In the realms of marketing, times are changing, and methods are evolving constantly. Technological advances over the last twenty years, specifically the unprecedented rise of the internet, and more recently the emergence and almost universal acceptance of social media platforms, have seriously altered the way in which marketers and advertisers reach their audiences.
These changes haven’t rendered more traditional forms of printed marketing, such as leaflet distribution impotent, but have instead opened up a whole new range of opportunities. Combining and integrating your marketing platforms to support one another is now the way forward; for example, printed leaflets with codes to be scanned for online discounts and promotions would be an ideal method of drawing mobile traffic to a website or app.
A recent and excellent example of using physical printed marketing material to support an online presence is Coca-Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign. The novelty for consumers of seeing their own name, or the name of a friend, printed on the side of a Coke can was enough to spawn a viral marketing campaign that took numerous social platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by storm. This afforded the brand social currency; a highly valued commodity in digital marketing, where followers and user engagement are of utmost importance.
The beauty of Coke’s campaign was that the consumer did most of the footwork for them. Coke printed names on the cans, and provided apps and TV adverts relating to the campaign to spur the buzz, but it was the customers who were photographing cans of Coke and spreading the pictures across the internet like wildfire. Images of the cans were prevalent when the campaign was at its height, with an amusing image of a Coke can nativity scene even making its way to the front page of the hugely influential social platform Reddit.
Simple ideas implemented creatively have always been the foundation of any truly successful marketing campaign, and that’s not changed with the move into the digital age of apps and social media. The concepts are the same, but the tools with which the concepts are delivered to audiences are different.
When it comes to marketing on any platform, creativity leads to success. Creative and and unusual ideas make people sit up and take note; it’s important to bear this in mind when designing your marketing materials. The Coke campaign was different as it allowed its customers to be creative themselves by engaging with their product in a very different way; the concept was creative in itself.
If you’ve got a unique and innovative marketing idea of your own, then why not contact us at Direct Letterbox or give us a call on 0800 028 6353. All good content needs a delivery method after all!
