Last month, I spotted a woolly bear caterpillar climbing up the side of my house. Beyond being fascinated by his lovely coat of fur and the undulating wave motion that produced his forward movement, I was mostly curious about what he was doing and where he was going.
As the marketing industry continues to find new and engaging ways to place ads in front of consumers, I would like to offer a truth about modern advertising. For all the promise of authenticity, transparency and noninvasiveness that “inbound” and “digital” marketers vowed to deliver in Y2K, the truth is far from the pledge.
Customer behavior – consumer and business – has changed significantly since the start of 2020 and will likely continue doing so until a cure for COVID-19, climate change and bad presidential elections is found. For marketers, the real challenge is not so much how to deal with those changes, as it is how to figure out which behaviors are temporary, and which are permanent.
Ask me to be uber imaginative and picture Jean Luc Picard meeting Luke Skywalker. I would immediately engage with force. As a diehard fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek, I love the idea of pairing Mark Hamill with Patrick Stewart.
The dominant global conversation for the better part of six months had been focused either directly or indirectly on one topic: The global pandemic that is coronavirus. Whether talking about the economy, the presidential election, the stock market, international affairs, the weather, education, social injustice, fashion… everything, without exception is frame-worked in COVID-19.
So, COVID-19, can you tell us where you came from? Please, call me COVID. I know there has been a lot of speculation about my origins; was I born in a lab? Did I start out as an animal germ that morphed into a human virus?
Nearly 35 years ago I founded Sweeney. Based on everything I had learned and experienced since graduating from college, I envisioned creating a great agency with exceptional talent that would develop highly strategic and creative plans, execute great campaigns and deliver impactful results.
There's a lot of talk about agile marketing these days – the ability to use data and teams in real time to run sprints, test concepts and measure impacts. It's a very cool strategy. And it's gaining acceptance among marketing executives seeking to take maximum advantage of an increasingly digitized world.
No doubt, the coronavirus (among a dozen other national and global issues) is impacting business and calling into question the role of marketing at a time of great uncertainty. As trade shows, conferences and events are being canceled… supply chains and logistics are being interrupted… workforces are being directed to work remotely… and the stock market is reeling, the role of marketing is solidly under the microscope.
Too many years ago (38 to be exact), Harold Burson informed me that I had been identified as one of two rising stars in the BM/Chicago office. It meant the world to me to receive such high praise from someone I held in the highest esteem.
Cleveland
440.333.0001
Wilmington
910.772.1688
