I walked trough Gent Sint Pieters station yesterday afternoon when I saw a large and pretty nice white piano in the middle of the hall. It was playing by itself some neat tunes and there were billboards announcing somekind of product or event. There were some people watching the billboards and taking pictures. At that moment I noticed I was extremely hesitant to approach the piano, watch it for too long or taking a picture of it. I was actually afraid of ending up in a case movie.
What happens? A brand does something (arguably) remarkable in real life, tapes it, creates a casemovie and uploads it to YouTube to end up as a (arguable) ‘viral’. Brand beer did it. T-Mobile did it almost every day. Ibis hotels did it. KLM did it. Coca Cola did it. Volkswagen did it. Heineken did it. Boondoggle did it. And many more tried to do it and failed miserably.
In negative instances, it’s pretty much the worst form of spam. Consumers are hijacked in real life to (unknowingly) play a role in a case movie. It makes me cautious of unexpected and positive interactions with brands. Afraid that’s just a once-in-a-lifetime positive experience and that I end up in a case movie.
So let’s set some guiding principles for these kind of positive interactions. As a consumer …
- I prefer brands doing stuff over just yelling at me with print and TV ads.
- Yes, of course I like to have a positive interaction with your brand.
- Yes, you can surprise me, but do something that makes sense to your brand or product.
- Yes, you can surprise me, but do something that isn’t waaaaay beyond our normal interactions.
- Yes, you can use me in a case movie, but make it a cool one. Don’t be lame.
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Yes, I understand that every person and every brand makes mistakes. But I do feel that in solving these mistakes, you show your true colors.
And a last thing, don’t act if you don’t know me the next time we have an interaction after the case movie. Whether it’s via phone, website, letter or email, for a brief moment during the creation of your fancy case movie, I was your best friend.
2 comments
It’s the influence of Bollywood!
I like your closing words @polledemaagt. You hit the right spot with those. And I think when consumers experience this, it is a big turn-off for them. It’s very challenging though to ‘remember’ people on e.g. facebook after campaigns, especially when you have a big fanbase. What I experience is that we have a smaller group of heavily engaged fans (active) and most people are watching us in the background (passive).