In its efforts to reach advertising agencies, marketing services firms and chief marketing officers across several industries, marketing company Informative Inc. began a humorous marketing campaign in mid-May that discourages gambling with ad dollars.
The campaign combines a roll-the-dice marketing game and brochure. The microsite features three tongue-in-cheek video parodies titled “Confessions of Marketing Gamblers” that tackle classic marketing challenges.
The campaign aims to generate meetings and product trials as well as raise awareness for the company’s survey technology. At www.stopthegamble.com, marketers can participate in a live survey, that uses the company’s technology and read ten marketer case studies. The microsite will run until the end of July.
“This campaign provides an extremely simple explanation of the value of the company’s products and makes a call-to-action offer directly to its target audience,” said Bill Thompson, senior vice president at Informative Inc.
The integrated campaign has six waves of direct mailings planned. A mini brochure highlights companies using Informative’s products, provides statistics and information on competitiors and describes the survey technology.
“The campaign addresses a rational and emotional issue: The rational one is that top marketing people, chief marketing officers, turn over every 22.9 months, Thompson said. “The agencies who serve them know that a change in CMO usually means change or at least an expensive defense for them. The emotional issue is the stress that goes with the knowledge that you have to produce fast, with a tangible result. CMOs and agencies can’t afford to miss, be imprecise.
“We solve this. Let’s face it, the elephant in the room for most marketers is that there’s far more gambling than art or science in most marketing, be it ads, product, or the latest craze, improving Net Promoter Scores,” Thompson continued. “The campaign itself is a challenge to the marketing and advertising community to stop gambling and take control of their marketing decisions.”
The challenge the campaign tries to overcome is the lack of precision and repetitive, often unsuccessful behavior when it comes to marketing decisions. The campaign exposes the malfunctions of conventional approaches and thinking in marketing, and supplies a precision-oriented alternative.
