and other products.

There is probably nothing your marketing and legal department will fear more than customers re-mixing your commercial, and yet, that’s how the messages are being spread today. This suggests two ways to connect with youth culture: create content that is very re-mixable and re-mix memes yourself to include your brand. This is already happening in small ways, but I think it will emerge as a larger trend.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

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Illustration courtesy MidJourney

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