I am sure you have seen the Carrie promotional video prank. If you haven’t here you go: terrify yourself. There has been a lot of debate about whether the people in the shop were actors or just bystanders (and that debate also added to the spread of the video). Marketeers are in a continually escalating battle to get our clicks and our attention. They have to creating more and more heightened emotional states, provoke us more and more to get our attention.
Well, right now, right here, today, I can introduce you to the next wave of viral, experiential marketing from the folks at John St. Marketing: ExFEARiential
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sxAOkAguqc
- “We don’t really do flashmobs, we prefer to create real mobs.”
- “Fear works… It’s that simple.”
The video is a great piece of satire, and like all good satire, it is a warning about what we have or might become. Whenever we Like, +1, Post or Re-post a piece of marketing (or any other on-line content), we are rewarding a behaviour, and escalating potentially rescuing the attention arms-race. Marketeers respond to what doesn’t work, and what does work. Send them the signals that you want them to hear, not the signals that cause fear (-1 for my copy writing skills right there).
In between our eyeballs and our fingers we have an organ that can change the world. Don’t let momentary emotions bypass it! :)
