What we can learn about social media from a commercial

Every now and then, I come across something online that I feel obligated to share with my inner circle. It usually involves a somewhat formulaic, predictable email forward or hilarious YouTube video. Now, don’t get me wrong—People of Wal-Mart, Fail Blogs, and Chuck Norris forwards will always have a special place deep within the crevices of my heart—but maybe it’s time to switch things up a bit…

Luckily for me, I was recently introduced (shout out to Kruti Joshi) to a commercial so amazing that I’m actually taking the time to write a post about it on my company blog—yes, before I share it on Facebook, post it on Twitter and send it to all my Gmail contacts. Although it’s so brilliant that it doesn’t even need lengthy commentary from me or really anyone else, it justifiably does deserve more props than the brief “this is awesome” status update. But before I get there, don’t just take my word for it. I’ll let you be the judge. Without further ado, here it is (pay close attention):

If you don’t think it’s amazing, I have three words for you: Watch it again. Like an episode of The Office, it got better each time I watched it, with new details and subtleties emerging that I didn’t notice the first time around. Once I’d watched it enough times to fully soak it in, I couldn’t help but be amazed at how moved I was by the sheer genius of a…well, commercial—and as a marketer, it really got my brain ticking…

What did I love about the commercial? How did it work on me? What can I/ISM/other marketers learn from it?

To kick off my ruminations on the topic, I thought first about the rules of instant gratification and recognized immediately that this ad made a blatant “to hell with ‘em” statement. These days, in the midst of the golden age of technology, instant gratification is a term that we online marketers and advertisers are all too familiar with, and unfortunately, we too often find ourselves mangled up in its proverbial intestines, losing sight of what the ultimate goal of an ad campaign actually is. What makes this clarity even more difficult to achieve—there’s an unprecedented abundance of information at consumers’ fingertips and a variety of methods and devices for consuming it—from smartphones to inter-tainment to on-demand and DVR. That places an enormous amount of pressure on us marketers, as we have a lot less time to capture and hold consumers’ attention than ever before. Consumers, on the other hand, have so many tools that enable them to shut off a pitch that doesn’t interest them immediately, by clicking to the next channel, fast-forwarding through the commercials, turning the knob to another radio station; or, in our case, hitting the back button and moving on to another website or search result.

Uninspired marketing campaigns try to counteract this consumer attention deficit by shouting louder. That’s the wrong reaction. The right reaction? Blur the lines between advertising and entertainment. Make ad spots that people actually want to watch, that they post on Facebook and forward to their friends and write about on their company blog. This Epuron commercial exemplifies that (clearly, as you’re reading this now). It unwinds slowly, beautifully. It tells a story. It builds up to a powerfully climactic ending. It’s executed with a careful technical and artistic touch. Closer to a short film than a typical TV ad, it manages to hold your attention without demanding it.

It never ceases to amaze me that while the mediums used to communicate with and to people continue to evolve, the fundamentals of smart advertising haven’t changed much over the years. What makes this commercial unique, and uniquely effective, is really more about what it doesn’t try to do than what it does. Thanks to its subtlety, nuance, and taste, it did something to me that no other TV spot from a similar company or industry has done to me: It got me thinking.

Thinking? What a novel concept! But commercials aren’t supposed to make you think, are they? They’re supposed to make you want to buy something, do something, take action. The sheer brilliance of this Epuron commercial is that it does none of the above. No statistics or scare tactics about global warming, no windmills strategically placed on rolling green hills against a vivid blue sky dotted in fluffy cumulous clouds, no calls to action, no limited-time offers. Just hope. About wind energy. About possibility.

So, how does this all relate the world of online marketing? To me, it’s a lesson about taking a step back. With the nature, constitution, and even definition of social media progressing at lightning speed, we marketers are often so focused on winning the race that we fail to take some time to really think about the strategy best tailored to get us there. Just because you have brand Facebook and Twitter pages doesn’t mean that you’re actually doing social. Well, okay, maybe it means that you can tell your boss’s boss, when you’re stuck alone with him on a long elevator ride, that you’re doing social. But it doesn’t mean that you’re using social media intelligently.

The key distinction is this: smart brands use social media to engage, while others use social media to merely exist. Intelligent social initiatives are a two-way conversation between real people, not a brand shouting to the masses from the faceless company pulpit.

Let this commercial be your guide. Come up with one outside-the-box idea (instead of a dozen half-ass, mediocre ones), think it through, and execute it excellently. Rather than creating company profiles that look like every other one out there simply to cross it off your social checklist, try slowing down, and taking some time to plan, to research your audience, where they’re engaged online, how they’re engaged online, and how best to engage them further, deeper, in a more valuable way. The barrier to entry in social media is next to none, but the gateway to true social media success is like a semi-permeable membrane. If you care about coming up with the idea that’s really going to move the needle, your best bet is to do your homework.

At iSearch Media we truly believe that this is the best way to approach social. Any time we’re tasked with presenting a pitch or proposal, the first thing we do is put our heads together at the whiteboard for a brainstorm session based on the research we’ve gathered as a guide. For us, taking a big-picture approach and using our tools and knowledge to scrutinize the opportunity quantifiably vs. a “let’s set up a Facebook page and see what happens” shot in the dark is the way to tackle social, and how we set ourselves apart from other search agencies optimizing social—but this methodical approach should be a requisite aspect of any web project, no matter the traffic channel it’s focused on. To put this into perspective, it’s not much different from how upfront SEO audits lay the proper foundation for long-term SEO engagements.

While this approach may be easier said than done, the numbers, if you know how to collect and read them, tell you so much, and if you give them the time and attention they merit, you cut out a ton of the guesswork that’s an inevitable and inherent aspect to advertising until the internet started rewriting the rules. Do your data-related homework to identify and inform the creative strategy that your customers are likeliest to respond to. Put on your thinking cap and decide whether you want to use social media to engage or merely exist. A focus on the hard data followed by creative strategy development is often the difference between those outcomes.