Ego Marketing

Blair Garson, United States

Recently, we have talked about shifting from circulation to reverberation.  Being successful in terms of circulation is a simple concept. Get coverage in a national magazine which has a circulation of let’s say 3 million readers. Multiply that by 4 (industry standard, of course) to get your 12 million glorious media impressions. Normally that would be a huge success but with the ever-changing media landscape, simply placing our product isn’t enough anymore. We need to hear the echoes of that placement.

So how do we entice consumers to be vocal about our clients and share our messages? I’ve pondered this for awhile, checked Facebook status updates, tweets and blogs and noticed people seem to speak up when there’s an opportunity to shine the spotlight on them, even if only for a moment.

A couple months ago, I logged onto to Facebook and saw a recurring theme among my friends’ status updates. They were calling out colors – blue, black, nude, teal, red, paisley. Perplexed, I did a quick Google search and learned that in an effort to raise awareness for breast cancer, women were invited to post their bra color in their Facebook status. No organization or brand was attached to this effort and no one really knows where it originated. It is difficult to measure if this little viral “flash” raised awareness for breast cancer, but it did get a ton of people talking and participating in one unified conversation...about the color of their undergarments.

Approximately a month later, I signed onto to Facebook again and noticed I had somehow become “friends” with Sarah Jessica Parker and Bradley Cooper overnight. Soon after, and much to my disappointment, I realized it was just the latest Facebook trend – Celebrity Doppelganger Week. The concept was to replace your profile picture with a celebrity who you think you resemble.

Over the next several days, more and more profile pictures began changing. The conversation moved from Facebook, to the blogosphere, to lunch conversations at the office (you know who you are!) and even into mainstream media (Time Huffington Post, ABC News, Daily News, etc). 

With little encouragement, these two Facebook trends caught fire. It seems to me that their popularity stemmed from the narcissism of consumers and their desire for attention. So how can we use this to our advantage and promote our brands?

I recently saw a campaign for Pantene that is centered on finding the world’s first reality hair star.  The brand plans to put their products to the test in what they’re calling the “first reality hair advertisement.” While it remains to be seen if this new campaign will be a success, I think it’s a step in an interesting direction.  Instead of calling on an expert or celebrity to promote their brand, Pantene is shining the spotlight directly on the consumer making their thoughts, opinions, and experience with the product paramount.

Consumers like a small dose of attention and are eager to be at the center of the conversation. So instead of using them solely as a vehicle to push out our messages, maybe it’s time we advise our clients to shift the focus of their campaigns and make them more about the consumers. If we give them the soapbox to stand on, maybe just maybe, we’ll hear echoes.  

Comments

[In-Wen]

Hi Blair,

I really enjoyed reading this post. Your remarks on Facebook status and trends are truly insightful. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on 'ego marketing'; what you discuss means so much more than mere social marketing.

I am interested in hearing your opinions on websites like Yelp and other customer review sites regarding how it affects the current state and provides new marketing opportunities. Based on my observation, Yelpers are not any less narcissistic than Facebook crowds yet Yelpers seem to elicit more solid reactions (transactions, consumer loyalty, company branding etc.) among consumers.