How do you recognize a good marketer? Tips & Tricks included.

It was one of those glamorous events, when all marketing/media/creative people get together and celebrate the best/brightest/powerful campaigns of the year. But before we go to a gala and watch people walk on stage to rhythmical clapping of the audience, someone has to decide on which work was worthy that celebration. So it happened that I was asked to judge. It is always fun to be in the jury and behave like a know-it-all. The downside is - there is a gang of know-it-alls in the room and everyone has an equal say, therefore this process does take a bit of time. This time was no different. We were sitting for consecutive hours, discussing back and forth, until I stepped out of my own body and had a revelation.

Literally all of the campaigns we have reviewed today had the same or almost the same target group. Women/people, 25-40 years old, modern lifestyle, parent, mostly working. Wait a minute. I am a woman, working mother and I live in this country, where apparently all this brilliant marketing work has happened. And it is the first time I see any of those campaigns. As a juror in a competition at the end of the year. Never as a consumer or a shopper. Each of those cases claim to have min. 80% reach in the target group. So either there is '20%' that I belong to and no one is reaching consistently or... 80% is a myth.

One of the cases I came across was claiming 'the most successful viral campaign of the year.' The campaign video had 1.5 million people views on Youtube. So I go to check this video (since I have never seen it before and I feel horrible FOMO). Yes, 1.5 million views indeed. But... checking the engagements. 1.000 likes... which means below 0.1% engagement rate. I can recreate easily in my head media briefing for this 'campaign':

Brand manager: I want this to go viral. I want to show my boss 1 million views on youtube.

Media house: We can get you 1 million views for 5.000 zoo dollars in two weeks or for 8.000 zoo dollars in one week.*

*but it doesn't mean someone will actually see your video.

Brand manager: Sounds great, do it.

The brand manager gets new assignment before anyone can see actual business results for the campaign, they are replaced by a new, hyped up brand manager who decides to 'beat' the viral result of their predecessor and pumps all the money into TikTok, since this is the platform that 'The Brand' has not engaged with audience enough.

Marketing has always been a combination of art and science. It cannot exist without data - at least not in an effective way. However, with the dynamically changing media landscape, new channels and trends coming into play, there is now a perfect excuse for many people to neglect the data altogether. 'It's a new thing, but we see it a great ad-on to the marketing mix and every brand that wants to be noticed does it now.' So I heard about flash mobs (remember flash mobs?), then about various social media channels that come and go, then about influencers, now - NFTs seem to be a new kid on the block. And for many the cherry seems more interesting than the pie.

I cannot count the interviews I have run where I asked during business case presentation 'what would be one, big improvement you would implement in our current marketing strategy if you were hired' to hear back 'I would start working with this influencer, you do not work with influencers enough' (the sound of my teeth clenching) or 'I would do a TikTok video. Yes, definitely a video that would go viral' (I am trying to count from 1 to 10 and backwards in my mind). 'Is this your one, big idea?' I ask, with a real restraint. And then they go on and on about it into slow spiral of marketing madness.

In such times I wonder what's the accumulated budgets put into production of all 'viral' videos that no one has seen and pumped into the platforms that the videos were placed on to reach meaningless statistics. I guess enough to pay for a cab ride. So let's get that cab and send the marketing executive who runs the 'viral' campaign on this ride. To a shop that real people go to (if it is a virtual shop, we save the money on the transport, so yay for us). And then they see whether the product is at all there. And what's the price. And who are the competitors. And what are they doing. And maybe check if product sells at all. Or the only thing product is collecting is dust on shelf and fake likes on Instagram.

Reality check.

Here is the secret. There is one, simple truth about recognizing a good marketer. They focus the same (or higher) amount of time on understanding performance of their work (campaigns, activities, promotions, whatever it is) as they do on creative work. As hard it is to constraint yourself, when you are passionate and innovative - a good marketer will always choose 'what's right for the business' over 'what's glamorous'.