Friday 17 August 2012

Bottoms up!

The trend for 'top down' marketing communications has almost completely switched to 'bottom up'.

This week, I saw a VO5 customer on TV, demonstrating 'The secret to getting a 40s look*'. The ad ended by inviting viewers to share their own demos online.

It's just another example of how things have changed since the days when people used to demand "we want real people" in the catalogue, but sales dropped compared with the same outfits on professional models (while the photographic 'hassle factor' increased exponentially).

Now, we the people make the ads.

It's over to suppliers to make good enough products and provide good enough services, and we'll sell them for them through word-of-mouth and social media.

*Sorry, I can't find it on YouTube.

1 comment:

Jackie Barrie, Writing Without Waffle said...

In line with my claim that 'real people' don't sell, did you see the recent news that Germany's Brigitte magazine is dropping its policy of using non-models?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19504587